Massachusetts Adopting 'Open Format' Software

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Saturday January 22, 2005 @11:20PM from the file-formats-rule-the-world dept.

XopherMV writes "A Massachusetts state senator who had complained about the state government's effort to promote open-source software at the expense of proprietary software has hailed the state's effort to reach a compromise over future software purchases by the state. The latest iteration of the state's policy emphasizes 'Open Formats' such as TXT, RTF, HTM, PDF, and XML." And if file formats for state use must be in truly open and free formats, then it matters much less what OS or application is used to create or open them. (On the other hand, XML and other TLAs don't always mean free or open formats.)

1 of 273 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

It'll open, but not look the same by Sylvius · 2005-01-23 01:49 · Score: 4, Interesting

The last time I was sendout out resumes (a lot of places want a doc file), I opened it in multiple versions of word. The file always opened, but the formating got changed. Sometimes it all fit on one page as intended, other times it would spill over onto two pages, etc. So for times when formatting is critical, word is not truly backwards compatible. You are better off exporting to pdf...