All the file extensions on one website. Help guide to know what is a file extension about and how can you open files from a specific format. A helpful information site that is dedicated to describing computer file formats and how they relate to formats mainly on Microsoft Windows platform and other operating systems like Apple Mac OS X or Linux/Unix.
Definition
A computer filename extension is usually a three or more letters combination added to the end of file name and separated by a dot character. It indicates the encoding convention (file format, file type) of its contents. Operating system like Microsoft Windows registers and associates it to a program(s). You can then by using some file manager (Windows Explorer, Total Commander, Apple Finder etc.) operate with file simple double-clicking at the file and you can view, open and edit, play, convert or extract desired file type specified . The operating system does default action based on registered file extensions, installed applications or custom user settings - by default, it runs default application. For example: by clicking on music file (usually mp3 ) it opens default player and play the music file.
Display at your Windows operating system
By default, Windows is configured to hide file formats, the (usually three-leter) portion of the filename following the period. Aside from creating a knowledge gap between experienced and inexperienced users, this "feature" also can make it difficult to differentiate files with the same filename prefix.
To display at your Windows follow these steps:
- Open My Computer, and select Folder Options from the Tools menu (or choose Options from the View menu in Windows 95). If you don't see horizontal top menu, pressing Alt key may help to show it.
- Click on the View tab and turn off Hide file extensions for known file types, and press OK.
Complete list
There are many types of files that have different formats. The format is the suffix located at the end of the file name, it is usually separated from the name by the period (.)
Then we will group s by file types, classifying them as follows:
Text
Identify flat text files such as .txt and .log and rich text files such as:
.doc Microsoft Word Document
.docx Microsoft Word Open XML Document
Log Log
.msg Outlook Mail Message
.odt OpenDocument Text Document
.pages Pages Document
.rtf Rich Text Format File
.tex LaTeX Source Document
.txt Plain Text File
.wpd WordPerfect Document
.wps Microsoft Works Word Processor Document
Graphics
They identify the images or graphic figures, they are examples of graphics formats:
.bmp Bitmap Image
.gif Graphical Interchange Format
.jpg JPEG
.png Portable Network Graphic
.psd Adobe Photoshop Document
.tga Targa Graphic
.thm Thumbnail Image
Audio
They identify the files that contain sound, they are examples:
.aif Audio Interchange Format
.iff Interchange
.m3u Media Playlist
.m4a MPEG-4 Audio
.mid MIDI
.mpa MPEG-2 Audio
.ra Real Audio
.wav WAVE Audio
.wma Windows Media Audio
Video
They identify the videos, examples:
.avi Audio Video Interleave
.flv Flash Video
.m4v iTunes Video
.mov Apple QuickTime Movie
.mp4 MPEG-4 Video
.mpg MPEG Video
.rm Real Media
.swf Shockwave Flash Movie
.vob DVD Video Object
.wmv Windows Media Video
Compressed
They identify the files that are packaged with in a single unit, examples:
.7z 7-Zip Compressed
.cbr Comic Book RAR Archive
.gz Gnu Zipped Archive
.pkg Mac OS X Installer Package
.rar WinRAR Compressed Archive
.tar.gz Compressed Tarball
.zip Zipped
.zipx Extended Zip