Board Handbook: File Formats
Introduction
For HATDS documents to be readable and editable across operating systems as well as future-proof, they need to be saved in open-standard formats. They can not be tied to a particular vendor such as Google, Apple, or Microsoft.
Do not save HATDS documents in any proprietary format such as Google .gdoc, Apple .pages, and the old Microsoft .doc binary format.
Office Open XML
Microsoft made their Office Open XML formats (.docx and .xlsx) freely available, and then lobbied the ISO to accept them as international standards. The files are a bit smaller than the ODF files mentioned below and are the ones we usually use for HATDS documents except when a PDF document is needed.
Typical of Microsoft, they have made changes to their formats since those formats were approved by the ISO. Those changes are proprietary and not future-proof.
If you use Microsoft Office, you should probably save HATDS documents in Strict Open XML
format (the international standard) as noted in this article. Although HATDS documents are usually very simple and may not be affected by Microsoft's changes, there are and will be volunteers who do not use MS Office. Saving to the ISO standard is important.
Open Document Format
For creating and editing documents, the Open Document Format (.odt./ods) is the most future-proof. It predates the Microsoft open formats as an international standard and is supported by many applications including software by Apple, Microsoft, and Google. It is the native format for the free, cross-platform, and excellent desktop office suite LibreOffice and its mobile counterpart Collabora Office, both of which also read and write Microsoft files.
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Developed by Adobe Systems and originally proprietary, PDF was released as an open standard in 2008.
Save to PDF when fonts and formatting are critical across different devices such as sending documents to members and archiving important documents.
A special note about Google Drive/Docs
- For someone who does not live in the Google ecosystem (a lot of people, it turns out), .gdoc is nothing but a link with zero content. It requires a internet-connected Google account to access.
- Google Drive imports and exports other file formats, but can seriously mess with the document's formatting in the process. We've learned this the hard way.
- Google file formats are proprietary and are definitely not future proof.
- The bottom line: Don't use Google programs to edit HATDS documents.
In contrast, the open formats of .docx/.xlsx, .odt/.ods, and PDF can be opened by many free and paid programs, both offline and online, now and in the future.
If you would like a free desktop office suite that's not tied to a commercial vendor, try LibreOffice. For mobile, try Collabora Office.
For even more information from people really concerned about long-term digital storage, see this article from the Duke University Library system.