Electronic FERC Tariffs

1
Electronic FERC Tariffs

• File Formats for Tariff Content

2
File Format Requirements

• Practical
• must lend itself to tariff content
• Accurate Reproduction
• must look the same to everyone
• Ease of Production
• must be producible using readily available tools
• Assembly
• must be combinable and lend itself to the
  programmatic insertion of content
• National Archives and Records Administration
  (NARA)
• must adhere to NARA standards 36 CFR 1228.270

3
File Formats

• Microsoft Word Document (DOC)
• Adobe Acrobat PDF
• Rich Text Format (RTF)
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Plain Text (TXT)

4
Ratings

• Evaluate how well each file format satisfies each
  requirement
• ? does not satisfy requirement
• ? partly/mostly satisfies requirement
• ? fully satisfies requirement

5
Practical

• Microsoft Word Document ?
• Adobe Acrobat PDF ?
• Rich Text Format ?
• Hypertext Markup Language ?
• lacks rich content capabilities
• Plain Text ?
• no formatting
• lacks rich content capabilities

6
Accurate Reproduction

• Microsoft Word Document ?
• issues printer drivers, non-standard fonts
• Adobe Acrobat PDF ?
• Rich Text Format ?
• rendering differences common across variety of
  tools
• Hypertext Markup Language ?
• rendering differences common across variety of
  tools
• Plain Text ?
• issues character sets, tab interpretation

7
Ease of Production

• Microsoft Word Document ?
• Adobe Acrobat PDF ?
• requires additional step
• Rich Text Format ?
• Hypertext Markup Language ?
• Plain Text ?
• issues tables, tab stops, formulas

8
Assembly

• Microsoft Word Document ?
• complex software required
• Adobe Acrobat PDF ?
• complex software required
• Rich Text Format ?
• complex software required
• Hypertext Markup Language ?
• Plain Text ?

9
National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA)

• Microsoft Word Document ?
• not on NARA list
• Adobe Acrobat PDF ?
• Rich Text Format ?
• not on NARA list
• Hypertext Markup Language ?
• unclear if this is a NARA-compliant plus, it is
  argued by some that HTML is not truly valid SGML
• Plain Text ?

10
Summary
Requirement DOC PDF RTF HTML TXT
Practical ? ? ? ? ?
Accurate Reproduction ? ? ? ? ?
Ease of Production ? ? ? ? ?
Assembly ? ? ? ? ?
NARA ? ? ? ? ?