Posted on Jim Suderman's behalf ...

-----Original Message-----
From: Suderman, Jim (MBS)
Sent: February 27, 2003 3:29 PM
To: Dale, Michele (MBS)
Subject: FW: Electronic records

Anne,

You've described the situation very well, I think.  ASCII format (.txt
files) is maybe the most generic text format available.  And it is
intolerant of most formatting.

Saving files in .rtf (Rich Text Format) is an option.  It is a standard
adopted only by its creator:  Microsoft.  So as long as you stay within a
Microsoft environment, this may be a good option.

But as you remark:  the proprietary packages seem to be reasonably
"backwards" compatible - although some of my recent experiences moving from
Word to WordPerfect and back have suggested that the partial compatibility
that once existed between these two softwares may have effectively
disappeared.  Again, as long as you stay with one product you're probably
all right for the time being.

Over the long haul all three approaches have limitations.  XML (eXtensible
Markup Language) currently seems to hold the most promise as means to
convert documents to a platform independent format.  Apparently Corel
WordPerfect includes an XML Editor, and Word may soon do the same.  See "The
XML FAQ" at http://www.ucc.ie/xml/ for more details.  Unless the documents
are all of a relatively similar nature however, I think a retroactive
application would be pretty complex.

Here at the AO, we continue to acquire and maintain most text documents in
their native format.  Our limited experience with file conversion (e.g.,
Wordstar to Word or to ASCII) has been costly, but reasonably successful (I
say "reasonably" because the conversion software did not particularly like
French accents).

Jim Suderman, Coordinator
Electronic Records Program
Archives of Ontario

-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Mckeage [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: February 27, 2003 12:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Electronic records


Hello,

I have been advised to save electronic files in .txt because its generic
and I won't have to migrate the files when I change software. However I
understand that it strips out the coding which makes it useless for
complex files such as reports.

I have been advised to perhaps save complex electronic files in .rtf which
will only change some coding.

Do anyone have opinions about this? Currently I'm keeping most of my files
in the original format either WP or Word because these translate pretty
well when you migrate to an updated version of these two wordprocessing
packages. Eg. Wordperfect 5 to Wordperfect 10.

Thanks for any advise or experience. Anne

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                              Anne McKeage
                   Archivist/History of Medicine Librarian
                    Archives of Hamilton Health Sciences
           and the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
                        McMaster University, HSC 1B17
                           (905) 525-9140 x22928
                          [log in to unmask]
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