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Problem: I use a word processing program at home that is different than the one the school uses. How do I create a word processing document at home that I can use at school if the word processing programs are not the same?
Solution: Create a Rich Text Format (RTF) Document
There are literally dozens of word processing programs and versions of programs out on the market today. You often run into problems if the program you are using at home is not the same program that you use at work or school. One way to overcome this problem is to use one of the common formats of word processing documents that can be used on a large number of different programs on different computer platforms.
Rich Text Format (RTF) is a file format that lets you exchange text files between different word processing programs in different operating systems. For example, you can create a file using Microsoft Word in Windows XP, save it as an RTF file (it will have a ".rtf" file name suffix), and send it to someone who uses WordPerfect 6.0 on Windows 3.1 and they will be able to open the file and read it.
While an RTF file will keep most of the basic formatting of the document (bold or italicized letters, bulleted lists, etc..), there may be some more advanced formatting features that might be lost and would have to be quickly redone once the document is opened in the other word processing program.
How to create a Rich Text Format (RTF) Document
Fortunately, it is fairly easy to create a Rich Text Document. On almost all word processing programs, go to the File menu and select the "Save As" menu item. The "Save As" box that appears will be similar to the one pictured below. Read the directions in the black box in the graphic below for a general description of how to save a word processing document as an RTF document.
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Once you take the document into work or school on a floppy disk, do not double-click on the document on your floppy disk to open the document. The computer might select one of the text editors installed on your computer (such as Notepad or WordPad) to open the document instead of the word processing program (like Word or WordPerfect) that you might want to use.
Instead, do the following to open the RTF document you created at home.
Step 1) Start up the word processing program you want to use.
Step 2) Go to the File menu on your word processing program and find the "Open" menu item. At that point on most programs you can use the pop-up menu near the top of the "Open" window to find the A: drive (floppy drive), which is pictured below.
Step 3) Then select (highlight) the RTF document on your floppy disk and click on "Open" button to open your document using the word processing program of your choice.
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