Attachments

We sometimes attach documents, or other files, to pages on Birmingham.gov.uk, for you to download.

We do this for a number of reasons: so that you can have printed copies; to preserve layout of forms and official documents, so that you can manipulate them on your computer, and so on.

We use a number of different file formats. Depending on the computer and software you are using, these may open in your browser, simply by you following the relevant link. Otherwise you may need to have special software to access them.

File Type	File extension (the last part of the file name)	Description	Software
Text	.txt	Plain text.	Any text editor (such as Notepad, which is part of Microsoft Windows)
Rich Text Format	.rtf	A simple word processor format for text documents, with some presentational control.	Can be opened by many word processors (including all versions of Microsoft Word, and Open Office).
Microsoft Word	.doc	Microsoft's own word processor format.	Can be viewed and edited in Open Office if you don't have Word.
Microsoft Powerpoint	.ppt	Microsoft's own format for audio- visual presentations.	Can be viewed and edited in Open Office if you don't have Powerpoint
Comma Separated Variable	.csv	A plain text file, with columns of tabular data.	Can be opened in a text editor, or most spreadsheet applications.
Microsoft Excel	.xls	Microsoft's own spreadsheet processor format	Can be viewed and edited in Open Office if you don't have Excel
Microsoft Access	.mdb	Microsoft's own database format.	MiCan be viewed and edited in Open Office if you don't have Access
Portable Document Format	.pdf	A format for documents, primarily intended for printing.	Adobe's PDF reader is free.
Zipped	.zip	Zipping is a method of compressing any kind of file.	Most current versions of Windows, OS X, and Linux have software built in; additionally many free and commercial applications can Zip and Unzip files.
MP3 audio	.mp3	Most popular digital audio format	Any media player