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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 2693284, member: 77639&quot;]I&#039;d be sure any software you use can save data in a file format that can be read by other programs.&nbsp; The Excel xls format&nbsp; is well known, and dozens of other programs can read the files.&nbsp; If one were really thorough, worksheets should be saved occasionally in CSV or txt format as well as xls.&nbsp; I haven&#039;t seen the need.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, if you use a program with a proprietary format, your files could be orphaned someday.&nbsp; I have some data files from the days of DOS and early Windows that cannot be read by modern software.&nbsp; The programs were discarded, and the format they used was proprietary.&nbsp; Later some data files that hadn&#039;t been converted were discovered. I suppose if I looked really hard on eBay for the programs and setup a computer with a 16-bit or 32-bit OS, I could read the old files.&nbsp; Fortunately, they&#039;re not critical.</p><p><br /></p><p>Data files in common MS formats (xls, ppt, doc, csv, txt, etc.) will probably be readable decades into the future.&nbsp; There are some less common MS formats, like vsd for Visio, that may not last.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cal[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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