Compatability

Could anyone tell me if I received a file from another windows user will I be able to open and read the document? In additon to this if i produce a document in Linux and sent it to someone who uses Windows, will they be able to open and read the document?

Mmm, I bet you were hoping for a Yes/No answer ... ;-)

Different applications store documents in different "formats". A file's "format" is often denoted by it's "file extension", i.e. the bit after the full stop. For example the traditional extension for Microsoft Word files is .doc , and spreadsheet files is .xls.

Open Office (the Linux "equivalent" of Microsoft Office) uses .odt for word processor files and .ods for spreadsheet files.

These four formats are not directly compatible .. however ...

OpenOffice has the ability to store files in many different formats and is able to store word processor files in .doc format and spreadsheet files in .xls format. Conversely it can also read in these files, which in theory does make it compatible with Microsoft Office.

Two things to bear in mind;

• Microsoft Office cannot open native (.odt, .ods) files, so you much conciously tell OpenOffice to save files in Microsoft format if you want to swap then with Microsoft Office Users.

• The OpenOffice implementation of .doc and .xls is not always 100% and sometimes, you might see some formatting problems when files are loaded / saved in a foreign format.

- but with caveats.