Computer Skills - Files and Folders (Page 3 of 4)
Naming Files and Folders
File Names
In older operating systems there there used to be many restrictions when naming files. More recent Windows operating systems allow flexibility in choosing a name for a file.
A file name can contain up to 255 characters, including spaces. It's a good idea to avoid punctuation symbols. The following symbols cannot be used in file names:
colon ":", vertical bar "|", quotation mark """, slash "/", backslash "\", question mark "?", and asterisk "*".
Documents or data files are normally created within a specific application. For example,
if you start WordPad, type some text, and save the document, you will assign it a file name as you save the file.
In the figure above, a file named Homework.rtf is saved in the folder called CIS101.
File Name Extensions
Most applications automatically configure a file name extension. A file name extension usually consists of three or four characters. In the example above, WordPad automatically configured the rtf file name extension. It's usually a good idea to use the default file name extension configured by an application. Changing the file name extension can have unpredictable results -- sometimes the file becomes unreadable.
The table below lists commonly used file types and file extensions.
| File Type | File Extension |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Word 2003 document | .doc |
| Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 presentation | .ppt |
| Microsoft Excel 2003 spreadsheet | .xls |
| Microsoft Word 2007 document | .docx |
| Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 presentation | .pptx |
| Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheet | .xlsx |
| Microsoft Notepad text file | .txt |
| Microsoft WordPad document | .rtf |
| Adobe PDF document | |
| Web pages | .htm or .html |
| Images, photos, graphics | .gif, .jpg, .png |
| Audio files | .mp3, .wav , .au, .midi |
