Chapter 11: File management GRADE 6 Key Points

Key objectives
In this chapter you will learn about:
• Generic file types
• The use of appropriate file names
• Reduction of file sizes for storage or transmission
• Resizing an image
• Resampling
• File compression
.
Key terms and Definitions
A. Generic file type
File types that can be opened in appropriate software on most platforms.
B. Back-up
Copy of a file made in case the original data is corrupted or lost.
C. Archive
The storage of information for a long period of time. Data is likely to be compressed.
D. File compression
A technique for reducing the storage space occupied by a large file.

• Generic file types

Common generic text file formats:

Extension Name Notes

.csv Comma Separated Values It takes data in the form of
tables (that could be used
with a spreadsheet or
database) and saves it as
text, with no formatting,
separating data items with
commas.
.txt TeXT A text file that is not
formatted and can be
opened in any word
processor.
.rtf Rich Text Format This is a text file type that
saves a limited amount of
formatting with the text.

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Common generic image file formats:

Extension Name Notes

.gif Graphics Interchange Format Stores still or moving images
and is widely used in web
pages

.jpg or.jpeg Joint Photographic Expert Stores still images and is

Group widely used in web pages

.pdf Portable Document Format A document which has been

converted into an image
format. It allows documents
to be seen as an image so
they can be read on most
computers. The pages look
like a printed document but
can contain hyperlinks,
buttons, video, audio, and so
on. Can be protected from
editing.

.png Portable Network Graphics Was created to replace

Graphics Interchange Format
and is now the most used
lossless image compression
format used on the internet.

.mp4 Moving Pictures experts A multimedia container used

group layer 4 for storing video files, still
images, audio files, subtitles,
and so on. It is often used to
transfer video files on the
internet.

Common generic audio file format:

.mp3 Moving Pictures experts A compressed file format
group layer 3 with high quality yet
relatively small file sizes,
which makes it suitable for
use on the internet.

Common generic website authoring file formats:

Extension Name Notes
.css Cascading Style Sheet This is a stylesheet which is
attached to one or more web
pages to Sheet
define the formatting of the
page.

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 .htm or .html HyperText Markup This is a text-based
Language language used to create
markup that a web
Markup
browser will use to display
information in a web page

Common generic compressed file formats:

Extension Name Notes
.rar Roshal Archive This is a container which can
hold several files, each with
different file types, in a
compressed format. It is
used to reduce the number
of bytes needed to
save a file, either to save
storage space or to reduce
transmission time. This
was designed for the
Microsoft Windows operating
system.

.zip Zip file This is a container which

can hold several files, each
with different file types,
in a compressed format. It
is used to reduce the
number of bytes needed
to save a file, either to
save storage space or to
reduce transmission time.

• Saving your work

Work should always be saved using a planned folder structure using folders and sub-folders.
Filenames should show a progression of work using version numbers.

Use an 'old versions' folder to reduce the number of files in a working folder.

Make back-ups of your work and archive files/folders to save storage space for work that is
not used regularly but still needs to be kept. You can save your work in different file formats
using File and Save As in many packages and using File and Export in others, particularly to
export a file into portable document format (.pdf) or into a compressed file format.

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 • Reduce file sizes for storage and transmission

File sizes need to be as small as possible as all computer systems have a limited storage
capacity, and it is important to minimise any delays when data is transmitted (sent) between
one device and another.
Often the largest files stored, or transmitted, are image files, especially video files which are a
large number of still images.
Still images can be reduced in size by:
• resizing, which is reducing the width and height of an image
• resampling, which is reducing the quality of an image

Resizing an image
There are two recommended methods of resizing an image.

The first is to resize the image in a graphics package, for example, reducing an image 800
pixels by 600 pixels to 400 by 300 pixels.

The second method of resizing is to use the cropping tool in a graphics package.

Resampling an image
Downsampling reduces the image quality and file size by reducing the number of pixels used
for an image.
Upsampling increases the resolution of an image by adding extra pixels.

Using file compression

Completed documents containing lots of formatting or lots of images tend to have a large file
size. One way of compressing a file is to convert it into portable document format (.pdf).
When you have several files, it is more efficient to compress the files together in a single ZIP
or RAR file.

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