However, the development of computer networks has made it so that in most cases it is much more convenient to distribute electronic documents than printed ones.
The improvements in electronic visual display technologies made it possible to view documents on a screen instead of printing them (thus saving paper and the space required to store the printed copies).
[citation needed] However, using electronic documents for the final presentation instead of paper has created the problem of multiple incompatible file formats.
under MS-DOS, most programs could not work correctly with UNIX-style text files (see newline), and for non-English speakers, the different code pages always have been a source of trouble.
Even more problems are connected with complex file formats of various word processors, spreadsheets, and graphics software.