| | Data Transfer : Introduction | 
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When producing work computer users often need to put together information from a variety of different software packages. For example a user might want to include a table of data from a database in a word processed document. There are two ways in which data can be transferred between applications like this.
Some packages will let you copy data from one application and paste it into another using the standard copy and paste facilities provided by the operating system. Copied data is placed temporarily onto a clipboard. The data can then be pasted from the clipboard into another application. This is especially likely to work if the two applications have been produced by the same company.
Method 2 : Importing and Exporting Using Files
A file saved from one package can sometimes be loaded into another package. Again this is more likely to work if the two packages were produced by the same company. Unfortunately every computer package stores files in a different way so this method will not usually work. There are however a variety of standard file formats which most packages can use to save and load data. Work saved in one of these standard formats can usually be loaded into another package.
| Exporting | The process of saving a file from a package in a standard file format is known as exporting. |
| Importing | The process of loading a file stored in a standard file format into a package is known as importing. |
Different standard file formats exist for different types of information such as text, data, graphics, sound and video. The importance of storing information in a standard format has grown as more people use the Internet. People use standard formats such as MP3 and MPEG to exchange music and video on the World Wide Web.
GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004