The easiest way to find out is to download the file and see if your computer can open it. If not, you will need to find the appropriate program or extension and download that as well. If the file is too large to download first, or you are trying to decide between more than one file format, you can do a quick google search for the file extension (that’s the two, three, or four letters after the period, such as “.docx”, which is the extension used by Microsoft Word files). This will usually tell you what program it is associated with, so you can then check your computer to see if that program is installed. For more information, see our File Formats and Extensions guide.