Each file on the computer can come in different formats, and not all of them can be managed with the programs in our possession. That's why it may be necessary to convert a file from one format to another, aiming for very famous and easily managed formats from any PC or any device. In this article we will see together all the programs and applications to be used to convert any type of file into different formats.
Using a software program installed on the PC is preferable because, usually, there are more options and because, therefore, there is no need to worry about privacy issues when we upload files online.
READ ALSO -> Best apps to convert audio and video on Android
Convert video files (including DVDs and online videos)
To "rip" a DVD into a smaller video file to keep it on PC or to watch it on your smartphone, an excellent program is Handbrake, definitely the best program to use for the purpose.
You load the video file or the optical disc, choose one of the predefined profiles (you can also customize it) and start the conversion.
In this regard, we can read the guide how to convert Videos, from Divx to DVD and from DVD to Divx or MP4.
As an alternative to Handbrake we can use the Freemake video converter program, which is one of the best to convert video on PC, simple to use and capable of transforming a video file into the most popular formats such as MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV, WebM.
The predefined profiles allow you to create videos suitable for iPad, Android, Smart TV, consoles and other multimedia devices.
READ ALSO: Best programs to convert videos
Convert audio files
Audacity is by far the best program to convert audio files from one format to another, even if it is not very easy to use.
This program is excellent for transforming CDs into MP3 or other formats such as flac, Ogg and Wma, just load the file to be converted or use a CD as an audio source, then export the project in the desired audio format.
As much simpler programs to use we find automatic conversion tools such as Freemake audio converter, very good to use for beginners.
To convert audio files without using programs, we can upload the file to the media.io website, an online audio conversion service.
To set your favorite song as a cell phone ringtone you can use Audiko, a web application to create ringtones from MP3 files.
Convert ebook
To convert an Ebook to the most used standard format, Epub or other formats, the only program to use is Caliber, the best one for reading Ebooks on the PC which also provides the ability to convert the various electronic books loaded.
Just open the ebook inside the program and use the Convert books item to get the ebooks in the desired format (very useful for example on Kindles, which support a few electronic book formats and we must therefore convert them).
Also noteworthy, in this section, is Flipsnack, a web app for converting PDF documents into a digital book to browse.
Convert Office documents and PDFs
We have recently seen all the ways to convert a file created with MS Office programs to PDF; one of the best programs is definitely Doxillion Document Converter Software .
To be able to convert documents, simply load the files to be converted into the program, choose the destination format and click on Convert, so as to have the documents in the desired format.
If we are interested in doing the opposite conversion, even if not always with satisfactory results, we can read our guide on how to transform PDF into editable Word documents.
Another category of useful programs for converting documents are OCR programs, to convert scanned sheets into files for editing.
Also excellent and worth mentioning is the Cometdocs program, a cloud document manager, which implements a new PDF conversion menu when you right-click on a document.
Convert images
To convert a photo from one format to another you can use IrfanView, a large program that allows you to convert image files even in batches, that is, many in a single operation.
To use the conversion tool of this program we will have to click on File -> Batch Conversion / Rename, select the files to convert, choose the final format and proceed with the conversion.
Alternatively, we can use websites to convert PDF to JPG images quickly and easily, or use other websites to transform videos into GIF images quickly and easily.
Speaking of photos and images, we must also point out iConvert Icons, a website capable of converting any image into icons for use on Windows or Mac.
Convert web pages
If we want to convert the sites we visit to PDF in order to read them offline, we can use the recommended sites in the guide to save web pages in PDF to obtain the desired result, in particular using online tools such as PDFmyURL or Web2PDF .
Another site that we can use for this purpose is Favefilters, capable of transforming a blog into a newspaper in PDF format to be downloaded and read anywhere.
Universal tools to convert files of all kinds
Instead of using a different program for each type of file or for each category of formats, we can also focus on all-in-one programs, which allow you to convert video, images, audio, documents and anything else in just a few clicks.One of the best programs to convert all multimedia files, videos, audio and images is surely Format Factory, powerful, free and very popular.
Just load the files to convert and choose, in the left column, the type of file to convert to, so you can get the desired result whatever our conversion needs.
As an alternative we can use websites that support the conversion of practically every file format; the best universal converter sites are Zamzar, convertfiles AND Youconvertit, which work for free without having to register accounts, where you just have to upload the file and choose the desired format.
In addition to PDFs, the ZamZar site allows you to convert any file into the chosen format, be it an audio, video, image or text document.
A very powerful free program that works as a universal converter is Adapter which has a whole series of tools to convert audio, video and images. For videos, the converter can convert to formats such as animated GIF, Apple, General, Sony, Tablet, Nintendo, Microsoft and Mobile phones. For audio conversion you can create a file in MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless Audio, Waveform Audio, iPhone Ringtone, OGG Vorbis, Waveform, Dolby Digital AC-3 and Matroska Audio. As an image converter, the converter works with formats such as JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF and BMP.
If you have problems with a file format, we recommend that you read the guide on how to find the program to open an unknown and unrecognized file .
