File formats that will soon DIE
Some of the formats you save files in may not be around for much longer. Robert Irvine reveals nine formats at risk of becoming obsolete – and what to use instead
There are hundreds of old file formats tied to programs that are now discontinued. This can cause frustration when you can’t open an important file because you don’t have the software to do so. But even some well-known and widely used formats may not be with us for much longer, as newer and better options take their place. Here we predict which formats may soon become obsolete, and recommend what to use instead to preserve your data.
DEFINITELY DYING
RTF
RTF (Rich Text Format, .rtf) was once the standard file format for preserving the formatting of text, including bold, italics, fonts and colours, across different programs and operating systems. It’s most commonly associated with Microsoft Word, allowing you to open documents saved in the format when you don’t have Word installed. However, Microsoft stopped developing RTF in 2008, and the format is now considered deprecated.
What to use instead
Microsoft’s DOCX (.docx) format has superseded RTF and is now supported by most word-processing tools, including Google Docs, LibreOffice and OnlyOffice. Alternatively, PDF does a reliable job of preserving text (and image) formatting, though you generally need to convert files to DOCX or similar format to edit their content.