Why no .doc and yes .pdf

[Petah]

Why is .doc files not allowed to be uploaded to this forum but .pdf files are?

[zwzsg]

Because we're O.S. bastards on a crusade against Microsoft proprietary closed format?

[Petah]

Its not a closed format:
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/o ... rmats.mspx

And most cross platform applications can read it.

[Satirik]

because the .doc specification is in .pdf, so you just actually need pdf !

[hoijui]

it is still microsoft alone that specifies the format, which is bad.

tutorials would be better made in wiki, or if it really has to be in a text processor, Latex or a similar format (which can be compiled to PDF and HTML and more).

[Super Mario]

it is still microsoft alone that specifies the format, which is bad.

What are they going to come after us or something?

[AF]

.doc is a headache it does display correctly on half the platforms and has about 100 versions using the same file extension.

PDF is overall a superior format, you can bundle your fonts with it and everything will look identical on the client to what you see when you export.

[Neddie]

Mostly because I didn't notice when I added support for .pdf and do not now see a reason to add .doc support - when I write documents for professional purposes, I use OpenOffice and the corresponding formats, unless I must export to a Microsoft analog. Generally I use .txt and .rtf most of the time, it wasn't until I slapped together that one page lua cheat sheet that we had .pdf support.

I might add all of the OpenDocument formats.

[oksnoop2]

Woo finally something that will take my odfs!

[el_matarife]

.DOCX and similar new Microsoft formats are zip files filled with XML. 3rd party support is pretty good and you can always use Microsoft Office Online for free now.

Adding .XPS upload support wouldn't be the worst idea ever either, since I believe we need to keep holding Adobe's feet to the fire with a competing format just to keep them from getting abusive.

[hoijui]

fighting adobe by using microsoft... YES!

[el_matarife]

fighting adobe by using microsoft... YES!

Unfortunately, sometimes there's not any good options. If you're going to get punched, sometimes you'd rather take it in the gut than the face. PDF has such an awful security record lately I'm half tempted to tell people to switch to XPS just to "vote with your dollars" for a format that doesn't have security issues (yet).

[Tobi]

Were it really security issues in the PDF format, or only in adobe reader?

[hoijui]

the best option at hand here, by far, would have been Wiki.
after that: plain-text, markdown, RTF, LaTeX or openoffice format
after that: PDF or MS Word

no need to choose where to get a punch, just take the hug.

[Hobo Joe]

Everybody knows .txt is the best.

[AF]

I can open and publish PDF on every machine I have here on various Operating systems, without paying for expensive software like Creative Suite, or Office 2007. Heck Office 2007 violates the DOCX international standard last I heard.

For those worried about security and Adobe Acrobats atrocious track record, there is always Google Docs.

[Forboding Angel]

foxit, primopdf, cutepdf... Making pdf's is not hard and you don't have to pay a dime.

Also there is MS's xps format which anyone on a win machine can open and from what I can tell it seems to be every bit as good as pdf (But I haven't looked very deep into it though).

[Pxtl]

foxit, primopdf, cutepdf... Making pdf's is not hard and you don't have to pay a dime.

Also there is MS's xps format which anyone on a win machine can open and from what I can tell it seems to be every bit as good as pdf (But I haven't looked very deep into it though).

I actually had a co-worker that had a fun problem - the defeault handler for XPS format is the web browser - they get rendered by IE.

Guess what my compadre's default browser was: FireFox.

So he'd click the XPS file, Windows would open the default browser, and FF would ask what the hell he wants it to do with this bizarre file.

File association fale, windows.

[KDR_11k]

doc is obsolete, at least ask for docx.

[Kenku]

doc is obsolete, at least ask for docx.

Meh...this to me is a reasoning more for pdf, as there are translational issues between the two(unless you have the proper plugins), and places like Google Docs still use the old format.