Choosing a good text file format?

[Skytteflickan88]

What are the differences between the different formats (rtf, doc, etc etc) and how can they be used, in which programmes, are they used by a lot of people, what are the downsides with them, etc etc?

Assume I know nothing and take it from there. I plan on distributing lots of plain text files, and want people to be able to open them in different programmes without the text going wonky, blanks disapearing, parapgraphs becoming a single block of text, etc etc.

 

[Geoff]

If you want a document to be able to be opened for the majority of people with varying software configurations, a .txt document would be the most ideal, .rtf is also very popular. However documents in those formats support very little in terms of formatting, multimedia, features, etc. Formats such as .doc, .wps, etc. are used by Microsoft Word and Works, respectively. These allow for much more options, however a user needs special software in order to view them, such as Microsoft Word, Works, OpenOffice, Pages, etc.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

.rtf seems like it would work, since I only plan on having text, no images or anything, but could there be any problem with that format?

 

[Geoff]

.rtf seems like it would work, since I only plan on having text, no images or anything, but could there be any problem with that format?

If you want to have the highest guarantee that anyone will be able to open a text document without any advanced formatting or images, go with a .txt document. RTF's are high up there too, but .txt is even more universal.