Different File Formats & Types

File Format

We can save our text documents in different file formats. The most common are American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), plain text, and rich text format (RTF).

Using Standard File Formats

Saving your work in a standard file format like ASCII, Plain Text or RTF you can be sure your files can be opened by a wide range of software. This makes:-

• your data files are very portable and
• can be transferred easily from one package to another.

 

1. ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) stores only information about the characters in a document.

It does not save any formatting information like styles, fonts, line spacing etc. Because it stores only the bare text and because it is such a simple file format it is able to be opened by virtually all computer systems. This means they are:-

• Very portable in that they can taken from one computer system to another.
• Are smaller than files stored in Rich Text format and so:
  • Take up less space to store.
  • Take less time to transmit across a network.

 

2. Plain Text

Very similar to ASCII format. Stores no formatting information but does include RETURN Codes that splits the text into paragraphs. Only a little larger than ASCII files they also take up less space and take less time to transmit.

 

 

 

 

3. Rich Text Format (RTF)

Stores the text and all the extra formatting information like styles, font types and sizes, indentation codes etc. Because of this, files saved in RTF are larger than ASCII or Plain Text format files.

 

 

 

 

What you have to do!

1. Open a new blank Word Document. Enter a heading "Data & File Types". Save the file under this name.
• This file will form your notes for this small unit..
2. Complete the following task.
   • List the file formats in order of the smallest file size. The smallest at the top.

 

 

What you should be able to do!

1. Explain the advantages of saving work in Standard File formats.

2. Understand the differences between ASCII, Plaint Text and RTF formats.

3. Arrange the different file formats in order of size.