Computer Question... PDF vs. .DOC
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 986
    This is a question for people who are learned in the ways of computers. I have never understood why a PDF opens the same on every system, whereas a Word document always seems, shall we say, open to interpretation. Both documents seem to recognize texts as texts, so it can’t be that the PDF saves the file as an image, right? And I’m assuming, in their native systems, are editable. So what gives? what is it about the way that word word file works, that it is so inconsistently rendered from system to system?

    Is this even an answer I can understand?

    And to be clear, I’m talking about the fact that when you open a Word document in Word on another computer, it sometimes doesn’t appear the same as when you made it on the previous machine.
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 517
    The PDF (portable document format) was created specifically to allow documents to render exactly the same across platforms. I’m sure you could go down quite a rabbit hole on Wiki on the format. It does its job very well, but isn’t a native format in itself as you slightly imply in your question. It’s an output format… it’s not technically intended to be edited. You can create it from a Word file.

    Word was never designed to be a PDF, so I don’t find its formatting shortcomings to be especially surprising.
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  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    So what gives? what is it about the way that word word file works, that it is so inconsistently rendered from system to system?
    The code was written by microsloth Microsoft.

    I suspect the coding of how the document looks is primarily based on the settings on each computer rather than the original settings of the document. This will mean it will re set the margins etc. to the base settings of each computer you open the document on.
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  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 967
    When exchanging documents, I prefer pdf if the receiver doesn't have to edit the document. For exactly this reason: when I open a word document from someone else, there always seems to be issues with the layout.

    That means that when the other is not a colleague of mine with whom I'm working on a project, I'll send a pdf.
  • PaxMelodious
    Posts: 426
    PDFs are essentially image files.

    Newer PDF formats includes way of keeping text as text too - that why you can now search inside them.

    But under the hood, they are saved as vector information. That's why pages always ( seem to) look the same
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    PDF documents can be edited, if you buy the necessary and expensive Adobe Acrobat software. I think the base version is around $150. or so. Word can depend on the version you are using. I have tried to open Word files created on an earlier version of Microsoft Office and gotten garbled text of sounding brass and tinkling symbols signifying nothing. MS Office is far from cheap, too.
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  • Nathan_the_Organist
    Posts: 434
    To add to what Marc said, the PDF format was designed to lock in the format and look of a document so that everyone can see the same thing. They are meant for sharing finished documents that people don't need to edit. There are editable options, but these are a later adaptation of the original concept.

    Word is designed to generate documents. Files are more subject to nuances of particular computers. If I am on Windows and you are on Apple, there could be differences. Same thing if I'm using Word 2016 and you are using Word 2019, Word 2013, or even Word Online. Theoretically it shouldn't matter, but it does make a difference.

    While both formats may appear to you to be editable text, how the computer interprets the data behind the scenes is completely different because of the different intentions behind each file format.
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  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,372
    Nihil - all the above and -
    There is a 99.9999% chance that you are viewing a PDF with Adobe Reader™, designed to show a document just as it was seen by the author. Adobe Reader™, which is free, does nothing else. It knows nothing of words, sentences, ... spelling ...
    You will open a Word document with your preferred 'word processor', Word™, or Writer, or ... . It is designed to understand about words, paragraphs, spelling ...., so that they can be changed. If I open a Word™ document you wrote on quarto paper, it will show it to me on A4 paper, with my margin settings not yours, etc.
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  • bangerman
    Posts: 45
    It also comes down to the fact that Word is not a true desktop publishing application where document design and output comes first, just a word processor with a bunch of added-on functionality. If you are using a publishing app like InDesign or Affinity Publisher you can retain the formatting and look from computer to computer when opening and editing .indd or .afpub documents.
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  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 685
    The pdf has its advantages too. When engraving a score or a hymn using Musescore the file can easily be exported as a pdf and from there it can be inserted into other pdf documents. Sharing a pdf is preferred because not everyone has MS Word nor can they easily afford some of the higher end program's they were created in. My collection of hymns to St. Joseph was created using Word and Musescore pdf export capabilities. https://www.motherofmercycatholichymns.com/
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