Computer Times
For the Beginner
Incompatible Files Can Drive You Crazy
Have you ever tried to open a file and had what appears to be hieroglyphics appear on your screen? You may know there is a picture in that file, but it just won't appear on your screen; you know you just typed a letter at the office last night, but it doesn't work when you display it at home. What you are experiencing is file incompatibility.
There are thousands of different file types that exist in the computer world. Most programs are only compatible with a dozen or so file types. This is a function of the program itself. To further explain this, let's look at a common word processor.
One very popular word processor is Microsoft Word 97. It was designed to read (open) and write (save) a specific file format designed for Word 97. If you use Windows Explorer to view the list of files in the folder titled My Documents, you will find that Word 97 documents have the description Microsoft Word Document under the file type column. If you double click on one of these files, it will automatically be opened using Microsoft Word 97 if you have Microsoft Word 97 loaded on your computer. Sounds simple enough, but it can get a little complicated.
If you have Microsoft Word 97 at work but an earlier version of Microsoft Word on your computer at home, like Microsoft Word 95, you will not be able to read a Microsoft Word 97 file on your home computer. This is because the file format designed for Word 97 was designed well after Word 95, so Word 95 could not have been set up to read the new format. That is the bad news. The good news is Word 97 allows you to save a document under a different format, like Word 95, so it can be read by Word 95. To do this in Word 97, you go to File, Save As, and change the Save As Type box at the bottom of the Save As popup window to Word 6.0/95. Simply click on the gray arrow button at the right side of the Save As Type box and scroll down until you find Word 6.0/95.
Word 97 can also read files from other word processors if you select the proper file type in the Open popup window. Simply click on the gray arrow button at the right side of the Files of Type box, and scroll down until you find the desired file type.
If you do not find a list of different file types in your Save As or Open popup windows in Word 97, that means you did not install the file conversion capabilities when you originally installed Microsoft Word 97. Simply get out your install disk or CD-ROM and go through the installation process to install these conversion capabilities.
In the example above, we only talked about one program, Word 97, and its incompatibility with one other program, Word 95. This type of incompatibility exists for every one of the million or so programs available for your personal computer.
One common problem many users have is trying to view a photo sent to them by a friend. Unless you have a program that is compatible with the specific type of file that your friend used to save the photo, you will not be able to view the photo.
Some files like Configuration Settings files and Application Extension files are not meant to be viewed by the user. They are simply designed to be used as reference files by a particular program behind the scenes. If you double click on these file while using Windows Explorer, an Open With popup box appears that asks you to choose a program to read the file. Normally when this happens it means the file you double clicked is not meant to be read by the user, or you don't have any programs on your system that can easily read the file.
The computer actually determines the type of file by looking at its last name, also called the file extension, which is up to three characters long. Normally these file extensions do not appear with the file name when using Windows Explorer. If you wish to see the file extensions, follow the instructions below.
To show file name extensions in Windows 98
In My Computer or Windows Explorer, click the folder you want to view.
On the View menu, click Folder Options.
Click the View tab, and then click to clear the Hide file extensions for known file types check box.
To see filename extensions in Windows 95
In My Computer or Windows Explorer, open the folder you want to view.
On the View menu, click Options.
Click the View tab, and then click to clear the Hide MS-DOS File Extensions check box.
Files received last names much like people. People first used last names to describe a specific person, either by their profession, by their relationship to another person, or by some other distinguishing characteristic. Thus, John the blacksmith became John Smith, and Jim, the son of Jack, became Jim Jackson, and so on.
In much the same way, programmers started naming files. Text files that provided readable information were given the last name TXT (for text); files that were written in assembly language were given the last name ASM (for assembly), etc. Since computer files were limited to three character last names, programmers had to be pretty creative at times to develop a descriptive last name for their files.
Over the years, several last names became industry standards. Others became standard within a particular software company. Some last names have become so standard that Windows and most application programs rely on the file's last name to know how to process certain files. For example, any files with the last name EXE or COM are considered by Windows to be executable programs. You could give an EXE file the last name COM and Windows would still treat it as an executable program. If you gave it another last name, like TXT, Windows would think it is a text file and try to display its contents. You would simply see hieroglyphics on your screen that are not designed to be read by the user.
When you create a file in most word processors, you can give it any last name you choose. If you don't provide a last name, many programs automatically add a last name by default. As an example, earlier versions of Microsoft Works automatically add the last name WPS as the default last name for all word processing files, and Microsoft Word automatically adds the last name DOC.
Whichever last name you give your files, it helps to be consistent. You may give the last name LTR to all your letter files, or JNK to all your junk files used as temporary files when you are learning about your system. Then, when you want to delete all your junk files you could simply use the Find option, usually found under the Edit menu, search for JNK files, and then delete all your junk files.
As the master of your computer, you can rename any file you choose. Changing the name of a file YOU created is usually harmless and sometimes very useful. Changing the name of a file that came with an application program will usually cause confusion and create a computer error.
Many user manuals that come with new software applications will list the file extensions that are used in the programs. This may help you understand which files are important when cleaning up your disk.
We've listed a few standard file extensions below as examples.
Since there are virtually thousands of different file extensions, no one article could even begin to provide a complete list. Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why you sometimes have incompatible files.
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Happy Computing! J