Microsoft Office files
Microsoft Office Files include files produced by Word (DOC), Excel, and Power Point. Office products are available for Windows and MacOS X. Free downloads are available from http://office.microsoft.com to view (but not edit) these files (search for viewers). Converters are also available to convert the latest file format changes to earlier file formats. Windows Mobile PDAs and Windows CE Palmtops often include readers that support Microsoft office files.
An Office Open initiative at Microsoft has been used to define XML variants for the office file formats. Microsoft has an article on this format change.
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[edit] Word
Word is a word processor from Microsoft (often called MS Word) and natively supports DOC files format. It also supports RTF (Rich Text Format) and TXT. Word 2007 natively supports the Office XML (Office Open) format. This format has a .DOCX extension.
Word and Word files have undergone many changes in functions and file formats. The most important are:
- Word 97 - This is the common format for exchange of Windows DOC files. All later tools have an option to save in this format although some file features may be lost.
- Word 2000 - This is the oldest version that will work with Book Designer. It is also the oldest version that can generate LIT file content and it is the oldest version that will support conversion to DOCX format.
- Word 2002 - This is the oldest version supported by security updates.
- Word 2003 - The last version to use DOC as its native format. Can save in Office XML and DOCX with an update.
- Word 2007 - This version uses Office DOCX as the native save format. The file is zip compressed and used in the compressed form. It will typically have a .DOCX file extension.
- Word 2008 includes MacOS X support.
[edit] Help for Word
- Word MVPS - lots of good help in using Word.
- Word docs can be batch converted to TXT, RTF, or Filtered HTML and in Word 2007 you can 'export' to PDF. - link to the MobileRead forum.
[edit] Excel XLS
Excel is a spread sheet program with some charting display capabilities. This can be pulled into Word as a table but it may be supported in an eBook reader as a table. Charts are usually supported as graphics files. Excel files generally have a .xls extension. MS "Office Open" files will have a .xlsx extension. Excel can import and export CSV files.
Spread sheet programs are often used as part of Personal Library management to keep track of books you own or wish to own.
[edit] PPT
PowerPoint is a graphic oriented presentation tool. If an eBook reader or conversion program supports this it usually means they convert it to graphic files and are then able to display them sequentially page oriented like a presentation. It is possible, of course to support the native binary format. The other features of PowerPoint are generally not supported such as the notes facility. PowerPoint can be set up to support a slide show. A PowerPoint viewer is available as a free download from Microsoft.
PowerPoint files usually have a .ppt extension. The power point data format has changed in the latest release to a .pptx extension or pptm extension (with VBA support). This file format is part of the Microsoft Office Open initiative and is related to the DOCX format.
The slideshow option for Power Point has a PPS (power point slideshow) extension. It can also have PPSX or PPSM extentions which is available as part of the Microsoft Office Open initiative on the newer releases.
[edit] Others
Other office product tools include Microsoft Outlook, Access database, and Publisher although these are not usually file formats that are exchanged.
