|
Working with FILES: |
Saving files in different formats While downloading files from the Web, you will undoubtedly encounter many different types of electronic files formats. The way to identify the file type is by looking at its extension, typically expressed as a dot followed by 2 to 3 letters (.xxx). Why should you care? You need to identify the file type to know whether it will work on your computer, and whether you will need a particular type of software to decompress, play, or view it. Analogy: You are shopping for music and find the song you want. It is on a cassette tape. At home you have an 8-track tape player. You would not be able to listen to the music until you aquire the proper player (cassette player) or convert the music to match your hardware (8-track player). Your computer uses many different file types. Many are used by programs to make them work properly, some are used to store the data that is created or used by the programs. If we start moving, erasing or renaming program files the programs will stop working. Data files are the types we should be most concerned with. Most of the files we can safely use will be either text, graphic, audio or video files. If we intend to share files with others we should be concerned with the format the receiving party will be able to use. Most programs allow us to choose different formats to save files in. The most common graphics file formats on the Web are those with the extensions .jpg and .gif. The .jpg is short for JPEG, which is a popular compression standard for photographs and other images. The .gif extension stands for Graphics Interchange Format, a standard developed by CompuServe in the late 1980s. Both these graphics formats are platform-independent, which means you can use them on a PC, Mac or UNIX machine as long as you have a viewer for them. For video, popular extensions are .AVI and .RAM for the PC, .MPG (short for MPEG), which is platform-independent, but requires its own player, and .MOV and .QT for QuickTime movies. QuickTime was initially developed just for the Macintosh, but now play on Windows and UNIX, too. The most popular sound file format these days is .MP3 for both Mac and PCs. Other file formats include .AIFF (for Mac); .AU for Mac and UNIX; .WAV for the PC; and .RA for Real Audio, a proprietary system for delivering and playing streaming audio on the Web. All of the file formats can be broken into one of two types: ASCII format and binary format. ASCII files are text files you can view with a DOS Editor or any word processor. Binary files contain non-ASCII characters. If you display a binary file on your screen, you will see a lot of strange symbols and characters. The following is a guide to common file formats. Plain Text (ASCII) Files .html / .htm The language in which Web documents are authored. File Type: ASCII This file type requires a web browser, such as Navigator or Internet Explorer, for viewing. .txt A plain (ASCII) text file. File Type: ASCII These files can be viewed with a word processor like Microsoft Word or a simple text editor like Simple Text or BBEdit for the Mac. For the PC you can use Notepad that comes with the Windows operating system or DOS Edit. Formatted Documents .doc A common PC format for formatted text files. File Type: ASCII Although you may occasionally come across files with this extension that are not text documents, usually they are documents that were created using Microsoft Word or WordPerfect for Windows. Portable Document Format, a proprietary format developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. that allows formatted documents (including brochures or other documents containing artwork) to be transferred over the Internet so they look the same on any computer. File Type: Binary This file type requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view files and can be downloaded from the Adobe website. .ps A PostScript file. File Type: ASCII Though it is technically a plain text file, it is essentially unreadable except by a Postscript printer or with the help of an on screen viewer like Ghostscript, which is available for Mac, Windows, and UNIX. Compressed and Encoded Files .arc An old and inefficient format for archiving and compression. File Type: Binary If you need to exchange files with an older operating system or have old files to read on a new machine, you may need an ARC program. Stuffit Expander for Windows will work for the PC (sitexxx.exe). For the Mac try something called ARCMac. .arj A somewhat common format for MS-DOS machines, especially in Europe. File Type: Binary It is fairly slow and in some cases may do a better job than the more common gzip, zip and Stuffit formats. You can use Stuffit Expander for Windows or WinZIP. On the Mac, try UnArjMac. .bin A Mac binary II Encoded File. File Type: Binary This file type requires Stuffit Expander for the Mac. You download this type of file as MacBinary or Binary. .exe A DOS or Windows program or a self-extracting file. File Type: Binary If this is an executable (self-extracting) file, then it can usually be launched by double-clicking on the icon on your desktop. This is the only way to tell if it is an executable file. .gz/gzip The GNU Project's compression program, most commonly used for UNIX and PC files. File Type: Binary For the Mac, use MacGZIP. There are several Windows-based GZIP uncompressors available. .zip A common compression standard for DOS and Windows that uses a DOS utility called PKZIP. File Type: Binary These files can be decompressed on the PC with WinZIP. You can get copies for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95/98/2000 (winzipXX.exe). You can also use Stuffit Expander for Mac or Windows. Graphics Files .gif The most common graphics file format on the Internet, it stands for Graphics Interchange Format. File Type: Binary If your browser does not have a built-in GIF viewer (but most do), then you can use Lview Pro (lviewpxx.zip) or PolyView (polyvxxx.zip) to view these graphics on a Windows PC. On the Mac, a shareware utility called GIF Converter can be used to view and modify GIFs. .jpg/jpeg/jfif A popular compression standard used for photos and still images. File Type: Binary JPEG files can be viewed on any platform as long as you have a JPEG viewer. You can view JPEG files with most web browsers. For the Mac, use JPEGView; for the PC, you can use Lview Pro or PolyView. .tiff A very large, high-resolution image format. File Type: Binary Use JPEGView for the Mac and Lview Pro or PolyView for the PC. All of the above graphics formats can be readily