File Formats You Can Use

• File formats transferred from other computers
• Audio and Video File Formats for Microsoft Office: PowerPoint, Word, etc.
• Real Player files Warning
• Graphics Files You Can Use
• Converting File Formats
• Saving an Entire PowerPoint presentation with viewer

There are a lot of audio (sound), graphic (pictures, art) and video (moving pictures) files accessible through the Internet. Not all of them will be suitable for use in PowerPoint, Word, web site and other uses, however.

Remember: students and faculty are responsible for observing copyright laws regarding all files created, copied or downloaded from copyrighted sources. Fair use normally includes citing the source of the material properly, and using it only for one student's classwork.

The information below is useful for Windows and Microsoft products. Other products, such as OpenOffice and WordPerfect, may be able to use some or all of these formats, or other formats.

When saving files on other computers to bring to the library, always save your files as the latest version of Microsoft Office products offered (with a .doc extension) or as a Rich Text File (.rtf extension), no matter what program you are using.

In the example above, you must choose the latest version of Microsoft Word from the dropdown menu of formats, to save a word processing document.
If this was a spreadsheet, you would choose the latest version of Excel, or choose the latest version of PowerPoint for a presentation.

Files saved in Microsoft Works should always be saved as Microsoft Office or RTF files, and NOT .wps extensions, as some Works files do not convert properly to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Files ending in these extensions can be used directly or by Windows Media Player:

Real Player files end in .rm and .ram and may not actually be music files. If the size of the file is only 1K, then this is actually a link to a site on the web where the file can be heard, not the music itself. Real Player software is required to use these files, and these files are NOT intended to work with other products. Files would have to be converted first in order to be used with Windows Media Player.

Graphics (photographs, art, logos, etc.) should be saved in a format that can be handled or converted for use in other programs. While there are many formats, the following are considered to be the most often encountered formats that students are likely to use. Depending on the specific format, other files might be convertable in some programs. If given a choice, save in one of the following formats, depending on final intended use:

Special Note for Web Site Creators: only the .gif, the .jpg and the .png formats are sure to work with all the popular web browsers. Convert any other graphic format to one of these three before using it on a web site.

Remember that the original program used to create a file often can save it in a number of different formats. When saving the file, the box under the name of the file is the format type. This usually has a drop-down menu with choices of formats on it. The default format for any program may not be usable by any other program, but you may have the option to save the file as something else that can travel between programs.

Zamzar will convert a number of formats to other formats, for free, and email you a link to the new format's file. Recommended by Tech Support Alert newsletter.

Irfanview is a freeware graphics viewer that can also convert graphics from one format to another.

From Office-Watch emails (basic subscription is free and very useful for Microsoft Office users) comes this help:

SAVING AN ENTIRE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION Some Office features have been there for so long that it's easy to forget they are there. Most of the coverage is of new features and long standing stuff gets overlooked. And so it was yesterday when I was asked about burning a Powerpoint presentation to a CD - the problem was how to make sure all the links video and audio files were included on the CD with the PPT file.

To me the answer was simple and has been in Powerpoint for a long time. Under the File menu is an option Package for CD ... which will do what that gentleman wanted and some more.

Really the menu item label is misleading because the option can do much more than save to a CD. The default settings will create a CD with the currently open presentation and all linked files plus a Powerpoint viewer so you can play the presentation on any computer with Windows ME or later.

The feature goes beyond that and is really an Export function for a Powerpoint presentation and all its linked files. If you click on 'Copy to Folder' you can select anywhere on your hard drive, network or external drive to save the presentation to.

Even though you're not saving to a CD it includes all the same files as you'd get on a 'Copy to CD' including, importantly the Autostart files. This means you can save a package to the root folder of a USB key - when you plug it into another computer it should start playing automatically.

One little nuisance is that 'Copy to Folder' won't let you save over an existing presentation package in the same location, which often happens as you revise a presentation and want to update the package version. Instead of a prompt to overwrite (as is usual in Office) you get a blunt notice to save in another location. The alternative is to delete the package manually then save the package to the now empty folder.

The Autoplay settings are controlled under the Options button. You can choose to install the Powerpoint viewer or not and what to do on Autostart.

There are also options to include linked files (defaults on and recommended to leave it that way) and embed fonts (useful and probably best to turn this on just in case it's needed).