The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning

Praxis

Volume 11   Issue 2  Mar. 2007
 
Center

FAQ

Workshops

Online Tutorials

Praxis is a publication of the Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA

Editor: Pat Morrison
Designer: Nozomi Yokoo

619-644-7747

catl@gcccd.net

http://www.grossmont.net/catl
FILE EXTENSIONS

This issue of Praxis is all about File Extensions.  What are file extensions?  Disk files have to be identifiable so the operating system can address them, because the filenames have specific rules associated with them.  The basic format of a filename is: rootname.ext.  The ext part on the above format is where the extension goes. 

The extension is optional, and is usually three characters long, for example: .htm, although more characters are permissable, for example: html.

Because it is helpful to know what file extensions mean, a list of common ones follows:

ART ... Clipart
ASC ... ASCII text file
BAK ... Backup Files
BAT ... MS-DOS batch file
BMP ... Bitmap format
CBT ... Computer Based Training
CGI ... Common Gateway Interface.  Web-based programs & scripts

CLP ... Windows Clipboard file
CMD ... Dos Command file
CSS ... Cascading Style Sheet.  Creates a common style reference for a set of web pages

DAT ... Data file
DIC ... Dictionary file
DOC ... Document format for Word Perfect & Microsoft Word

EML ... Microsoft Outlook email file
EXE ... DOS based executable file which is also known as a program

GIF ... Graphics Interchange Format that supports animation.

HLP ... Standard help file
HTM ... Hyper Text Markup.  This markup language is used for web design

 

 
 


 

More file extensions:

HTML ... Hyper Text Markup Language, used for web design

JPEG ... Compression scheme supported by most graphics programs & used mostly for web usages

JPG  ... Commonly used instead of JPEG

JS   ... JavaScript File, that is, a text file containing JavaScript programming code

MID ... MIDI music file
MOV ...Quicktime movie
MP3 ... MPEG Audio Layer 3
MPEG .. Animation file format
MSG ... MS Outlook message file
PDF ... Portable Document File by Adobe. Viewable in a web browser of with Adobe Acrobat

PNG ... Portable Network Graphic file
PPS ... MS PowerPoint slide show
PPT ... MS PowerPoint presentation

PRN ... A print file created as the result of "printing to file"

PS ... PostScript file
RM  ... RealAudio video file
RTF ... Rich Text Format
SCR ... Screen Saver file.
SHTML .. HTML file that supports Server Side Includes (SSI)

SYS ... Windows system file used for hardware configuration or drivers

 

 

 


Hints,Tricks, etc.

Want to know more about file extensions?  Check out these links:

  • www.csgnetwork.com/commonfileexts.html
  • filext.com/
  • http://www.stack.com/file/extension/index.html

 

Pat Morrison