Hands On Academics - Multimedia Specialist

Career:
Multimedia Specialist

Table of Contents

Science

Zip your Gifs

Multimedia specialists use different types of computer software programs to create presentations, websites, video games, movies, and other projects. Parts of each project such as text, pictures, sounds, videos, and animations are stored in computer files. Once information is stored in computer files, it can then be transferred from a file to a CD, a DVD, a website, or another type of media.

The computer files that store multimedia information are identified by a file name such as: hanson project copy, followed by letters such as .doc (hansonprojectcopy.doc) The letters following the file name indicate the type of software program used to create the file. These letters are known as file extensions. As a multimedia specialist, you know which type of software program to use by recognizing the file extension.

When you see the file extension .doc, you know to use a word processing program to open and work with the file.

Following are some file extensions that multimedia specialists need to recognize.

File Extension	Type of media
.doc	Microsoft Word DOCument – stores text created in a word processing program
.avi	Audio/Video Interleaved – stores non-streaming video clips (nonstreaming means the entire file must be downloaded to be watched)
.gif	Graphics Interchange Format – stores graphic images, especially animations
.html	HyperText Markup Language file – stores text, colors, graphics, and website designs to be used on the Internet
.jpg / .jpeg	Joint Photographic Experts Group file – stores graphic images, mainly used for photographs
.midi / .mid	Musical Instrument Digital Interface – stores small files of electronic music and songs created on a keyboard or synthesizer
.mp3	MPEG Layer 3 sound file – stores large files of music and songs that are high quality, and easy and fast to download
.mpeg/.mpg	Motion Picture Experts Group file – stores large streaming movies or videos. Streaming means that the movie can be viewed on the Internet without downloading the whole file.
.pdf	Portable Document Format – stores documents with text and graphics, allows the documents to be transferred to different kinds of computers and still look exactly the same.
.wav	Wave sound file – stores very short sound samples, for example, the sound of a horn or a few notes of music
.zip	Zipped file – groups of other types of files that are kept together and compressed to save space; allows large files to be sent easily through e-mail
.ppt	Power Point™ – stores slides for presentations

Activity: Get the Extension

Here are examples of multimedia projects. Fill in the blanks with the file extensions showing the types of computer files used to store the information in the projects.

1.	Sonya is working on the Worthy Blue Jeans website. She is creating and storing the colors, text, and design for the website in files. She has designed an animated dancing character wearing Worthy Blue Jeans for the website's home page using a file. Sonya is also including files of photographs of models wearing different styles of Worthy Blue Jeans.
2.	Peter is working on a business presentation. His client has sent him necessary company information that was keyed into the company's word processing program. This text is stored in files. Peter will turn the company's text information into slides which will be created and stored in files.
3.	The owners of the Mitey Tasty Burgers website wants Jamaal to add a streaming video to their site. He plans to use a video showing customers enjoying their Mitey Tasty Burgers. He'll add the video to the website using a file. Mitey Tasty also wants Jamaal to add an audio file of a famous rock star singing her latest hit. Jamaal is experimenting to determine whether it would be best to use a file or an file to create and store the music.
4.	Pellegrino Publishers wants a CD they can send to customers showing samples of their products. Each sample contains a few pages from a different book with text and graphics. The customers who receive the CDs use many different kinds of computers. So, Evelyn, who is working on the project, is creating a file to store each sample. This way the samples will look the same no matter what computer is used to view them.
	In addition, Pellegrino would like a short sound clip attached to each sample. One sample book is a horror story, so Pellegrino wants customers to hear the sound of a creaking door when they open the sample file. Evelyn plans to use files to create and store the individual sounds. When the project is complete, Evelyn must send all of the files to the publisher by e-mail. Because the files are large, Evelyn must compress them and send them as files.

Related Websites

multimedia.cx/formats.html

Multimedia File Formats and Extensions Guide

Fileinfo.com

www.fileinfo.com/common.php

Common multimedia file types

Ezine Articles

ezinearticles.com/?Multimedia-File-Extensions&id=1267995

Multimedia file extension

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