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Safety and Buildings Explanation of File Formats HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, is the native file format of the World Wide Web. Web browsers read HTML pages directly, without any additional software. HTML pages may have different appearances on different computer systems. You can cut-and-paste HTML documents you see on your system. PDF, Portable Document Format is a cross-platform format that is transportable and viewable on any type of computer system. PDF files need a viewer such as Acrobat Exchange or Acrobat Reader. Reader is downloadable free from Adobe, http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. S&B uses PDF for larger files or files with extensive formatting. The current S&B versions of PDF files are not form-fill, i.e. not formats a viewer can fill out in place and send back to S&B electronically. The current versions may be downloaded or printed at the viewer's discretion. Currently these forms may be mailed or faxed back to S&B. With appropriate Acrobat software, a viewer may cut-and-paste from PDF. WORD Users may download and save their own copies of the Word files. This allows creating templates in order to fill out the forms. Users can either print them for submission to S&B or send electronic copies to S&B via email. A Viewer for Word on PCs using Windows 95/98 or Windows NT is available as a free download from Microsoft. With the Microsoft® Word Viewer users without Word can open and view Word documents. Users are allowed to zoom, outline, or view page layout, headers/footers, footnotes, and annotations. For more information, go to Microsoft's free downloads. Note for people who download forms in the Word format and want to fill them in on their computer: Some of the forms have check boxes that are actually drawn boxes and cannot be checked or filled with a typed "X." (The documents were created for printing on paper.) Until S&B can get the boxes changed on the forms, you can create an "X" next to the boxes or can create transparent form field boxes and click and drag to place them over the check boxes. If you have questions, contact Todd Taylor, ttaylor@commerce.state.wi.us, 608-267-3606. EXCEL If you do not have
Excel97 software, there is a free download available for an
Excel
Spreadsheet File Viewer. Microsoft® Excel Viewer lets users
view and print Microsoft Excel for Windows® (version 2.0 and
greater). For more information on the download, go to Microsoft's
free downloads. Executable files
(.exe suffix)
on the S&B pages are large files that are created in a common
format and then zipped to make them much smaller and easier to
download. The files are self-extracting zipped files that any viewer
may save to their system and then open, even without zipware. The files
carry their own capability to unzip. The files will become larger when
they are opened. JPEG and GIF are file formats which are "pictures" of text or graphics. They may be viewed, but not form-filled or manipulated by cut-and-paste. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. Most of S&B's WebSite main pages are done in XML. XML was designed to describe data and focus on what data is, while HTML was designed to display data and focus on how data looks.A ZIP file is a “compressed” format file. One or more original files are compressed in size and then stored in a ZIP file, with a “zip” extension. Many computer systems have programs that will zip files. Because of the compression, downloads of ZIP files stored online are faster than downloading the original files. A user may download and save ZIP files to their systems. The user then can “extract” the original files from the ZIP file using a ZIP file program. The process of extracting the original files from a ZIP file is known as “unzipping” the file. Many computer operating systems come with programs that will unzip files. There is also free and fee software available online to deal with ZIP files. You can find out more doing an Internet search on ZIP files. Text files do not carry with them a lot of formatting, and can be opened and searched in programs such as Notepad. Many computers systems have programs that will open txt- extension files. Text files can be also be opened by spreadsheets or word processing files, or the text in the files can be cut-and-pasted into other programs. There is also free and fee software available online to deal with text files. You can find out more doing an Internet search on text files. Links -- County Web sites || City/Town/Village Web sites || State Portal || Licensing and Permitting || Build Your Business Email this page's manager, Todd Taylor, ttaylor@commerce.state.wi.us or 608-267-3606 The Department of Commerce Safety and Buildings Division is an equal opportunity service provider and employer. If you need assistance to access services or need material in an alternate format, please contact us, 608-266-3151, TTY 608-264-8777, or ttaylor@commerce.state.wi.us |
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