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Best practice formats for documents and templates

We recommend that you use the following document formats for the purposes outlined below:
 
Format
Purpose
Microsoft Word Document (.docx)
  • Letters
  • Faxes
  • Forms
  • Other lengthy documents

Do not use for e-mails.

Microsoft Word Template (.dotx)

Use to create templates for the above.
Do not register documents in this format.

Microsoft Word (97-2003) Document (.doc) Do not use.
Save a copy of a document in this format if requested by the client.
Microsoft Word (97-2003) Template (.dot) Do not use.
Microsoft Excel Document (.xlsx)
  • Spreadsheets
  • Large tables
  • Graphs

Do not use for letters or forms.

Microsoft Excel Template (.xltx)

Use to create templates for the above.
Do not register documents in this format.

Microsoft Excel (97-2003) Document (.xls) Do not use.
Save a copy of a document in this format if requested by the client.
Microsoft Excel (97-2003) Template (.xlt) Do not use.
Outlook Item (.msg)
  • E-mails

Where possible, register attachments separately.

Outlook Item Template (.oft) Use to create templates for the above. Do not register documents in this format.
Portable Document Format (.pdf)
  • Incoming documents
  • Scanned documents

Do not register outgoing documents in this format if an editable version is available.
Prefer PDFs containing machine-readable text over scanned text.
Do not duplicate documents of this type.

Hypertext Markup Language (.htm, .html)
  • Documents saved from the World Wide Web

Avoid registering HTML documents which are available publicly on the web.

TIFF Image (.tif, .tiff)
  • Incoming faxes
  • Scanned documents

Do not register copies of outgoing documents.
Do not duplicate documents of this type.

Image Files (.jpg, .gif, .bmp, .png)
  • Incoming faxes
  • Scanned documents
  • Photographs

Do not register trivial e-mail attachments, such as company logos.

​ContactsLaw SMS Document (.cl-sms)

​Do not register files of this type.
Do not upload outgoing documents of this type.
Do not duplicate documents of this type.

​ContactsLaw SMS Template (.cl-smst) ​Use to create templates for the above. Do not register documents in this format.
Open XML Paper Specification (.xps) Follow the same guidelines as for PDF documents.
Rich Text Format (.rtf)
Plain Text (.txt)
  • Incoming documents
  • Outgoing documents created by other packages

Prefer other formats if available.

Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation (.ppt, .pptx)
Microsoft Publisher Document (.pub)
Microsoft Visio Drawing (.vsd)
XML Files (.xml)
Suitable for internal use.
Avoid use on client files.
Audio Files (.wav, .dss, .mp3)
Video Files (.avi, .mpg, .mp4, .mov)
Archive Files (.zip, .rar)
Executable Files (.exe, .bat, .com)
Do not register files of this type.