1. File types

Commercial file formats

As you become familiar with various software applications you will begin to recognise common file formats.

For instance:

• .DOC : Word file
• .XLS : Excel spreadsheet file
• .PDF: Adobe file
• .PPT : PowerPoint file
• .MOV : Quicktime movie file
• .PSD : Photoshop file
• .SWF: Flash Player file
• .WMV : Windows Media Player file
• .DOCX : Newer Word file type

These formats have been created by commercial companies to support their particular application.

Public file formats

• .TXT
• .CSV
• .XML

There are file formats that do not belong to anyone in particular. For instance a .txt file can store very basic unformatted text data. It is very handy to transfer simple text from one application to another as all text processing applications can read a .txt file.

Another very common file format is the 'csv' file format, short for Comma Separated Values' where each chunk of data is separated by a comma or other 'delimiter'. This is widely used to import / export spreadsheet data

And for holding ordered information the XLS format is very popular.