A long term data insurance policy?
Computers and software have been around long enough now for lessons to be drawn from the dangers of storing your documentation in proprietary formats with the real risk that in the future they may not be easily accessed without access to the program and even the hardware on which it was created.
Open Document Format?
Open Document Format has been adopted by many governments ,local authorities, commercial companies and individuals as a suggested solution to storing information in a format that is open and documented and so helps to ensure that data may still be available to future generations without being locked into the use of a proprietary piece of commercial software.
Sun has released an import and export filter plugin for Microsoft Office that allows users to read and write in the Open Document Format(.ODF)
Sun ODF plugin for Microsoft office available here
Future Proofing?
Details on which applications can work with the Open Document Format either natively or via a third party plugin can also be found here.
Related reading-BBC News examines closed and open document formats.
