data conversion

The developer of each application program that writes data files must define a format for the data. The format must be able to preserve all the features that are supported by the program. For example, a word processing program will include special codes for font selection, typestyles (such as bold or italic), margin settings, and so on.

In most markets there are more than one vendor, so there is the potential for users to encounter the need to convert files such as word processing documents from one vendor’s format to another. For example, a Microsoft Word user needing to send a document to a user who has Word-Perfect, or the user may encounter another user who also has Microsoft Word, but a later version.

There are some ways in which vendors can relieve some of their users’ file conversion issues (and thus potential customer dissatisfaction). Vendors often include facilities to read files created by their major rivals’ products, and to save files back into those formats. This enables users to exchange files. Sometimes the converted document will look exactly like the original, but in some cases there is no equivalence between a feature (and thus a code) in one application and a feature in the other application. In that case the formatting or other feature may not carry over into the converted ver-sion, or may be only partially successful.

Vendors generally make a new version of an applica-tion downwardly compatible with previous versions (see also compatability and portability). This means that the new version can read files created with the earlier versions. (After all, users would not be happy if none of their existing documents were accessible to their new software!) Similarly, there is usually a way to save a file from the later version in the format of an earlier version, though features added in the later version will not be available in the earlier format.

Another strategy for exchanging otherwise incompatible files is to find some third format that both applications can read. Thus Rich Text Format (RTF), a format that includes most generic document features, is supported by most mod-ern word processors. A user can thus export a file as RTF and the user of a different program will be able to read it (see rtf). Similarly, many database and other programs can export files as a series of data values separated by commas (comma-delimited files), and the files can be then read by a different program and converted to its “native” format.

A variety of format conversion utilities are available as either commercial software or shareware. There are also busi-