Section One: Background
   Lesson 1-2: File Types/Formats

   In the previous lesson, you learned that web pages use start and end tags the similar to the hidden codes used by word processors. Word processors each use their own special set of codes. Word has its own system, as does WordPerfect, and Ichitaro. Documents created using one word processor cannot be opened in a different word processing program unless they are first converted using special conversion software. For example, Word uses its own codes, and cannot understand Ichitaro's codes. This brings us to our second important concept: file format (or file type).

   Files written using WordPerfect are saved (by default) in WordPerfect format. Files written using Ichitaro are saved in Ichitaro format, Word in Word format, etc. All word processing programs save files in their own native format - using their own special sets of codes.

   If Ichitaro files were put on the Internet, people who don't use Ichitaro would not be able to read them. If files written by any particular word processor were put on the Internet, only the users of that particular word processing program would be able to open and read them. Therefore, what is needed is a kind of file that any computer can read.

   One such type of file is called a text file. When you save a file in your own word processor, you can save it either as a word processor file with formatting, or as a text file with no formatting. Text files have no text formatting codes. Text files cannot contain bold, italic, underlined or other kinds of specially formatted text. They contain only text. The big advantage of text files is that they can be read by any word processing software on any computer. The disadvantage of text files is that they cannot have any formatting.

   When you save a word processor file, you usually have the option of changing the format in which it is saved. In the save file dialog box, there is usually a drop-down list of file types. If you choose "Text" or "MS-DOS Text" from the drop-down list, your file can be saved as a text file. Figure 2 shows a file type drop-down list in Ichitaro.

   Plain text files are very common on the Internet. A web page is one kind of text file, and can also be read by any computer. You may wonder how that can be true. Text files have no formatting, but web pages are very colorful, with lots of graphics and fancy text formatting. The answer is that web pages are actually text files which contain formatting codes, but the codes, known as HTML tags, are written in plain text. The codes are all put inside angle brackets <like these>. The computer's browser knows that any text inside angle brackets should be treated as a formatting tag, and not as text. Browsers (such as Netscape, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc.) read the text and tags in an HTML file, and turns it into a web page The set of codes/tags used by web pages is called HTML, which stands for HyperText Markup Language.

   Your web page files should all be saved as text files (with a special file name extension). If you use a word processor to create a web page, and save your file in word processor format by mistake, no one's browser software will be able to read the file. Although most word processing programs allow you to save your file in text format, it is easy to forget to change the file type when saving your files. That is another reason why a text editor, not a word processor, is recommended for beginners. Text editors can save files only as text files, so you can never make a mistake.

• Each word processing program uses its own system of codes - its own file format.
• Text files contain only characters (letters, numbers, and symbols), and can have no special text formatting. However, text files can be read by any computer.
• A web page is special kind of text file that can be read by any computer on the Internet.
  Web pages use a special format called HTML.
• HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language.
• Browsers are computer programs that can display HTML files as web pages.
• A web page is not always a home page.

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