Other than HTML, what is the closest thing to a 'universal' document format?

[NTB]

I want to create some documents that will be, if not necessarily fully editable, at least viewable across as wide a range of systems as possible: old and new, Windows, Linux, and Unix, you name it. The more formatting control I can have - bold/italic/underline, color, fonts, etc. - the better.

My guess is that HTML is by far my best bet, but I was wondering what, if any, other options there might be. suggestions?

Also, how much would using CSS for formatting purposes limit compatibility? Or would it not present any problems at all?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: simple Rich Text (.rtf) might be another one, now that I think about it.

Nathan

 

[dighn]

PostScript? I see a lot of documents in this format.

 

[Noobsa44]

Depending upon the need, here are some possible options: jpg (Images can be documents), doc, rtf, html, txt, pdf, csv, pp (power point), xls, xml (with a xslt style sheet), odf, and xdoc. For a fairly exhaustive list, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_file_format/ .

Personally, I like using xml/xslt for fairly repeatable/standardized data and html for more custom data. Postscript is a great format for printing, but on most windows computers, it's not practical because I know of no mainstream viewer of .ps files. I also included csv/xls because I have seen some reasonably formatted documents in spreadsheets, but again, it depends upon the exact requirements. Keeps in mind that some formats (PDFs in particular) are wrapped up with one particular company, and others tend to have a different look and feel between systems (html, xml come to mind).

Ultimately, I would strongly suggest you use either html, xml or pdf (or possibly html/xml and PDF, I know there are some programs that convert files to PDFs) as they seem to fit your needs based upon the requirements given.

 

[Thyme]

PostScript is good for printing something uniformly. For displaying something uniformly, PDF is your best bet.

If you just want to be able to format something and have it viewed everywhere, HTML is your best bet. You can get a modern browser on just about anything, so CSS should be ok, too.

 

[DaveSimmons]

For business customers, they almost all need to be able to open MS Word doc and Excel xls sheet files whether they want to or not.

HTML with tables and font tags instead of CSS is deprecated but works on more old and low-power browsers if your audience has old OSs like Win95, Mac OS 9, and older versions of WinCE.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
For business customers, they almost all need to be able to open MS Word doc and Excel xls sheet files whether they want to or not.

HTML with tables and font tags instead of CSS is deprecated but works on more old and low-power browsers if your audience has old OSs like Win95, Mac OS 9, and older versions of WinCE.

This isn't for a business; just some stuff for a volunteer organization. I'm trying to help someone with a small newsletter, and I know that some people to whom the newsletter will go have older PCs. But, right now anyway, I don't really know how old.

Nathan

 

[911paramedic]

Originally posted by: NTB

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
For business customers, they almost all need to be able to open MS Word doc and Excel xls sheet files whether they want to or not.

HTML with tables and font tags instead of CSS is deprecated but works on more old and low-power browsers if your audience has old OSs like Win95, Mac OS 9, and older versions of WinCE.

This isn't for a business; just some stuff for a volunteer organization. I'm trying to help someone with a small newsletter, and I know that some people to whom the newsletter will go have older PCs. But, right now anyway, I don't really know how old.

Nathan

Inline or embedded css and html, but some people don't accept html email. I would just use rich text formatting. (wordpad stuff)

 

[esun]

PDF would be best in this case IMO.

 

[erwos]

XML and LaTeX FTW! Write your documentation, and then publish to whatever formats you want!

 

[The J]

I agree with using LaTeX. You can compile the documents into PDF, PS, DVI, and a few others I think. I learned it in one of my Physics courses and really like using it when I write documents because it does a lot of the formatting for you and because I can type in "{\it this will be italicized}" faster than using the shortcuts in Word now that I'm so used to it. The problem is that if you don't like the way LaTeX formats your documents, it isn't the easiest to change (it is once you get more used to it, but there's no "click this button for a different font" or anything like that) in my experience.