RTF files and document sharing
File Extension RTF may not be familiar to newer computer users. In these days of MS Office 2007′s docx format and backwards file version compatibility, the rtf file has fallen by the wayside, forgotten as the format that can be read by almost any other word processing software.
The Rich Text Format (often abbreviated File Extension RTF) is a document file format developed by Microsoft in 1987 for cross-platform document interchange. Most word processors are able to read and write RTF documents.
Unlike most word processing formats, good RTF code can be made human-readable. That is to say that when an RTF file is opened in a text editor, the text is legible and the markup language is not too distracting or counter-intuitive. The RTF files produced by most programs, such as MS Word, will contain such a large number of control codes for compatibility with older programs that most files will easily be an order of magnitude larger than the raw text and very difficult to read. Formats such as MS Word’s .doc are, in contrast, binary formats with only a few scraps of legible text.
So next time you would like to share an MS Word document with someone who does not have the Microsoft program to open it, try saving it with file extension RTF.
