File extensions

Common File name Extensions

1. File Extensions Prepared by: Bartolome , Cristobal Polking , Judy-an

2. File Extensions a lso known as file name extension. a file extension (or simply "extension") is the suffix at the end of a filename that indicates what type of file it is. is a set of characters that helps Windows understand what kind of information is in a file and what program should open it.

3. Common File Extensions

4. Text Files .doc - Microsoft Word Document . A word processing document created by Microsoft Word; may contain formatted text, images, tables, graphs, charts. . docx - Microsoft Word Open XML Document . Unlike .DOC files, which store document data in a single binary file, DOCX files are created using the Open XML format, which stores documents as a collection of separate files and folders in a compressed zip package.

5. .log – Log File . May be created by the operating system to keep track of system events or by a software installation program to list location and names of installed files. . odt – OpenDocument Text Document . OpenDocument text files can be opened and edited with any OpenOffice -compatible program, including: NeoOffice (Mac), AbiWord (Mac & Windows), and KWord (Unix). They can also be imported into Google Docs, Google's Web-based word processor and spreadsheet application.

6. . msg – Outlook Mail Message . Message created or saved within Microsoft Outlook; contains multiple e-mail fields, including the date, sender, recipient, subject, and message body. .rtf – Rich Text File Format . May include several types of text formatting, such as bold type, italics, different fonts and font sizes, custom tab settings, etc; may also support images saved within the text file.

7. .txt – Plain Text File. Standard text document that contains unformatted text; recognized by any text editing or word processing program; can also be processed by most other software programs. . wpd – WordPerfrct Document. Created by Corel WordPerfect, may contain formatted text, tables, drawn objects, and images; stored in a proprietary Corel format, but can be exported to other formats from within WordPerfect.

8. . wps - Microsoft Works Word Processor Document. Document created with Microsoft Works word processing software; similar to a Microsoft Word (.DOC) document, but does not include advanced formatting options and macros that a Word document may contain.

9. Audio Files . aif – Audio Interchange File Format. Audio file created using the Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF); contains uncompressed CD-quality audio, similar to a .WAV file; commonly used to store standard CD audio. .m4a – MPEG-4 Audio File. A multimedia container format used to store compressed audio and video data.

10. .mid – MIDI File (Musical Instrument Digital Interface ). C ontain attributes of music data rather than music data itself. They can be played back using software instruments that interpret this data . .mp3 - MP3 Audio File. C ommonly used to store music files and audiobooks on a hard drive. The quality of an MP3 file depends largely on the bit rate used for compression.

11. .wav – WAVE Audio File. A s tandard digital audio file format used for storing waveform data. .wma – Windows Media Audio File. C an be converted to other more standardized formats; often used for playing music from the Web.

12. Data Files . dat – Data File. It is used by Piriform applications to recognize that it should operate in portable mode. . pps – PowerPoint Slide Show. Created with Microsoft PowerPoint, a common program for creating presentations; saved as a completed slide show, which can be viewed by either PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer.

13. . ppt – PowerPoint Presentation . Editable slide show created with Microsoft PowerPoint; often used for presentations or slideshows. . pptx – PowerPoint Open XML Presentation . File types in PPTX files are also more accessible than those in PPT files. . sdf – Standard Data File . Compact relational database developed by Microsoft; designed for applications that run on mobile devices and desktops; contains the complete database contents and can be up to 4GB in size.

14. .xml – XML File . XML (Extensible Markup Language) data file that uses tags to define objects and object attributes; formatted much like an .HTML document, but uses custom tags to define objects and the data within each object; can be thought of as a text-based database.

15. Video Files .3gp – 3GPP Multimedia File. Developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP); designed as a multimedia format for transmitting audio and video files between 3G cell phones and over the Internet. . asf – Advanced Systems Format File. A proprietary video and audio container format; developed by Microsoft primarily for streaming media; contains audio and video data and optionally metadata, such as title, author, and copyright bibliographic data.

16. . avi – Audio Video Interleave File . A format created by Microsoft; stores video data that may be encoded in a variety of codecs. AVI files can be played by various video players, but the player must support the codec used to encode the video data . . flv – Flash Video File. Consists of a short header, interleaved audio, video, and metadata  packets. The FLV format is an open format that is also supported by non-Adobe/Macromedia programs.

17. .mp4 – MPEG-4 Video File. Commonly used for sharing video files on the Internet . MP4 files are supported by many video programs and various hardware devices, such as the Apple iPod portable media player . .mpg – MPEG Video File . Common digital video format standardized by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG ). Is often used for creating movies that are distributed on the Internet.

