{"id":16653,"date":"2023-05-15T06:58:35","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T11:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=16653"},"modified":"2023-05-16T07:22:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T12:22:08","slug":"old-files-and-formats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/15\/old-files-and-formats\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Files and Formats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/old-files-types-names-1024x560.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/old-files-types-names-1024x560.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/old-files-types-names-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/old-files-types-names-768x420.jpg 768w, https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/old-files-types-names.jpg 1429w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>How often do you update old file formats?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was fortunate that some WordStar files I created years ago and originally were saved on 5.25&#8243; floppy disks were eventually migrated to more up-to-date media and eventually placed on a hard drive. That folder of files was eventually dumped into a set of work-related items that was placed on the server we used at my former place of employment where they sat (after being migrated and updated numerous times) until I downloaded the files when I retired. I was lucky to still have them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was also fortunate that the format was readable by Google Docs with minimal difficulty in formatting (I originally used WordStar to create the files in the late 1980s). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s the difficulty with older digital files&#8211;keeping them on updated media and in a format that is readable. My personal preference is to avoid formats that are, for lack of a better word, &#8220;trendy&#8221; and less likely to have long-term support. Simple text documents with minimal formatting are also easier to read, but formatting text when transcribing documents does help to preserve some of its structure and &#8220;look.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t rely on just one &#8220;cloud&#8221; to back up your data and consider having personal back up sources that are in your possession or are not dependent on online access. Companies go bankrupt and servers go down. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How often do you update old file formats? I was fortunate that some WordStar files I created years ago and originally were saved on 5.25&#8243; floppy disks were eventually migrated to more up-to-date media and eventually placed on a hard drive. That folder of files was eventually dumped into a set of work-related items that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153978,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}