File Formats or what in the heck is rtf?

The file format is the three letter extension at the end of the file name. It identifies the program used to create the file, and the program that should be used to open the file again.  For example, a web page is a file that has the extension .htm at the end of the filename.   This type of file can be displayed by web browsers.  It contains formatting that the browser interprets and displays correctly on the screen.

In the classroom, we use Microsoft Word 2003 for word processing.  You may have this word processing program on your home computer, or you may have another program, like Works, or an earlier version of Microsoft Word.  Each different word processing program has its own file format used to save documents.   For example, by default, Word adds the .doc extension after the name of a document typed in the Word program.  Works uses the .wps file extension to identify documents created in the Works program.  You may not be able to open a document typed in a different program because the file extension might not be recognized by your word processor.  Additionally, if you are using an earlier version of the word processing program, like Word 98, the earlier version may not recognize a file created and saved in a newer version of the Word program (like Word 2003).  Luckily, there are strategies to work around this problem.

To overcome different file formats and different word processing programs, always save your word processed files as .rtf (rich text format).  Almost all word processing programs will open the .rtf file format. This is not the default format in your word processing program, so you will need to select SAVE AS the first time you save a file.  Then, be sure to change the file format to .rtf.  Additionally, when you attempt to open a file saved as .rtf, you will not see the file displayed in the dialogue box right away.  You need to make sure that the program is showing ALL FILES and not just the default file format files.