System and method for providing multiple renditions of document content

Described is a mechanism for providing a single file (201) that includes multiple representations (202, 203, 204) of the same document content. Each of the representations (202, 203, 204) may be optimized to provide a superior presentation for a particular device or application (220, 221, 222). The mechanism of the invention is preferably based on a compound file format (201) that allows multiple renditions (202, 203 , 204) of the same content to be stored (205) in a single document (201). Meta information (207) is included within the single document (201) that describes each of the multiple renditions (202, 203, 204) together with any supporting files that may be used with those renditions. The inventors have determined that the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) compound file format (201) is especially well suited to implementations (202, 203, 204) of the invention.