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Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Open Document Format?

Posted by timothy on from the when-plaintext-just-won't-do dept.

kramer2718 writes: I am working on a project that requires uploading and storing of documents. Although the application will need to allow uploading of .docx, doc, .pdf, etc, I'd like to store the documents in a standard open format that will allow easy search, compression, rendering, etc. Which open document format is the best? Since "best" can be highly driven by circumstances, please explain your reasoning, too. Have a question for Slashdot's readers? Take a look at other recent questions first to see if someone else has had a similar question. And if not, ask away! The more details and context you include, the more likely your question will be selected.

8 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. PDF/A by thechemic · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.pdfa.org/2011/08/pd...

    --
    Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
  2. Don't convert needlessly by PSVMOrnot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would suggest, unless you have a pressing need to convert them, that you should store the documents in the formats they are uploaded in.

    Whenever you convert a document you run the risk of completely messing up the layout, style, etc.

    1. Re:Don't convert needlessly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Or store both the original, and a standardized format. The place I work stores everything from engineering drawings, meeting minutes, purchase records, to manuals of old equipment in a central document library. It retains the original file, and makes a pdf of every file, and a link to both is listed in each entry. We've already had some older CAD formats no longer supported by current software we have easy access to, but the old pdfs are still readable and it is cheap enough to find some intern to re-create the document from the pdf if need be.

  3. .txt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    .txt. If you need pretty formatting, fill it Latex tags.

    1. Re:.txt by jythie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And here I am without mod points...

      Generally when I have to worry about integration or longevity, it is still hard to compete with ASCII & LaTeX. While they do not have the every day visibility of various office document types or pdfs, renderers, search tools always know exactly what to do with them. They can even interact with version control systems cleanly since the underlying tools do not need to know anything about the formatting to manipulate it.

  4. Forget the Universal Format crap by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Informative

    1) Forget the Universal Format approach - your users will kill you for messing up their formatting, and you'll never get complete feature parity
    2) Store the docs in their original format
    3) Get Apache Solr to search your content
    4) You'll be spending a lot of time on #3, so leave time to tinker

  5. Oldes are the bestes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Word Perfect Document, because it's been consistent for nearly 20 years. it has a simple underlying format, it's more finely granular than HTML and because I just like obsolete things.

  6. Re:For Two-Millennia Durability... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nonsense, bamboo can't touch papyrus for longevity, and you don't need to worry about pandas.

    Damned bamboo shills.

    And don't anybody go suggesting cave paintings, it's a completely dead platform.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.