There are any number of acceptable open formats - ascii, html, PS, PDF which can be produced by freely available applications.
Produced? PDF? I understood that, like Flash, the readers were free but the producers (apart from some freeware items) cost money.
PDF - fab, The correct way to do it, but at a cost. PS - huge and at a cost.
PDF and PS are proprietary but open formats for which there are freely available readers for /all/ platforms.
*All* platforms? Our BBCs can handle ASCII fine, but they can't read PDF. The PDF readers available for our pre-RISCOS-4 Arcs do not interpret much of what is in modern files. I still use some ex-SJ software for generating Postscript from our BBCs. If you "view source" on http://www.felsted.org/curriculum/ict/weather/data/00/9/daily.htm you will see HTML pages generated daily and automatically on a BBC. And we can read HTML on our BBCs using lynx or links. But reading or writing PDF's on BBCs is not so easy.
There are few tools for dealing with .doc's on nix and none to produce them.
StarOffice on our FreeBSD systems generates .docs, if requested. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-820527 or 07798 636725 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk