ICT Skills 1

Do you know what file extensions are? (12/31)

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Because different files contain different types of data, they are stored differently. Information about the type of data present in a file is encoded in its extension. Usually, file extensions have three letters (sometimes also four or five) which are positioned after the "." in a file name. For example, in "index.htm," .htm is the file extension, and it identifies the file as an HTML document.

Applications create files with application-specific extensions (such as Trados TagEditor creating a translation bilingual file with the extension .ttx) or files with extensions that can be read/created by various applications (such as .tmx).

For detailed information on file extensions on the Internet, visit http://filext.com/

Why is this information important for translators and translation teachers?
Translators and translation teachers should be able to identify immediately by just having a look at the file extensions with what type of files they are dealing, what type of tools they can use to edit and translate the files and even what steps they need to follow in order to translate the file and deliver it in its original format to the client.

Among the most frequent file extensions translators have to deal with are: .doc (Word-processed files created by Word, WordPerfect, etc.), .txt (plain text files created with a text editor, like Notepad), .exe (executable files), and .tmx (translation memory exchange files created by all translation memory systems).

Other common file extensions include: graphical formats such as .gif(graphics interchange format), .jpeg (joint photographic expert group), .svg(scalable vector graphics); audio files like .wav and .mp3; .xls or spread sheet files (e.g. MS Excel); .mdb, which are Microsoft database files; and print files such as .pdf (portable document format) and .ps (postcript).

Do you know what file extensions are? (12/31)

Find out

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