Plain text (TXT) files: The simplest type of document you’ll see Here are the 4 different file types you’ll come across most often: 1. What are the common file extensions for text documents? mp3’ at the end tells the computer that the file is an audio file, which means it’s opened by audio software – like Windows Media Player. So, an audio recording of your interview with a client might be named: interview.mp3. But how does your computer know which software to use for which file? It looks at the file extension – i.e., the series of letters that follow the file name (and which are separated from the name by a dot). So, Microsoft Word for text documents, Microsoft Excel for spreadsheets, VLC player for videos, etc. And each file type needs different software, to open. With electronic discovery (eDiscovery), you’re dealing with different types of electronic data – text documents, emails, spreadsheets, audio files, video files, etc. And their differences pop up in these 3 phases of eDiscovery – (A) When you’re opening files, (B) When you’re searching them, and C) When you’re producing them.
Word documents and PDFs are the most useful: Word documents for editing, and PDFs for sharing.
Takeaway: Each of the 4 common types of text documents has its pros and cons.
