Most users have to deal with document files every day. There's electronic spreadsheets, papers written in word processors, dynamic presentations, and a myriad of other digital documents.

1. How to Open Any Document?
Most usershave to deal withdocumentfileseveryday.There'selectronicspreadsheets,papers
writteninwordprocessors,dynamicpresentations,andamyriadof otherdigital documents.And
not everythingonthe Internetis encodedinHTML either-- sometimesyou'llrunintoPDFsand
otherdocumentformats.Sohowcan we deal withthese various,oftenincompatible filetypeswith
minimumhassle?Readontofindout.
ParaVistaHTML5 DocumentViewingSoftware
First,letstake a quicklookat what file typesyouare likelytoencounter:
- .doc,.docx,.pptx,.xlsandsoon -- documentscreatedusingapplicationsthatare part of Microsoft
Office,like Word,PowerPointandExcel.Manyof these formatsare proprietary,thoughthe newest
versionof MS Office uses"open"file formats.
- PDF-- a.k.aPortable DocumentFormatisa verywidespreadformatcreatedbyAdobe.

2. - .odt,.ods,.odpand others -- collectivelyknownasthe OpenDocumentformat,these are the
filename extensionsusedbyOpenOffice applications.While notnearlyascommonas,say,Word
documents,OpenDocumentfilesare slowlybecomingmore popular(forexample,GoogleDocscan
exportto.odt).
So isthere any applicationthatcouldopenall of the above,withoutanyaddedhassle of lookingfor
special-purpose viewersandconverters?One could,of course,installall of the aforementioned
software andopeneachdocumentinit's "native"program.However,whilethismayseemlikean
easyand common-sensechoice,youwouldsoonfindthatinstallingandmaintainingalotof diverse
toolsgetsprettycumbersome.Also,forcommercialapplications,upgradesaren't exactlyfree,so
youmighteventuallyrunintoasituationwhere costsaccumulate tounacceptable levels.
Unfortunatelythere isn't,asof thismoment,asingle programthatcouldreliablyhandle eachand
everydocumentfileformat.However,there isone thatcomesveryclose - the free OpenOffice suite.
OpenOffice includesapplicationsforwordprocessing,presentation,spreadsheetsandsoon.It
nativelysupportsall the OpenDocumentformatsandalsosupportsall of the MicrosoftOffice
formats.Andyes, eventhe brandnew.docx (andsimilar) documentformatsintroducedinthe latest
versionsof MS Office canbe openedbyOpenOffice applicationswithnoproblems.
But whatabout PDF?On one hand,there isan experimental extensionforOpenOffice thatallows
importingandeditingPDFfiles.Itisreportedtoworkwell,butsince itstill hasn'tbeenaddedtothe
official package it'slikelythere isahandful of bugsremaining.Thereforeanexternal PDFviewermay
be a bettersolution.Inparticular,IrecommendFoxitReader.Itismuch fasterthanAdobe PDF
Viewer,hasasmallerdownloadsizeanduseslesssystemresources.
In conclusion,while theremaynotbe a single software thatcanopeneverydocumentformatin
existence,the OpenOffice package isa verygood(andfree) approximationof thatideal. Contact
www.paragonsystems.com
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