Comments on: See Inside Office 2007 Files http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2008/11/see_inside_office_2007_files/ tips and downloads to help you at work and play Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:25:01 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Shane http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2008/11/see_inside_office_2007_files/comment-page-1/#comment-1645 Shane Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:32:52 +0000 http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/11/05/see_inside_office_2007_files.html#comment-1645 <p>The interesting thing (well interesting to me anyway) is that even though .docx is just a file container for the XML, it's still not very accessible and definitely very difficult for a human to read. On the other hand, .odt (Open Document), while also a container for XML and not easy to read, is much easier to read (you can see screenshots comparing the two in a post I wrote ages ago here - http://techwhimsy.com/opening-odt-and-docx-are-they-human-readable).</p> <p>I think being human readable is important when it comes to documents being produced and archived with public money (eg Government documents) as the easier it is for a human to parse the SML, the easier it is to ensure the information is appropriately stored and accessed into the future. File formats are so fragile and can disappear in a relatively short period of time. Anything that makes information easier to preserve for future generations has to be a good thing.</p> The interesting thing (well interesting to me anyway) is that even though .docx is just a file container for the XML, it’s still not very accessible and definitely very difficult for a human to read. On the other hand, .odt (Open Document), while also a container for XML and not easy to read, is much easier to read (you can see screenshots comparing the two in a post I wrote ages ago here – http://techwhimsy.com/opening-odt-and-docx-are-they-human-readable).

I think being human readable is important when it comes to documents being produced and archived with public money (eg Government documents) as the easier it is for a human to parse the SML, the easier it is to ensure the information is appropriately stored and accessed into the future. File formats are so fragile and can disappear in a relatively short period of time. Anything that makes information easier to preserve for future generations has to be a good thing.

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