Dave Sigafoos wrote:
There are a couple formats that seem to be 'universal' whether we like it or not. Word, excel, ppt, pdf then emerging standards like those coming from open office.
Word - for one example - is a "standard" that is changed by MS every so often for no apparent purpose other than to screw the competition. The latest Office 2007 version apparently breaks a lot of other products because of changes to the "standard".
Unless the standard is open, published, unrestricted and not under the control of a single commercial entity, it is not a standard - it is proprietary. You may like the idea of chasing a moving, camouflaged target, but I don't.
Supporting an open standard and encouraging companies like MS to allow export of their products' files in the open standard format as an alternative to their own is a better solution. MS already exports to RTF, txt and other formats. Adding an open format shouldn't be a big deal.
Mike