Text Files

.txt

Plain text

Basic text file, can be cross-platform

.rtx

Rich text

Text file with basic formatting, also cross-platform

.doc

Word document

Used for Microsoft Word

.wpd

Word perfect

Used by Word Perfect documents

.pdf

Portable Document File

Used by Adobe's Acrobat Reader for user manuals etc.

.ps

PostScript file

PS is the standard print format on UNIX

Audio, Video and Graphics Files

.au

Audio file

Basic audio file

.avi

Audio video file

Simple movie or video file

.wav

Wave file

Windows sound file

.mp3

MPEG-1, audio layer 3

Common sound file, used widely

.mov/qt

Apple quick time movie

Quick time file

.mpg/ mpeg

Motion pictures experts group

Viedo and sound files

.ra/ram

Real audio format

Real player file

.wma

Windows media audio

Windows media player compressed audio file with copyright ability

.bmp

Windows bitmap graphics

These files can be very large as they store every pixel of colour

.gif

Graphic interchange format

Graphic file used on websites

.jpg/jpeg

Joint Photographic experts group

A graphic file with variable compression

.tif/tiff

Target image file format

A higher quality graphic file

Compression formats

.zip

Basic compression file

Common compressed file used with PKzip and WINzip

.hqx

Binary-to-hexadecimal

Take up more space than original file but less risk of corruption

.gzip

Unix compression

gzip is short for GNU ZIP, a GNU free software replacement for the Unix compression program

.lha

LhArc

A very fast archiver that is compatible with MS-DOS

System Files

.bat

Batch file

Used with MS-DOS

.com

Command file

Windows command system file

.dll

Dynamic Link Library

File containing executable code/ data bound to a program at load tim or run time

.drv

Driver

File contianing information about hardware to help windows to use it

.ini

Initiation file

Initial settings for some computer programs

.sys

System

Windows system file

.exe

Executable file

Programs such as Word/MSN Messenger are executable files

Common Files

.xls

Excel file

Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file

.ppt

Powerpoint file

Microsoft PowerPoint presentation file

.shw

Core presentation

A Presentation file

.js

Java Script

Programming language from Sun, used in some web sites

.pl

Perl Script

A programming language