18. . wmv – Windows Media Video File . A video file based on the Microsoft Advanced Systems Format (ASF) and compressed with Windows Media compression. Similar to an .ASF file and contains video encoded with one of Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) proprietary codecs.

19. Image Files .jpg – JPEG Image File. The most used image file format . Commonly used for storing digital photos since the format supports up to 24-bit color; therefore, most digital cameras save images as JPG files by default . .gif – Graphical Interchange Format File. Are common format for Web graphics, especially small images and images that contain text, such as navigation buttons.

20. . png – Portable Network Graphic. The PNG format was created in response to limitations with the GIF format, primarily to increase color support and to provide an image format without a patent license . . psd – Adobe Photoshop Document. Image file created by Adobe Photoshop, which may include image layers, adjustment layers, layer masks, annotation notes, file information, keywords, and other Photoshop-specific elements.

21. . tif – Tagged Image File. Short for ‘ .TIFF. ’ A high-quality graphics format often used for storing images with many colors, such as digital photos.

22. Spreadsheet Files . xlr – Works Spreadsheet . A popular productivity suite; stores data in cells that are organized in a grid consisting of rows and columns . . xls – Excel Spreadsheet. A spreadsheet created by Microsoft Excel, the most widely-used spreadsheet program; stores data in a table with rows and columns, often used to create charts and graphs.

23. . xlsx – Microsoft Excel Open XML Spreadsheet. A program used to create spreadsheets; stores data in worksheets. Commonly used to store financial data and to create simple or complex mathematical models.

24. Database Files . accdb – Access 2007 Database File. A d atabase  created with Microsoft Access 2007; typically contains data organized into tables and fields. . db – Database File. A database file used on mobile devices such as Android, iOS , and Windows Phone 7; often stores contacts and SMS information but may store any type of device or application data.

25. . mdb – Microsoft Access Database. Created by Microsoft Access, a widely-used desktop relational database program; contains the database structure and database entries as well as data entry forms, queries, stored procedures, reports, and database security settings . . pdb – Program Database. Are usually saved in a proprietary format, meaning they can only be opened by the program they were installed with.

26. . sql – Structueed Query Language Data. Contains SQL code used to modify the contents of a relational database; may contain statements for creating or modifying database structures, or may contain insertions, updates, deletions, and other SQL operations.

27. Game Files .gam – Saved Game File. A file created by various video games to store saved games; may be manually saved by the user or automatically saved by the program. . nes – Nintendo(NES) ROM File. Created from an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) video game; contains the same data as the original NES cartridge; can be opened and played on a Mac or PC using an NES emulator.

28. . sav – Nintendo DS Save File. Created for games on the Nintendo DS portable game system; may include game information such as the character name, experience points, completed levels, and in-game resources; stores the state of the current game progress. . dem – Video Game Demo File. A game replay file created by various first-person shooter games and most popularly by Counter-Strike, used for sharing replays with others.

29. Web Files .html – Hypertext Markup Language File. Web page used by W eb browsers; contains markup code that is stored on a plain text format; used to display and format text and images in a Web browser . . php – Hypertext Preprocessor File. M ay include PHP functions that can process online forms, get the date and time, or access information from a database.

30. The HTML, which contains the Web page content, is then sent to the user's Web browser. Therefore, the user never sees the actual PHP code contained in the Web page, even when viewing the page source . . xhtml – Extensible Hypertext Markup Language File. Uses standard HTML tags, but must conform to more strict XML guidelines.

31. . js – JavaScript File. Text file containing JavaScript code; used to execute JavaScript instructions in Web pages. Referenced by Web pages that incorporate JavaScript functions. Usually imported in the . Section of the HTML . . jsp – Java Server Page. Contains Java code instead of ActiveX or PHP; the code is parsed by the Web server, which generates HTML that is sent to the user's computer.

32. Backup Files . bak – Firefox Bookmarks Backup. Can be used to replace saved bookmarks in case the main bookmarks file becomes corrupted; automatically generated by the Firefox Web browser. . tmp – Temporary File. Created automatically by a software program; usually serves as a backup or cache  file; sometimes created as an invisible file and is often deleted when the program is closed.

33. Other Common File Formats . pdf – Portable Document Format. A file format that has captured all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, or forward to someone else .

34. Digital Preservation The aim of digital preservation is to ensure that digital records are filed and are made available throughout time. Each digital library consists of different documents with different file formats.

35. Recommended File formats for Digital Libraries

36. . pdf . ppt .jpg . tif .mpg . png . avi .wav . aif .mp3

37. References: http:// fileinfo.com/filetypes/common http://it.nmu.edu/docs/common-windows-file-extensions