13-301 - SEDAR - Use of Incorrect Document Formats [CSA - Rescinded]

Staff of each of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("staff") continue to receive documents submitted in unacceptable electronic formats. Staff have been monitoring incoming continuous disclosure filings and have noted that approximately 15% of the filings contained documents filed in an incorrect format. This causes undue burden on staff and the public as they attempt to deal with these filings.

Issuers are reminded that the list of acceptable electronic formats has not changed since the implementation of SEDAR on January 1, 1997. The programs used to create the documents were selected because they are common to the workplace, and allow staff and the general public to retrieve, view and print documents submitted electronically via SEDAR. The acceptable formats as set out in Section 7.2 of the SEDAR Filer Manual are as follows:

1. Corel WordPerfect for DOS or Windows, versions 5.1, 5.2, 6.0 and 6.1;

2. Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0x and 7.0; and

3. Adobe Acrobat, versions 2.x and 3.0, the resulting format being commonly known as Portable Document Format ("PDF").

Issuers are reminded that documents created in more current versions of MS Word (MS Word 97) and Corel WordPerfect (WordPerfect 7 and 8) are not acceptable in those formats.

A particularly prevalent problem is caused by documents submitted in Rich Text Format. These are documents that are submitted by filers who believe that they have correctly converted the files into an acceptable format. Documents created in MS Office 97 or MS Word 97 and saved to earlier versions of MS Word (Word 6.0/95) are unintentionally saved as Rich Text Format (an unacceptable format) rather than Word 6.0, as intended by the filer. Users of MS Word 97 must ensure that the WORD 6.0/95 Binary converter has been applied to the MS Office 97/MS Word 97 program, or that the MS Office 97/MS Word 97 supports this correct conversion.

The new Word 6.0/95 Binary Converter for Word 97 is available at (http://www.microsoft.com/word/enhancements/wrd6ex32.asp) (last checked May 1, 1998).

This allows MS Word 97 documents to be saved in a true binary file format with a .doc extension, ensuring that the document will be in an accepted format.

CDS (SEDAR) Inc. issued a subscriber update on August 19, 1997 addressing the issue of applying the MS Word 6.0/95 Binary Converter for MS Office 97 and MS Word 97 to convert these documents to an acceptable format before they are submitted. A further subscriber update was issued on April 16, 1998.

Issuers who have questions regarding acceptable formats should contact their local CDS (SEDAR) Inc. representative or the Help Desk at 1-800-219-5381.

CDS (SEDAR) Inc. and the CSA are currently reviewing the acceptable formats for SEDAR.

May 15, 1998