Corporate Alzheimer’s: Coping With Forgotten File Formats

Law.com Asks What if the file formats in which we save text documents, spreadsheets, charts and presentations — all that stuff generated by so-called productivity software — were not supported by future versions of the programs used to create them today, or by some as-yet-unimagined successor products? Could drifting file formats cause a kind of corporate Alzheimer’s that threatens our ability to recall contracts, insurance policies, financial records, payroll data and other critical documents?