Doc vs. Docx

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Author Message a (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 06:19 pm:    I recently read an article that I believe was referenced here in 4specs (but cannot seem to find in my search) that addressed the (Word) doc vs. docx format. The conclusion was to save in doc for flexibility. Anyone know what article I read and am referring to? Robert W. Johnson Senior Member Username: robert_w_johnson Post Number: 187 Registered: 03-2009 Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 06:47 pm:    Not familiar with the article, but there has been a discussion on CSI LinkedIn on that subject: http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=706547&type=member&item=93290977&qid=bec9aa06-9c0c-4e11-9fba-5336b869f372&trk=group_items_see_more-0-b-ttl Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 554 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 09:42 pm:    For real flexibility, save in .txt. ;-) Dennis C. Elrod, AIA, CSI Senior Member Username: delrodtn Post Number: 27 Registered: 04-2010 Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 10:44 am:    Why would you need flexibility? And, if you save i older formats or TXT, don;t you lose all the MASTERSPEC formatting? Dennis C. Elrod, AIA J. Peter Jordan (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 10:51 am:    I'm with Mr. Elrod on this one. Using styles and templates makes me much, much more productive. I don't have to update paragraph numbers and section names/numbers are always the same in a particular document. Page margins, font size, paragraph spacing, etc. are all taken care of automatically. I am aware, however, that there are specifiers out there who want a "neutral format" and, like Sheldon says, they claim it gives them "maximum flexibility." I don't understand, but John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 1369 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 11:34 am:    Well, you can always down-save a document into TXT or into RTF if you need more universally readable formats, so there's no need to lose functionality. Short answer to the original question: .doc is Word 2003 or earlier format .docx is Word 2007 and later format (totally different) A .docx file is actually a zipped file containing several files within it. This was part of Microsoft's move to a more open format. It also supposedly makes the file less prone to corruption since if one of the enclosed files is corrupted, the others may still be okay. A fun experiment is to take a copy of a .docx file, change the extension to .zip, and open it up with winzip or file explorer. You'll see what the files are inside. One of which is the plain text without formatting, openable in a plain-text editor. Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 434 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 11:53 am:    This is because the docx format is in XML, which is re-portable into many other functions. Paul Gerber Senior Member Username: paulgerber Post Number: 93 Registered: 04-2010 Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 12:13 pm:    Ummmmmmm guys and girls...I think Mr. Wolfe was being SARCASTIC about maximum flexibility of txt files (although I could be mistaken because I have NEVER seen this side of him on this forum before...and plus SARCASM and stating the obvious is usually lost on me *rolling eyes*) LOL Ride it like you stole it!!!