Common File Extensions

Text formats

.htm

All Web pages must be saved with .htm or .html

.txt

Text files are saves as .txt such as ones created with the program Notepad. Most Web browsers will display such files but they cannot contain graphics or fancy formatting.

.doc

Microsoft Word documents use this extension.

Graphics Formats

.gif

A common graphics format that can be displayed on Web pages. Clip art and graphics with few colors should be saved as .gif.

.jpg

Another common graphics format that can be displayed on Web pages. You may see .jpeg as well. Use this for images with many colors such as photographs.

.png

A newer format that will display on Web pages. You probably won't see this being widely used yet.

.pict

The common Macintosh graphics format. Pict's will not display on the Web but must be converted to gif or jpg first.

.bmp

A common Windows PC graphics format that will not display on the Web.

Miscellaneous

.zip

Files that are compressed (usually before they are sent over the Web or via email) will often use this format. You may need to use the program WinZip (www.download.com) to uncompress these files.

.exe

Executable program files that will run if you double-click them often use this format. Sometimes a friend will send an exe file to you as an email attachment. Be careul these could be disguised virus'.

.doc

Microsoft Word documents use this extension.

.pdf

Many Web pages are .pdf (Portable Document Format) files. You often need a special plug-in called Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view these special files. You can obtain the plug-in from the Adobe Web site for free and it works with Netscape or Internet Explorer. Recent versions of Netscape do not require this plug-in though.