Important Update
Have you ever wondered what document types are usually used on the Internet? What are the preferred document types used by companies, organizations, and online communities?
If you’d like to dig into this knowledge, take a look at great infographics we prepared for you!
We scrolled Google search and made this research ready for you. We analyzed major universities, worldwide companies, and social portals and got those numbers.
PDF outperforms all other document types, it is used 63% of times!
The next infographic shows file types used by major universities on their websites:
Harvard.edu is a private institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts having totally more than 20,000 students. People the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg attended Harvard.
Princeton.edu is a place where many famous people studied such as Haruki Murakami. Albert Einstein was teaching here.
Stanford.edu is one of the world’s best universities offering offline as well as online courses. It was established in 1885. Located in Stanford California this University is well sort after.
Duke.edu is situated in Durham, North Carolina. It grew significantly since it was founded in 1838. Currently, it is established as a research and academic powerhouse.
Columbia.edu is the oldest university in New York, it appeared in 1754. And it is #5 oldest institution for high education in the US.
Mit.edu stands for The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is located in Cambridge and has a more than a mile campus area.
Uchicago.edu is a private research institution for high education holding the highest rankings in various worldwide listings.
Yale.edu was founded in 1701 and since then it has been growing and sharing scientific innovation.
According to the infographics, most of the institutions use PDF as a file type for all the documentation.
On the image above, you can see what file types are mostly shared inside the Internet communities.
Take a closer look at the communities we’re listing:
Reddit.com is a perfect place to find answers to any questions, share or promote your new project or content.
Superuser.com is another great Q&A platform for everyone.
Stackoverflow.com is a favorite place of developers worldwide. You can address any technical issue here and you will get help in a few moments!
You’ve probably heard about all these powerful companies known worldwide:
Walmart.com – it is a US big chain of retail hypermarkets mostly selling affordable goods.
Shell.com – great British and Dutch oil and gas company operating since April 1907.
Global.toyota – Toyota is a Japanese multinational motor company known worldwide.
Bp.com – is a global gas and petrol company located in London, UK but also multinational.
Volkswagen.com – German automotive manufacturer present in many localities around the world.
All the data are provided by Google Search.
Now you have an overview of your understanding of the common types of files in use. However, you may have a few more questions about those top file formats. Here is what you need to know about those top file formats.
While the PDF is the most common type of file format, it’s not the only file format that is in common use. Other popular formats include DOCX, DOC, and ODT. These file formats are preferred when sharing documents online between teams that are collaborating on projects.
Unlike PDF formats, those document formats are primarily meant to make editing of shared documents easy. They also retain some basic formatting, even when opened by different software.
An old and simple document format that isn’t popular is the TXT format. This text format is simple, has basic font formatting, and is lightweight. It’s commonly used to store computing code or simple file instructions.
It’s the best format for storing large volumes of text information when fancy text formatting styles aren’t desired. Hackers are also less likely to use a TXT file format to hide malicious code.
The four main types of files are PDF, DOCX, DOC, and XLSX, in that order. These are the kinds of files that are shared between businesses online and offline. PDF is mostly preferred because it retains its formatting.
And a PDF can be opened by commonly used software, such as browsers, apart from dedicated PDF software. The DOCX, DOC, and XLSX are in common use, because of the popularity of MS Office among computer users around the world.
The best format you can use to send a document in PDF format. That will allow the recipient to view it in the original formatting. And if you intend to send a form document, then you can use an editable PDF.
A universal document file format is one that can be opened by most Open Source and proprietary software. A PDF, TXT, and ODT is a good example of universal document formats.
A file is a set of data or information, stored in a virtual container. Files are grouped into Data files and program files. You use data files such as a PDF, to format and store information.
And you use a Program file to store code that will run on a computer. Program files consist of two types, – the source program file and the executable file.
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The article was written by Daria Kizilova, freelance marketing expert and writer of https://tourexotico.com/en/
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ByteScout has a team of professional writers proficient in different technical topics. We select the best writers to cover interesting and trending topics for our readers. We love developers and we hope our articles help you learn about programming and programmers.
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