What document format do you prefer for downloading?

[naughtypadawan]

I'm a very new n00b and I'm sorry if this is a dumb or repetitive question. I've downloaded a couple of fics so far, and found both .txt and .doc formats. Do people have a preference for stories that they read? The reason I ask is that I want to know what format to upload my own work in.

[RobM]

PDF.

Means I don't have to look at bizzare text fonts showing up on my PC wrongly; means I can usually resize the page until the text is at a size thats comfortable to read; eliminates problems of paragraph or line overbleed; and generally eliminates compatability issues that are almost inevitable with microsoft's many, many office packages (Which I don't have or use any of).

It generally relies on the person releasing to have somewhat agreeable taste on whats a good text size and font and margin width and on using sensible page sizes like A4 or Letter but so long as they do PDF means you see the way the author intended and presumable that they checked to see it opened and looked correct.

If a writer is too lazy to proofread then there's no guarantees they bothered to check their file is readable but even quite good authors sometimes forget that not everyone has installed the brand new Office 720 Exclusive font Metalibiri Lt and can't read their story as its just boxes.
On the occasions I have to release a story in a text format I use RTF with a basic font because, again, anybody with a windows OS can open it and the margins are so universal its very difficult (although never impossible) to screw up meaning the guy or girl opening it at the other end will get an unadulterated version.

[zae]

I prefer "not docx", because when I bought my laptop it came with the usual store-added version of Office where it's not actually registered, so if I just click to open a file, you get the "Hey, want to pay millions of dollars in registration fees?" window. It means having to open Word on its own as a separate thing, which takes long enough in the first place because all MS products are vast memory hogs, and then go File > Open > That fic.

So yeah, pdf or rtf, I suppose. I'm happy with notepad for the simplicity, though admittedly you have to change the window size to something agreeable (until it looks like "probably what the author intended"). One day I might even practice what I preach and convert things to pdf before uploading :/

(Mind you, seeing as the primary/only fiction-moderator has stepped down, there might be a sufficient waiting period that uploading at all becomes a non-issue.)