<s>
An	O
electronic	B-Protocol
document	I-Protocol
is	O
any	O
electronic	O
media	O
content	O
(	O
other	O
than	O
computer	B-Application
programs	I-Application
or	O
system	O
files	O
)	O
that	O
is	O
intended	O
to	O
be	O
used	O
in	O
either	O
an	O
electronic	O
form	O
or	O
as	O
printed	O
output	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Originally	O
,	O
any	O
computer	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
were	O
considered	O
as	O
something	O
internal	O
the	O
final	O
data	O
output	O
was	O
always	O
on	O
paper	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
the	O
development	O
of	O
computer	B-Architecture
networks	I-Architecture
has	O
made	O
it	O
so	O
that	O
in	O
most	O
cases	O
it	O
is	O
much	O
more	O
convenient	O
to	O
distribute	O
electronic	B-Protocol
documents	I-Protocol
than	O
printed	O
ones	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
improvements	O
in	O
electronic	B-Device
visual	I-Device
display	I-Device
technologies	O
made	O
it	O
possible	O
to	O
view	O
documents	O
on	O
a	O
screen	O
instead	O
of	O
printing	O
them	O
(	O
thus	O
saving	O
paper	O
and	O
the	O
space	O
required	O
to	O
store	O
the	O
printed	O
copies	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
using	O
electronic	B-Protocol
documents	I-Protocol
for	O
the	O
final	O
presentation	O
instead	O
of	O
paper	O
has	O
created	O
the	O
problem	O
of	O
multiple	O
incompatible	O
file	O
formats	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
under	O
MS-DOS	B-Application
,	O
most	O
programs	O
could	O
not	O
work	O
correctly	O
with	O
UNIX-style	O
text	O
files	O
(	O
see	O
newline	O
)	O
,	O
and	O
for	O
non-English	O
speakers	O
,	O
the	O
different	O
code	O
pages	O
always	O
have	O
been	O
a	O
source	O
of	O
trouble	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Even	O
more	O
problems	O
are	O
connected	O
with	O
complex	O
file	O
formats	O
of	O
various	O
word	B-General_Concept
processors	I-General_Concept
,	O
spreadsheets	B-Application
,	O
and	O
graphics	B-Application
software	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
To	O
alleviate	O
the	O
problem	O
,	O
many	O
software	O
companies	O
distribute	O
free	O
file	B-Application
viewers	I-Application
for	O
their	O
proprietary	B-Application
file	O
formats	O
(	O
one	O
example	O
is	O
Adobe	O
's	O
Acrobat	B-Application
Reader	I-Application
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
other	O
solution	O
is	O
the	O
development	O
of	O
standardized	O
non-proprietary	O
file	O
formats	O
(	O
such	O
as	O
HTML	B-Language
and	O
OpenDocument	B-Application
)	O
,	O
and	O
electronic	B-Protocol
documents	I-Protocol
for	O
specialized	O
uses	O
have	O
specialized	O
formats	O
the	O
specialized	O
electronic	O
articles	O
in	O
physics	O
use	O
TeX	B-Application
or	O
PostScript	B-Language
.	O
</s>
