Word, PDF or HTML?
[March 2005, Updated January 2006] What's the best file format for documents you want to share electronically?
Choose a widespread format
If you're going to share electronic documents with others you want to be sure they'll be able to open them and read the contents. So, what's the best format? Microsoft Word? Publisher files? AppleWorks? PDF? HTML? Plain text? RTF? Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
When it comes time to Save your document for the final time, look closely at the dialog box. Most programs give you the option to save your document in various formats or types. For some, you'll find an Export item under the File menu. Choose a format carefully, with the following guidelines in mind.
Publisher, AppleWorks and Pages
These applications are very handy for quickly creating printable newsletters with text and images, often based on templates. They are all easy to use.
Microsoft Publisher comes free on many Windows computers, so many people have it. On the other hand, many people don't have it and will be totally unable to open, read or print the document. AppleWorks comes free on many Apple Macintosh computers and has the same problems as Publisher.
Similarly, Apple's beautiful new Pages software provides gorgeous templates for easy newsletters, but you need to Export the file into another format for distribution.
These native formats may be excellent for printing a newsletter or fact sheet on your organisation's laser or inkjet printer, but none is suitable for making information available to others as an electronic file.
Microsoft Word
One version or another of Microsoft Word is used by millions of people around the world. All common word processing applications (some free) can read and write Word documents. You can use MS Word to lay out newsletters from the many built-in templates. If you create a document in Word, be sure to always choose Save As as your final step as this helps remove possibly embarrassing information and reduce file size.
MS Word is quite costly though and not everyone has it. (Free packages like OpenOffice support MS Word format, once downloaded and installed.) Even those who do have it may be using any of the half dozen recent and current versions. If I create a fact sheet using the whizz bang features of Word 2004 then your Word 2000 may not be able to open it, or you may open it and see all kinds of weird things instead of my carefully laid out fact sheet. Tell potential readers which version of Word they will need to be able to use the document. Word 6/95 is a good choice, or if you need later features use Word 97-2000.
Word can also potentially harbour many thousands of viruses. If you do use it, be sure to check your documents with an up-to-date virus checker before sharing them with others.
RTF
Rich Text Format is a compromise which attempts to keep your formatting and layout, but maybe not. Many programs can open RTF files, but it's not always successful.
Plain Text
Every computer on the planet can handle plain text, but you'll be saying goodbye to pictures, fancy fonts, bold, colours and other layout. This is an excellent choice for short stretches of ordinary text, but can be hard to read for documents of more than a couple of hundred words.
PDF
PDF means 'Portable Document Format'. Invented by Adobe for its Acrobat software, this format was intended to get around the problems mentioned above. You can use free software such as SourceForge's PDFCreator to create PDFs. With Mac OS X you can make a PDF from the Print dialog.
Free software, such as Adobe Reader or Apple's Preview, allow you to read a PDF. Most people have suitable software already installed on their computer, but if they're using older equipment they may have an older version or none at all. An up-to-date version can be a long, slow download.
PDFs tend to have smaller file sizes than other formats and don't usually have the problems with fonts which can spoil otherwise beautiful Word documents. Your document will be exactly as you set it out.
PDF is probably the best choice of all mentioned so far, but it may cause problems for some visitors with disabilities. In particular, Bookmarks should be used to aid accessibility. You can find useful information to improve your documents at: www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/#122.
HTML
The web is made on HyperText Markup Language — the coding system for creating web pages. This is the most universal and accessible format of all for everyone. If you use modern coding techniques and ensure your HTML abides by the rules for either version 4 or XHTML then any visitor with web browser software will be able to read your information.
The down side? HTML was made to be flexible. You have to accept that you can't rigidly enforce a particular layout or colours or fonts. You also need to learn how to code the documents.
Beware the HTML exported from software such as Word and Publisher as it tends of be full of strange coding which can fail to work for some readers and make your document huge and potentially unreadable.
Be sure to break your document up into smaller chunks — any one page on a web site shouldn't 'weigh' more than 100Kb.
The New Zealand Government Web Guidelines have been carefully developed to help us deliver information in the most successful ways to the widest audience. You will find much useful (and quite readable) information about using HTML or PDF or other formats here: http://www.e.govt.nz/standards/web-guidelines/web-guidelines-v-2-1/chapter6.html.
A good choice
If you know from the start how you intend to share the information you're creating, then you can easily choose the best format for sharing it. There are many formats to choose from, all with their advantages and disadvantages. Don't just email out a 2 megabyte Word file to all your members only to find that more than half didn't get it or couldn't open it; think first and choose the best format.
Our picks?
If you are putting information on your website, always use HTML and if you want a downloadable version, use either PDF or MS Word as well.
If you are distributing it by email, use text (in your email body) for simple documents, and either PDF or MS Word for formatted documents.
If you expect the recipient to need to change the document, you'll probably need to use MS Word.
Whatever you use, keep the filesize down. 200KB is the maximum. 20KB is much better! And scan for viruses and tell people you've done so. They'll appreciate it.
Linking to downloadable files
When linking, include the size and format of the file in the hyperlink text. For example: Download updateable Trust Deed (MS Word 135 KB). Including the information in the hyperlink is better for accessibility, as blind people often tab from one link to the next and their reader software reads out only the hyperlinked text.