Desktop computers are quickly replacing the file cabinet in offices, and laptops are replacing pen and paper in lecture halls. This has led to the gradual extinction of paper documents and the universal acceptance of digital documents. A question is raised however, of which of the two most popular digital document formats is better. This article compares PDF and DOC files to try and find out if indeed PDF files are an inferior document format.
Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word’s DOC are undoubtedly the most popular document formats today. Billions if not trillions of pages are made every day in these file formats. However, a stereotype exists that DOC files are superior to PDF files. Below we look at some of the reasons why PDF files are just as good as DOC files.
Where can you use PDF files?
When printing: PDF files are known to be very printer friendly for several reasons. One of the main reasons is because they retain the quality of the document even after printing. A hard copy PDF file will appear exactly as it did on the screen with high quality text, images and it retains fine details of graphic content such as drawings. PDF files are also accepted by professional printers unlike DOC which are generally rejected.
For online content: You have probably come across many PDFs on websites and blogs as opposed to DOC or any other type of document. It is not by coincidence, PDFs are simply online content friendly. Not only do they have such features as intra-document links and table of contents making it very easy to navigate, but also have the option to be secured to read only, therefore you cannot make any changes to the information. Additionally, their ability to encompass high quality images and drawings makes them suitable for tutorials and such documents that need the use of illustrations.
For business and legal documents: Imagine a scenario where you are filling a legally binding document online. If any changes were made to the terms of the document after you had filled it, the consequences could be serious. Pdf files are preferred in such situations for their ability to be secured to retain their original form and wording. Therefore, no changes can be made making it the best format to use in legal and business documents.
When you’re combining several file formats: You can copy text from a word document and paste it into a PDF. You can also add an Excel spreadsheet, vector graphics, drawings and different image formats in the same document.
For a large audience: To read DOC files, you need to have Microsoft Word installed on your computer. For PDF however, you can open it on practically any computer since most of them come with the free Adobe Acrobat pre-installed. This feature is also available on most smartphones and PDAs. One PDF can be sent to numerous devices and platforms without losing its quality, and when it eventually gets corrupted, you can repair it very easily with a good data repair software.
From what we can see above, PDF files are just as important as DOC files depending on how you want to use them. With such good features, their popularity is only set to increase in the coming decades given that there are great tools likeDataNumen PDF Repairto recover and repair corrupt PDF files.
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