Having trouble finding a word in multiple files

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2020-06-14 at 15:01 +0100, Peter Flynn wrote:
> The .doc files are obsolete since 2003 and cannot be read by normal 
> utilities because they are a proprietary binary format (which is why 
> Microsoft sensibly moved to .docx).

Yes to the doc file thing. As for DOCX, well...

Microsoft had the chance to move to a genuinely open format, namely ODF
- well-documented, unencumbered and free. Instead it used various
hitherto irrelevant but still vote-bearing entities to bribe, browbeat
and muscle its way to getting OOXML declared a "standard", in spite of
the fact that was then and still is largely undocumented and most
definitely not open.

Microsoft has not implemented the "open" standard OOXML in its DOCX
format, which is why the only programs that can reliably render ALL
DOCX files are, you guessed it, Microsoft programs.
 
> I ***very strongly*** suggest you open all your .doc files and Save 
> As...docx and get rid of the .doc versions (and tell anyone who
> sends them to you to do the same), because...

I have a better idea - convert them to genuinely open formats. ODF is
the prime candidate.

For files whose formatting is irrelevant, convert them to text.

Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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