Default file format choice

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Rastapopoulos
Posts: 2
Joined: 2016-07-14 06:45:43

Default file format choice

Post by Rastapopoulos »

Hi I'm a new user to NWP (though I used an early version of Nisus in 1990 or so!). I'm getting ready to use the app and, going through the Preferences I see a number of choices for default file format.

The currently selected choice is the first one listed, RTF, but there's also RTFD as well as Microsoft Word and Nisus Compressed Rich Text.

Assuming I stay inside Nisus for saving and printing and I don't intend to do much exporting, is one file-format better than another? :?
Vanceone
Posts: 211
Joined: 2013-05-03 07:06:31

Re: Default file format choice

Post by Vanceone »

Use RTF. It's the "default" format.

The others have their uses, but they are more specialized. RTFD is the same as RTF but with special handling for lots of images; it really comes into it's own if you have the same image multiple times in your document. Outside of the image use case, it's not got a lot to recommend it.

Word format is not the best either; Nisus does better with RTF than .doc or .docx. It's only there to try to interoperate with Microsoft better; as you say you are just staying in the Nisus ecosystem, stick with RTF. And Word still opens RTF files anyway, so you don't gain much by using .doc.

Nisus Compressed Rich Text is, again like RTFD, a slightly specialized format. Like the name says, it's just an RTF file that's been zipped, for the most part. If you have large documents, it might have use. Disadvantage is you cannot "quick look" a Nisus Compressed rich text file in the Finder or other places.

There's nothing wrong with RTFD or compressed text; they just make using the files in the Finder or other applications slightly harder (I sometimes have to open a Nisus document with TextEdit, for instance; compressed won't open but I think RTFD will).

Long story short; there's nothing really compelling about switching away from the default RTF format. I'd stick with it. Use RTFD for documents with lots of images; use compressed if you have a large document, but those are per-document decisions, not something I'd recommend as a default file format. But nothing will break if you choose them, either. Stay away from Word format if you can.
Rastapopoulos
Posts: 2
Joined: 2016-07-14 06:45:43

Re: Default file format choice

Post by Rastapopoulos »

Fantastic. Thanks!
ptram
Posts: 280
Joined: 2007-10-21 14:59:09

Re: Default file format choice

Post by ptram »

Apart for Apple Pages, I believe that all word processors read RTF, so it should be a very safe choice. The next minor release of Nisus should even make the file format more solid than ever.

Paolo
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