There are many different types of files (images, video, sound, text) and their information must be written in particular formats. It is a good idea to get into the habit of naming files with their proper, 3 or 4 character extension after the filename separating the two with a ‘.’ (dot). The extension must match the file format to make this meaningful. This type of file naming makes your files more portable to other machines as well as multiple applications.

When you name your files KEEP THE NAMES SHORT AND DON’T USE SPACES. Don’t give files names like file1, file2, file3. Give them names that are meaningful to you like babypic.tif or rosebud.tif. If you want to use a space, use the ‘_’ (Underscore: Shift + Minus Key), like ‘star_wars.mov’.

Image Files

GIF – .gif – Image format for the web, particularly graphic images.

JPEG – .jpg – Image format for the web, particularly photographic images.

Photshop – .psd – For images with Layers. Can only be read by Photoshop.

TIFF – .tif – For saving and backing up full resolution files, esp. across hardware platforms.

Sound, Video, Multimedia

Movie – .mov – Standard Quicktime video and sound.

MP3 – .mp3 – Sound file.

Shockwave Flash – .swf – Interactive images, video and sound.

Page Layout, Word Processing, Text, Other

Adobe Illustrator – .ai

Microsoft Word – .doc

Hyper Text Markup Language – .html

Portable Document Format – .pdf

Encapsulated Post-Script – .eps