Jarte - Free Word Processor and WordPad Replacement

Contents - Index


File Formats


Document File Types Recognized by Jarte

Jarte can open Rich Text Format 2.0 (RTF) files, Word 95/6.0 format files (DOC) and Word 97 format files (DOC) files created with WordPad, Microsoft Word 95, Word 97, and Word 2000 word processors.

Any file not recognized by Jarte as being a RTF file or a DOC file is treated as a plain format document.

Jarte can save rich format documents using either Rich Text Format 2.0 (RTF) or Word 95/6.0 format (DOC).  Note that Jarte can not save documents using Word 97 format.  This is generally not an issue since Jarte does not support the advanced formatting features unique to the Word 97 format.

Opening and Saving a Jarte File using Microsoft Word

Microsoft's Word 95, Word 97, and Word 2000 word processors can be used to open any file created with Jarte.

If a Jarte file is saved using Word 95/6.0 (DOC) format and then opened and saved using either the Microsoft Word 97 or Word 2000 word processor you may be asked by Word whether you want to convert the file to use Word 97 file format when the file is saved.  Normally, you will want to answer "no" although the file is not harmed by answering "yes".

Using Jarte to Save a File Created by Microsoft Word

Although Jarte can open files created using Microsoft Word 95, Word 97, and Word 2000 it does not support some of the more advanced formatting features available in those word processors.  Examples of unsupported formatting features include tables, footnotes, and columns.  Jarte is not able to properly display document content created with those features.  If Jarte is used to open and save a file containing unsupported formatting features those features will be lost when the file is saved.

A Word 97 format file opened with Jarte is converted to Word 95/6.0 format if the file is subsequently saved as a DOC file.  This occurs because Jarte is unable to save documents in the newer Word 97 format.  This limitation makes little difference since Jarte does not support the formatting features unique to the Word 97 format anyway.  Jarte provides warning when it is about to convert a Word 97 format file to a Word 95/6.0 format file.

RTF or DOC?

You must decide whether to save your rich format documents using Rich Text Format (RTF) or Microsoft Word 95/6.0 format (DOC).  Although either format will work there are some differences worth considering:
  • RTF files can be opened by a wider range of word processors than DOC files.
  • DOC files save disk space when used for large documents and documents containing graphics.
  • DOC files can be annotated without modifying the document contents.  See file properties for more details.
  • DOC files containing highlighted text do not display the text highlighting when opened in Jarte or WordPad.

    Recommendation:  Use RTF format except when working with large documents, documents with graphics, or files that require annotations.