What Does This Term Mean? What's That One?

You just went out and purchased a computer. It's the first one you ever owned, let alone used. You've taken a few lessons from friends or at a public library or whatever, and now your ready to rumble! Wait a minute, what does that mean? What's a logo.jpg in my printer queue. What's a printer queue? What's a jpg? Sounds rather simplistic, doesn't it? Even the simplest references can seem insurmountable when you don't know what's important and what's irrelevant. The important thing to know is how to distinguish the difference and avoid major setbacks when you should be 'doing your thing' on the web. In the past I have labored to find the meaning of several file extensions that I never heard of. File extensions are the trailing 3 letters after the "." in the name of a file such as ABC.txt. In this case this is a text file called ABC. That was an easy one. How about Jackson.mp4? Well, mp3 is a type of music file you've probably heard people talk about but mp4? Well, mp4 is a format used by Apple for it's popular iPod line of music/video players. Probably THE most common file is autoexec.bat. This goes way back to DOS, you know, pre-Windows 3.1, two color screens that didn't do much based on what they can do today. They were great then, however! I digress, let me give you some examples of what types of file extensions you can get explained fast at this web site.

.EXE
An executable file or a file using the file extension .exe is a program created by computer programmers to install applications, games and other utilities in the personal computer. It is the most common computer file and is also always a medium to infect computers with viruses. Thus, it is of the utmost importance to know how they work to avoid future problems.

.DOT
The file extension DOT is a Word Document Template categorized as a Text File. It generates pre-arranged documents for making compound documents with similar formatting. This includes envelopes or business memos, faxes and invoices that normally appear in Microsoft Word. Several versions of MS Word may come with templates in packages or a massive compilation of templates found on Microsoft sites.

.ITL
The file extension ITL is an iTunes Library file categorizing the iTunes’ comments, ratings of songs, playlists used by the user, and songs included in the library. The ITL file extension functions for the restacking of the iTunes database and organizing the music library for interface control.

Files with the extension ITL on MAC do not recognize the .itl output. However, both Mac and Windows Operating System’ versions of iTunes use a file called “iTunes Music Library.xml”.

.SWF
The file extension SWF is a Shockwave Flash file format. It is a partly open format used for multimedia, particularly vector graphics acquired by FutureWave Software (now Adobe Systems). Intended to be of small size for publication on the Internet, files with the extension SWF contain applets or animations of varying degrees of function and interactivity. The file extension SWF generates animated menus and display graphics for television commercials and DVD movies.

This is just a sampling of the resources at your fingertips at this site. Take a few minutes to look around and bookmark the site for future reference!