KB194487 - WD97: Difference Between RTF and RFT File Formats

Article ID: 194487

Article Last Modified on 8/21/2007

Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q194487

SUMMARY

Two file formats with similar abbreviations (RFT and RTF) are commonly confused.

The difference between these two formats is as follows:

RFT-DCA (commonly referred to as RFT) represents IBM Corporation's Revisable-Form Text Document Content Architecture format. This format was developed by IBM for transfer of documents between its word- processing systems and other systems.
RTF represents Microsoft Corporation's Rich Text Format. The Rich Text Format standard is a method of encoding formatted text and graphics for easy transfer between MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, and Apple Macintosh applications.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about RFT-DCA, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

96119 History of WinWord File Converters Categorized by Word Release

119889 Word for the Macintosh: History of External File Converters

For more information about how to obtain the RTF specification, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

86999 WD: Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification 1.6

111716 How to Obtain the WinWord Converter SDK (GC1039)

164472 WD97: GC1282: Rich Text Format Addendum (Spec. for Word 97)

NOTE: The RTF Specification version 1.6 is available in the MSDN library at the following URL:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/

Click Specifications, click Applications, and then click Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification, version 1.6.

Additional query words: rftdca dcarft rft/dca dca/rft dca-rft rft dca rich- text

Keywords: kbinfo KB194487