General Purpose Packages DATA TYPES

Data Types Computer store information in the form of data. Information has meaning. Eg 23 May 2005 Data has no meaning on its own. EG There are many different types of data stored on a computer system.

Data Types Number Eg 0, 1, 2, 999, 10000, are all numbers Text Eg ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ and abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz are all text

Data Types Graphics The diagrams and other pictures which can be stored Audio Music or any other sound produced by a computer. Photographic Data produced as a graphic by a digital still camera, webcam or scanner

Data Types Animation Data made up of moving graphics. Animation is the apparent creation of movement through the presentation of a sequence of slightly different still pictures. Video Data produced by a digital video camera. Video data is made up of a sequence of moving or live action images.

Data Types Computers store all data as a series of numbers (machine code) Any information that can be translated or coded as a series of numbers can be stored as data and processed by a computer. All the different types of data described are stored as a series of numbers inside the computer.

Standard File Formats Software companies know that users can increase their productivity and reduce their workload if it is possible to save files and data so that they may be transferred easily between different packages. Standard file formats have been developed

Standard File Formats The standard file formats for text documents are Text Text may be transferred between application packages provided it is stored in a standard file format which both packages can understand.

Standard File Formats American Standard Code For Information Interchange (ASCII) ASCII files consists of plain text Each character in ASCII has its own unique code, which is a number. An ASCII file type is readable by most applications

Standard File Formats RTF (Rich Text Format) RTF is a complex format used to store data from a word processing application. RTF holds information about typefaces, sizes, colour and styles used in the document. RTF can be used to transfer data between most word processing packages without losing the format.

Advantages of storing data on a computer The computer can find the data very quickly Manual files take up much more space than computers to store the same amount of information It is difficult to get a complete set of information when using separate manual filing systems

Advantages of storing data on a computer They can store large quantities of information on a single disc Computerised filing systems can be constantly updated so that the information is always accurate and up to date Databases held by different organisations can be linked which improves the flow of information.

Need for Backup It is important that all the information stored on a computer system is regularly copied to backup disks or tape. If this is not done, one mistake could mean that all of the information is lost.