Which word document format do you use as default?

[rainsong]

Just wondering... it would be nice to know what people think. Which is most interoperable, functional, likely to be openable by anyone you have to send a document to, retains formatting properly on different software, etc ?

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[jim]

I use .doc if I'm sending elsewhere, but for all internal stuff I stick to .docx

Had too many problems with converting from one to the other with formatting and so on.

[peterb]

As word is a Word Processor of last resort for me, I use Wordperfect Currently X$) on Windows and Open Office on Linux. If I need to send a document to someone who uses an inferiorr WP like Word, I save it to Word 97-2003.

[Singh400]

*.doc until everyone in the building catches up.

[watercooled]

.abw or .odt but like snootyjim or peterb I'll use .doc if I'm sending it to someone else as most people seem to be able to open that.

[Guy]

*.docx

[Stephen C]

.rtf as I'm a bit lazy to install anything else at the moment and most of my stuff gets pasted into an email anyhoo.

[ajones]

.docx

If it's important or I'm not sure, I'll convert to .doc, and double check that the formatting is correct.

[Singh400]

.rtf as I'm a bit lazy to install anything else at the moment and most of my stuff gets pasted into an email anyhoo.

I HATE *.rtf with the passion. The amount of people that type/write entire documents and save them as *.rtf. I'm talking 300+ pages, and then come crying to me when it corrupts (oh and it will definitely corrupt).

My advice to you is either move up to *.doc/*.docx level or move down one to *.txt.

[Stephen C]

Ah, they're just short news posts for Hexus.gaming and usually stay open till they're in an email.

[Champman99]

Generally i use openoffice.org so for me i save as .odt. Generally if I'm not sending it i'll use the "native" format. So for Office 07/10 i use docx, and for Ooo i use .odt. But in both cases if sending to someone else I'll use .doc.

In fact once i sent an essay into university in docx after they asked for it in "Microsoft Word" format, and it was rejected. So many people still using Office 2000/XP or older. I guess because those versions dont need activation!

[Flash477]

I use .docx - if they need .doc then I'll save it as that. But generally if I'm sending something to someone who doesn't need to edit it then I send them a copy by PDF

[Flash477]

In fact once i sent an essay into university in docx after they asked for it in "Microsoft Word" format, and it was rejected. So many people still using Office 2000/XP or older. I guess because those versions dont need activation!

You should tell them that there is a download for older office apps that allows them to work with the newer formats (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en)

[DavidM]

.txt

[watercooled]

Actually I use .txt for nearly everything myself unless it needs formatting for a letter or something.

[DavidM]

Indeed. Although I use OpenOffice at home - most of my documents are written as .txt (or .php ) using notepad++