4.7. A comparison of all supported file formats

The following table shows all file formats that Fanurio can use as templates.

Table 4.3. Template file formats supported by Fanurio

Template Format View Print Export Email Editor Example
HTML (.html) + + .html, .pdf .pdf Text editor, HTML editor html-invoice.html
Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) - - .docx .docx Microsoft Word word-invoice.docx
OpenDocument Text (.odt) - - .odt .odt OpenOffice Writer, LibreOffice Writer and others odt-invoice.odt
OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods) - - .ods .ods OpenOffice Calc, LibreOffice Calc and others ods-invoice.ods
XML (.xml) - - .xml .xml Text editor, XML editor -
Plain Text (.txt) - - .txt .txt Text editors text-invoice.txt
Quicken (.qif) - - .qif .qif Text editors quicken-invoice.qif
QuickBooks (.iif) - - .iif .iif Text editors -
TeX Document (.tex) - - .tex .tex Text editors, TeX/LaTeX editor -

If you don't know which format is right for you, here's a short summary of what each format can do:

  • HTML: This is the default and recommended format for templates in Fanurio. You should use HTML templates if you want to view, print or export documents to PDF right from Fanurio. The other formats require an additional step to get the same results. You have to open them with their editor for viewing or printing.

    We recommend that you use the template editor to edit HTML templates but you can also edit them visually using HTML editors like Adobe Dreamweaver (commercial) or KompoZer (free).

  • Microsoft Word 2007: Microsoft Word templates can be easily edited to create complex layouts. Use this format if you want to create great looking documents in a short time.

  • OpenDocument: OpenDocument formats (.odt and .ods) help you get the same results as Microsoft Office but on multiple platforms. An OpenDocument Text template is a great choice if you are using Fanurio on Linux and you want to create an invoice template fast.

    OpenOffice and LibreOffice are two popular free applications that can handle OpenDocument formats. A list of applications that support the OpenDocument format is available on Wikipedia.

  • XML: Use this format if you want to export data to XML and then import it in other applications.

  • Plain Text: The text format is not very practical unless you need to export your documents as plain text files. We are using plain text templates to explain the template language syntax.

    One could also use this format to export documents to any text-based format. For instance, you could use it to generate RTF (Rich Text Format) documents if you know the RTF syntax.

  • Quicken: The QIF format is in fact a plain text format. Use this format if you need to keep your invoices in Quicken.