DOCX is a terrible format though. If you don't need to edit a document, PDF is more reliable.

If you do need to edit, DOCX will invariably fudge up headings, numbering, ToCs, alignment of images/figures, keep-together not working properly for captions or tables, etc.

I think for the second usecase someone ought to introduce a completely new format that handles this a lot better. Or maybe the format is already there and it's ePub?

But then what's needed is an editor (on-prem server and local portable executable) that has the nice things like automatic ToC generation, foot/endnotes, track changes/document comparison, online collaboration.

> DOCX is a terrible format though.

Agreed but it doesn't matter, because it is the de-facto standard.

(Personally, I think WordPerfect was the better doc standard, with visible attribute tags in the text that could be edited.)

> If you don't need to edit a document, PDF is more reliable.

Yes, but the reason you're using a word processor in the first place is because you need to edit the document.