1. A method of enabling data stored in a file associated with a first application program A 1 to be read by a second application program A 2 that may not have data-sharing compatibility with said first application program A 1 , said method comprising the steps of: (a) defining, a priori, an application-independent data format, F exchange , that is agreed upon by all consumer applications, including said first and second application programs A 1 and A 2 , respectively; (b) in the course of storing data in a first data file associated with the execution of said first application program A 1 , providing in said first data file instructions that are operative to convert the format of the data in said first data file to said application-independent intermediate data format, F exchange ; (c) in the course of execution of said second application program A 2 , whenever access of data stored in said first file of said first application program A 1 is required, causing said second application program A 2 to retrieve from said first data file instructions for converting the format of the data in said first data file to said application-independent intermediate data format, F exchange ; and (d) causing said second application program A 2 to execute said retrieved instructions for converting the format of the data in said first data file to said application-independent intermediate data format, F exchange , thereby retrieving the data from said first application program A 1 .