Editing Electronic document

{{Short description|Electronic media formatted as a document}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2024}}
An '''electronic document''' is a [[document]] that can be sent in non-physical means, such as [[telex]], [[email]], and the [[internet]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition: electronic document from 7 USC § 241(4) {{!}} LII / Legal Information Institute |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?def_id=7-USC-1805969983-1954462902&term_src=title:7:chapter:10:section:242 |access-date=2024-05-12 |website=www.law.cornell.edu}}</ref> Originally, any [[data (computing)|computer data]] were considered as something internal&mdash;the final data output was always on paper. However, the development of [[computer network]]s has made it so that in most cases it is much more convenient to distribute electronic documents than printed ones. The improvements in [[electronic visual display]] technologies made it possible to view documents on a screen instead of printing them (thus saving paper and the space required to store the printed copies).{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} However, using electronic documents for the final presentation instead of paper has created the problem of multiple incompatible [[file format]]s. Even [[plain text]] computer files are not free from this problem&mdash;e.g. under [[MS-DOS]], most programs could not work correctly with [[UNIX]]-style text files (see [[newline]]), and for non-English speakers, the different [[code page]]s always have been a source of trouble.

Even more problems are connected with complex file formats of various [[word processor]]s, [[spreadsheet]]s, and [[graphics software]]. To alleviate the problem, many software companies distribute free [[file viewer]]s for their proprietary file formats (one example is [[Adobe Inc.|Adobe]]'s [[PDF|Acrobat Reader]]). The other solution is the development of standardized non-[[Proprietary software|proprietary]] file formats (such as [[HTML]] and [[OpenDocument]]), and electronic documents for specialized uses have specialized formats&mdash;the specialized [[electronic article]]s in physics use [[TeX]] or [[PostScript]].

==See also==
*[[Digital era governance]]
*[[Digital library]]
*[[Digital media]]
*[[E-government]]
*[[Ebook]]
*[[Electronic paper]]
*[[Electronic publishing]]
*[[Paperless office]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Electronic documents}}
*[http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/digdoc.html What is a digital document]
*[http://www.msimaging.com/faq Digital Imaging Frequent Questions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922080039/http://www.msimaging.com/faq |date=2015-09-22 }}
*[https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/301500_301599/301549/01.01.02_60/en_301549v010102p.pdf From ETSI]

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[[Category:Electronic documents| ]]