Common File Extensions Flashcards

Common File Extensions flashcards — the free 30

Every question and answer on the free cards, written out. Check them against your own textbook before you spend anything.

.pdf

Portable Document Format — fixed-layout document; opens in any PDF reader or a browser

.docx

Word document in Office Open XML — really a ZIP of XML parts; opens in Word or a compatible processor

.doc

The older Microsoft Word binary document format, superseded by .docx; Word still opens it

.rtf

Rich Text Format — formatted text that almost every word processor can read and write

.odt

OpenDocument text document (the ODF/ISO 26300 word-processor format); LibreOffice is its native app

.epub

EPUB e-book — a ZIP of HTML and CSS; opens in e-readers and e-book apps, not in a word processor

.xlsx

Excel workbook in Office Open XML; opens in Excel or a compatible spreadsheet program

.xls

The older Excel binary workbook format, superseded by .xlsx; Excel still opens it

.pptx

PowerPoint presentation in Office Open XML; opens in PowerPoint or a compatible slide app

.csv

Comma-separated values — a plain-text table; opens in a spreadsheet or any text editor

.txt

Plain text with no formatting; any text editor opens it (media type text/plain)

.json

JavaScript Object Notation — plain-text structured data; opens in any text editor

.xml

Extensible Markup Language — plain-text tagged data; read by editors and XML tools

.html / .htm

A web page in HyperText Markup Language; both extensions mean the same format

.css

Cascading Style Sheets — plain text that styles an HTML page

.js

JavaScript source code, plain text; runs in browsers and in server-side runtimes

.jpg / .jpeg

The same JPEG photo format under two spellings — lossy compression, no transparency

.png

Portable Network Graphics — lossless raster image with transparency; good for logos and screenshots

.gif

Graphics Interchange Format — raster image limited to 256 colours, and can be animated

.tif / .tiff

Tagged Image File Format — one format, two extensions; the usual choice for scanning and archiving

.svg

Scalable Vector Graphics — an XML vector image, so it scales to any size without going blocky

.webp

WebP raster image, lossy or lossless, designed for the web; browsers and modern image tools open it

.heic

A High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) holding HEVC-coded pictures; a common smartphone camera format

.psd

Adobe Photoshop document — keeps layers editable; a working file, not a delivery format

.mp3

MPEG audio — lossy compressed sound; plays in any media player (media type audio/mpeg)

.wav

WAVE audio, usually uncompressed PCM — big files, used for recording and mastering

.flac

Free Lossless Audio Codec — audio compressed with no loss of data at all, unlike MP3

.ogg

An Ogg container. The specs reserve .ogg for Vorbis; Opus should be .opus and other Ogg audio .oga

.mp4

MPEG-4 container, usually video with audio; audio-only MPEG-4 is registered separately as audio/mp4

.mov

QuickTime movie container for movie files; the .qt extension names the same format

Common File Extensions flashcards — questions people ask

How many cards are in the Common File Extensions flashcard deck?

The Common File Extensions deck on PuzzlePage has 38 cards. The first 30 are free to play and free to download with no account; the remaining 8 unlock for $2.99 as a one-time payment, or with the $11.99-a-month Study Pack, which covers every deck on the site. 38 cards — the extensions a digital-literacy or computer-applications course actually handles. There are thousands more in the wild; listing obscure ones would be padding.

What is on the common file extensions flashcards?

Common file extensions with what the file really is and what opens it — verified against the Library of Congress format registry and the IANA media types registry. Cards look like this: .pdf → Portable Document Format — fixed-layout document; opens in any PDF reader or a browser; .docx → Word document in Office Open XML — really a ZIP of XML parts; opens in Word or a compatible processor. The deck is written for grades 6–12 and filed under career, tech & modern.

Can I study common file extensions flashcards online for free?

Yes. The first 30 cards of the Common File Extensions deck play free in any web browser at puzzlepage.app, with no account, no app and no card details. It works on a phone, tablet, Chromebook, laptop or classroom projector. Practice mode flips through the cards with nothing scored; quiz mode makes you answer each card before it flips, times the run and scores it.

Are the common file extensions flashcards accurate?

Every card in the Common File Extensions deck cites two independent published sources — two different organisations, not a standards body and a site reprinting it — and a script checks that, rather than taking the writer's word for it. A second specialist then re-verified the deck against sources of their own, without reading the citations first. That is the difference from a user-generated flashcard site, where the cards are whatever a stranger typed and nobody is accountable for them.

Can I print the common file extensions flashcards?

Yes. The Common File Extensions cards are available as a printable double-sided PDF to cut up, as well as playable in the browser. The first 30 cards are free to download; the full 38-card printable is included in the $11.99-a-month Study Pack.

How should I use the Common File Extensions deck to revise?

Start in practice mode and go through the Common File Extensions deck once without scoring, to find out which cards you already know — the deck is dealt in a different order every time you open it, so you are recalling the card rather than its position. Then switch to quiz mode, which times and scores the run and lets you re-run only the cards you missed. Use the "flip deck" control to swap which side is the question: recognising an answer is much easier than producing one, so a deck you find easy one way round is usually the harder and more useful drill the other way. Two or three short sessions across a week beat one long one, which is the whole reason flashcards work.

What grade level are the common file extensions flashcards for?

The Common File Extensions deck is written for grades 6–12. Because the cards are plain term-and-answer pairs, they are also used outside that band — by adults revising career, tech & modern, and by teachers running them as a whole-class starter on a projector.