Digital documents are aplenty in types and uses, and each has their own peculiarities that make them unique. Different people would define the word “documents” in different ways, but a textbook layman’s definition for the word, in relation to computers and computing is “a digital file with texts on it”. In this general blanket, there are numerous file types that fall under this category. Examples of digital documents include text documents, internet documents, word documents, image documents, etc. These documents can be differentiated by their uses, where they occur, and most importantly, their file extensions. Apart from file make-up, the file extension of a file is what makes it discernible to the applications that run it. Files and their files extensions include
- Word documents — .docx, .doc
- Spreadsheets — .xlsx
- Text documents — .txt
- Images — .jpg, .jpeg, .PNG
- EBooks — .pdf
- Internet pages — .html
Worthy of note amongst all these, are eBooks. These are pdf files that are usually opened with PDF readers like Adobe Acrobat, FoxitEreader, and many other PDF readers. PDFs (short for portable document format) are basically files that are used for representing electronic documents and allowing them to be transmitted, transferred, and reproduced accurately with the same printed layout. This is important for many reasons. These allow for encryption by an administrator, that stops the file from being edited by unauthorized persons, it allows for accurate representation of data, and ensures that the file does not undergo marked changed, no matter how long and how many time it is transferred from device to device.
Features of PDFs
PDFs are very versatile, and can undergo many changes to their makeup for many reasons. They are able to be encrypted, edited, modified, split, converted, reordered, and merged. Because of this reason, pdfs are suitable for use in many situations, including the preservation of very important documents, and ensuring credibility of documents. A few features of PDFs are explained below;
- Encryption
The credibility of pdf files are heavily reliant on this feature. Pdf files are able to be encrypted; it is possible for an administrator to put a password on the file so that unauthorized personnel are not able to modify the file in any capacity. The password is also needed for text extraction or anything similar
- Merging
It is possible for one to use an application or a tool to merge pdf. Two pdf files can be joined together to make just one pdf. This can be done via online tools or offline applications, which have to be bought and paid for
- Edit pdf
Pdfs can be edited; the text can be changed and notes can be added on certain pages, so that subsequent readers can read the notes as well. Editing pdfs is easy, but unlike word files, one has to have authorization to edit the file. In most cases, the pdf files have to be converted to easily editable files like word documents before they are able to be edited
- Pdf conversion
Pdfs are able to be converted into different files. They can be converted using applications or online tools. Files which pdfs can be converted into include word documents, images, text documents, etc.
