The best file format to utilize as a business

File formats might not be something your business has thought about but standardizing them is an important thing to consider.

What format does your business use for its files? This might not be something you’d previously considered, but it’s an important part of your company’s organization. Standardizing this across your business ensures you are being as efficient as possible, while minimizing the risk of any data loss.

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If your organization saves files in a number of different file types, you can run into issues quickly. Firstly, the files one person uses might not be accessible to another, particularly in the age of bring-your-own-device. This means time must be wasted converting the files into a format that can be used by their recipient.

This isn’t just time-consuming; it can result in lost data. While most file conversions go smoothly, there is always the risk of an error that can result in data changing or becoming unusable. The more conversions your business has to do each day due to inconsistent file formats, the more likely it is that you’ll experience an error.

Something as simple as utilizing a single file format protects you from this risk. Of course, this means choosing a single file format that will be appropriate for your entire business. While every organization is different, most can benefit from choosing PDFs as their preferred file format.

Why is PDF the best file format?

Since the 1990s, businesses have been using PDFs as their file format of choice. The main reason why is the PDF’s biggest selling point: it preserves the original format of the document, no matter what machine or operating system is used to open it.

As an example of the opposite, take Word documents (.DOCX). If you save a DOCX file that you created on a desktop computer, then open the same file on your smartphone, it might look completely different. This is because the format changes depending on the device used to access it. All this can mean that your carefully planned formatting gets scrambled up, looking unprofessional and potentially making documents hard to read and understand.

The same is the case with many other file types, such as Excel spreadsheets. PDFs always keep the same formatting, so you know your file is going to look exactly the same no matter which device you use to access it. This is much more professional and reliable and keeps everything in your organization standardized.

PDF files also have a relatively small file size, and can be compressed to improve this even more, reducing the amount of cloud storage your business will need. They can even be password-protected for additional security.

Switching to PDFs

The main thing you will need to standardize PDFs across your entire business is a PDF editor. This is simply a piece of software that lets you edit PDF files as if they were any other document, letting you easily work with the file size.

Not all PDFs are editable, and if you have legacy files then you might need to convert them. Luckily this is simple. All you need to convert PDF’s online into editable PDFs is to find a reliable website that can do this for you. Then you should be able to edit all your files easily, letting you standardize everything with minimal fuss.

The only other thing you need to do is establish the policy of all files being saved as PDFs. Remind your employees that they can use any program to create their files, as long as they are saved as editable PDFs, and ensure they have the necessary training to do this.

Switching to a single file format is the most efficient option for businesses, and PDFs are the clear winner when it comes to choosing the right file type for your organization. The benefits should be clear, so all you need to do now is start converting your existing files and enjoy your newly standardized organization.