gDoc

With the release of gDoc Fusion 2.5, we introduced a new capability, to display and convert well over 200 file types – word processing, spreadsheet, graphic and image formats. Many are “legacy” formats – outdated file formats from applications that were once popular, maybe even the “de facto” standards of their day, such as Lotus 1-2-3 or WordPerfect on DOS.

gDoc Fusion also converts contemporary formats such as DOCX, XLXS & PPTX, and it does all these conversions without the need for the application to be installed.

Why support all these legacy formats? gDoc Fusion is all about assembly of documents from multiple sources. It’s also about getting to the information locked inside documents. For some requirements, this capability is vital. One is e-discovery, defined by www.lexbe.com as “the collection, preparation, review and production of electronic documents in litigation discovery”. Because of the pace of software development, it is not unusual for vital evidence to be contained in obsolete file formats; multi-format viewing and conversion then becomes a necessity, not a luxury.

The multi-format capability offered by gDoc Fusion is unusual in a desktop software product. It’s more usually the domain of enterprise-level (read expensive) document management or systems aimed at a specific vertical market such as legal case management. gDoc Fusion also offers the “traditional” PDF creation method of printing to a virtual printer, adding hundreds more applications that can generate a PDF.

The question that naturally arises is “OK, I’ve converted my documents, but what’s to say the converted document is going to be any longer lived?” The answer is that the industry has recognised this problem, and has developed international standards for electronic document archival based on PDF, i.e. PDF/A. Moreover, the nature of PDF means that it can remain part of a live, searchable archive that’s easy to print or even convert back to an authoring format. gDoc Fusion supports saving documents in PDF/A.

Of course, the hardware changes too. The rapid development of storage media poses an altogether different challenge to CIOs who must also consider migration of the data itself to prevent it being locked on media for which no hardware exists to read it. At least there is an answer for the file formats themselves.