viewed, created, or manipulated with one or more commercially available graphics software programs like Photostyler or PhotoShop for Windows. Sound Files .au/uLaw/MuLaw The most common sound format found on the Web. File Type: Binary Macs need Sound App to play this type of file; PCs can use Waveform Hold and Modify (whamxxx.zip) which provides support for a variety of formats, conversion between them, and file editing functions. .aiff Another fairly common sound format found on the Web. File Type: Binary Although it is a Macintosh format, it can be used on other platforms as well. It requires the same programs as .au to play. .mp3 The most popular file format on the Web for distributing CD-quality music. A 1 Mb files is equal to about one minute of music. File Type: Binary This type of file requires an MP3 player, which is available for both Macintosh and Windows. .ra A proprietary streaming audio format called RealAudio. File Type: Binary Developed by RealNetworks, RealAudio allows you to play sound files in real-time. This type of file requires the RealPlayer, available for both Macintosh and Windows. .wav The native sound format for Windows. File Type: Binary On the Mac, you can use Sound App to play .wav files. For the PC, use aveform Hold and Modify or Goldwave to play these files. There's also a good program called Win Play! (wplnyxx.zip) that will play it, as well as other popular formats. Video Files .avi The standard video format for Windows. File Type: Binary These files need an AVI Video for Windows player (aviprox.exe) or the Windows Media Player from Microsoft. .mov/.movie The common format for QuickTime movies, the Macintosh native movie platform. File Type: Binary You can use a number of applications to play .mov files including Sparkle or MoviePlayer on the Mac, and QuickTime for Windows. .mpg/mpeg A standard format for "movies" on the Internet, using the MPEG compression scheme. File Type: Binary On the Mac, use Sparkle to play ,mpg files or to convert them to QuickTime movies. There are a variety of MPEG Players for Windows and an MPEG FTP Site that has a large collection of MPEG player resources for all platforms (Mac, Windows, and UNIX). .qt Another extension that denotes a QuickTime movie. File Type: Binary Use the latest version of Quicktime for the Mac. .ram A popular format from RealNetworks for streaming video. File Type: Binary To view these files, you need the RealPlayer, which can be downloaded from Real.com. For a more complete listing of file types visit: http://whatis.techtarget.com/fileFormatA/0,289933,sid9,00.html Saving to floppy disk Create a data file with a program. Choose File > Save. If the data file has not already been saved you will be prompted with a screen asking for you to select a filename, location and file type. If you have previously saved the file it will simply save again to the same location using the same file type. The pulldown on the top of the save window is where you navigate to the floppy drive (usually A:). Try it with a simple document in wordpad. Backing up files to floppy disk What if the data file is already somewhere on the harddrive and you want to save a copy to a floppy disk for safe keeping. Using Windows Explorer navigate the harddrive folders to locate and highlight the filename. (method #1) Right-click the filename and choose Send to > floppy. (method #2) Click the copy icon on the toolbar, or from the menu choose Edit > Copy; navigate to the floppy drive and folder you want to place the file in and click the Paste icon on the toolbar or from the menu choose Edit > Paste. File organization Good orginazation can make working with files a breeze. We create folders to seperate files into common groups for easy retrieval. Practice by making a folder on your floppy drive called art. Using Explorer navigate to the floppy drive; from the menu choose File > New > Folder and name it art. Open Paint, make a simple data file and save it in your newly created folder naming the file test-art.bmp. Folders can be created on the fly too. Return to paint and save the same data file to the a: floppy drive; this time look on the toolbar for a small yellow icon of a folder (when you hover over the icon with the mouse you should see 'Create New Folder' appear), click on it, this time name the new folder 'art2' and press enter. Navigate to the 'art2' folder and complete the save. Converting file types Often files can be opened in one application and saved in many different file types or formats. Observe the different file types supported by the paint program, the Microsoft Word program, the Microsoft Excel program. Formatting Floppy Disks Open 'My Computer' and right click on the 3.5" Floppy A: icon. From the menu select format. If you do not understand the options use the '?' on the top right of the window, point to the option you need help with and click. Formatting disks prepares them for writing files to and erases all files on the disk. USE WITH CAUTION! Copying floppy disks Open 'My Computer' and right click on the 3.5" Floppy A: icon. From the menu select 'Copy Disk'. You will be prompted to insert the disk you wish to copy into the drive. Select 'start' and the disk will be copied to memory. When prompted, insert the disk you wish to copy to, and complete the process. Moving files Using Windows Explorer, highlight a file on the floppy drive, choose cut, navigate to a different folder on the floppy drive and paste. The file is moved. Copying files Using Windows Explorer, highlight a file on the floppy drive, choose copy, navigate to a different folder on the floppy drive and paste. The file is copied. Deleting files Using Windows Explorer, highlight a file on the floppy drive, choose delete. The file is deleted (erased). USE WITH CAUTION! Renaming files Right Click the file, from the dropdown menu choose Rename. Type the new name, press enter. To move files or folders by dragging: On the desktop, double-click My Computer. Double-click the drive that contains the file or folder you want to move, and then find the item. Make sure the place you want to drag the file or folder to is visible. Press and hold down the mouse button while dragging the file or folder to a new location. Note: If you drag using the right mouse button, a menu appears with the available commands. If you drag a file or a folder to a location on the same disk, it will be moved. To copy the item instead of moving it, press and hold down CTRL while dragging. If you drag an item to another disk, it is copied, not moved. To move the item, press and hold down SHIFT while dragging. |