Corfy's Corner My little corner of the web.

Here is a hypothetical situation. You work on a very important document on your computer. You save it, knowing that you will need it later (although perhaps much later... maybe an annual report or something similar). You even back the file up, just to be sure.

Time passes. Maybe during that time you upgrade the software you used to create that document (to a newer version of the same software, but still, a newer version). Or maybe you got a new computer, which came with a newer version of the software.

Then, at long last, you need to get into that very important document, and so you try to open it, but get an error message. File corrupt? Nope. Your software, even though it is a newer version of the same program, cannot open documents created by some "older" versions.

Sound too far fetched? Think again. This type of thing happens all the time.

If you have Microsoft Office 2003, you may be soon getting the "new and improved" Service Pack 3 to install, which adds many security features. One of those features prevents the opening of some older Microsoft Office documents formats, including those pre-dating Microsoft Office 97. This is because the file format changes slightly (or not so slightly) with each version of Office released. And now Microsoft has decided that you don't need to read those older formats anymore.

But if you think I am picking only on Microsoft, I'm not. I'm just using them as an example since they happen to be in the news, and they have a near monopoly on the office software market.

If you really need to get into that file, there are a few alternatives. One common step is to try different software. Sometimes some of the more popular file formats can be opened by other software than just the maker. However, many times, the exact file specifications are closely guarded by the originating company. Other companies may come close, but will hardly ever get it exactly right.

In Microsoft Office 2003 SP3's case, there are some system registry hacks that can get those file formats accessible again, but messing around with the registry can be dangerous, and could seriously damage the computer if they aren't done right.

And there is no promise that Microsoft won't later take away the ability to open those files and not give you any way of being able to open them again.

A few years back, a group of companies, computer and otherwise, got together and decided to create a new office file format. This new format would have open specifications, allowing anyone who is interested not only the ability to look at the specifications, but to implement them. This insures that, even 50 years from now, there is still a very real possibility that the files would be able to be opened. No one company can decide that this format will no longer be supported. The format won't disappear if one company goes out of business.

This file format is referred to as the "OpenDocument Format" (aka "ODF"). This format is less than three years old, but already it is being used by dozens of software programs. And the beauty of it is, as long as they all read and write the OpenDocument Format, files can be shared very easily between them (although some formatting differences may still exist due to font differences).

Next week, there will be the first ever Document Freedom Day. This will be March 26. I don't know if future Document Freedom Days will be on March 26, or on the last (or fourth) Wednesday of March. But regardless, I'm sure there will be Document Freedom Days in the future.

The goal of Document Freedom Day is simple... to promote document freedom through the use of free and open file formats, like the OpenDocument Format.

Maybe it is time to ask yourself how sure you are that you can open your important files 10 years from now.