What is a container file?
Container files are very flexible and an integral part of everyday work on the computer. Still, they can get confusing. We explain what a container file is and how to use it correctly.
What is a container file?
Container files are a kind of container in which different files and formats can be collected:
- A container file is a file that includes multiple files.
- Some of these enclosed files are limited to specified formats, but some are completely free.
- The files together form a logical whole, which is why they are combined in a container.
- With the right software, individual files can be extracted or edited from the container file. They can also be moved, activated or deactivated within the file.
- In particular, multimedia and office files such as AVI, DOC, MKV, MPG, ODS and PPT, but also archive files such as CAB, IMG, ISO, NRG, RAR and ZIP are container files.
Use container files correctly
The practical thing about container files is that they bring together many file formats in a meaningful way. However, this means that you sometimes need special programs to open and edit them or to extract individual file formats from the container:
- Since different file formats can be in a container file, different codecs are often required to open the file.
- For every common multimedia file, the "MediaInfo" software reveals which codecs you need to play and where you can get them.
- With "Xmedia Recode" you can extract individual audio, video and subtitle files from multimedia containers and convert them to other formats if required.
- You can open archive files with freeware such as "7-Zip" or "Daemon Tools Lite" and extract individual files. Burning programs such as "CDBurner XP" burn image files to CD or DVD.
- You can edit office container files with the programs of the corresponding manufacturers. Often this is also made possible by freeware variants such as "OpenOffice". In another article we explain how to edit PDFs with "PDF24 Creator".
Here you will find further tips for converting container files such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint files to PDF as well as MDX and DMG to ISO.