Supported File Types
You can upload file attachments in your course, such as to an assignment. Users select a link to open a file that appears in the course.
After you upload a file, you may be able to edit the link name to the file. This link title appears to users instead of the name of the document. For example, type "My Introduction" as the link title instead of the file name "introduction.doc."
Accepted characters in file names
Blackboard Learn allows the use of all characters in file names. However, a user's operating system and the browser may limit the types of characters accepted. For example, some browsers don't accept characters that are wider. Some browsers may not have the languages installed to display the special alphabetic characters specific to them.
Recognized attachment file types
The system recognizes several file types by default. These files open directly in the browser or an associated application. If the system doesn't recognize the file type, users can download the attached file and open it on their computers.
| Extension | File Type | Programs Associated with the File Type |
|---|---|---|
| AAM | Multimedia | Macromedia® Authorware® plug-in The AAM file is the starting point for a series of files that must be enclosed in a ZIP file. |
| AIFF | Audio | AIFF is an uncompressed audio format. AIFF files tend to be large. |
| ASF | Multimedia | Microsoft® .NET™ Show ASF files can contain audio, video, images, and text. |
| AU | Audio | Real Audio Player™ |
| AVI | Video | Video player - Windows only |
| DOC, DOCX | Text | Microsoft® Word - word processor |
| EXE | Executable | Executable files are applications. Some network security policies and firewalls might prohibit users from downloading executable files. If your institution uses a newer version of Blackboard Learn, you may not be able to upload files of this type. Contact your administrator for help. |
| GIF | Image | Graphics program or web browser |
| HTML, HTM | Web page | HTML editor or web browser |
| JPG, JPEG | Image | Graphics program or web browser |
| JIF | Image | Graphics program or web browser |
| MP3 | Audio | Audio program |
| MP4 | Video | Video player |
| MPE | Audio/Video | Audio program |
| MPG, MPEG | Video | Video player |
| MOOV, MOVIE | Movie | QuickTime® movie |
| MOV | Video | Movie or media player |
| NUMBERS | Spreadsheet | Apple Numbers® |
| Text | Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® See note below table about SafeAssign. | |
| PNG | Image | Graphics editor or web browser |
| PPT, PPTX, PPS | Slideshow | Microsoft® PowerPoint®, PowerPoint Player® |
| QT | Movie | QuickTime® |
| RA | Audio | Real Audio Player™ |
| RAM | Video | Real Audio Movie™ |
| RM | Audio | Audio program |
| RTF | Text | Word processor |
| SWF | Multimedia | Macromedia® Shockwave® plug-in |
| TIFF, TIF | Image | Graphics program or web browser |
| TXT | Text | Text or HTML editor, word processor |
| WAV | Audio | Audio program |
| WMA | Audio | Audio program |
| WMF | Graphic | Microsoft® Windows® |
| XLS, XLSX | Spreadsheet | Microsoft® Excel® |
| ZIP | Compressed package | WinZip® |
SafeAssign can only process PDFs if the PDF contains machine-readable true text. If the PDF was prepared from "Print to PDF" or scanned from an imaging device without external optical character recognition (OCR), such as a scanner or cell phone app, then the PDF contains a bitmap or vector "picture" of text. This is not readable as text and SafeAssign currently does not perform OCR. If you can't select the text with your mouse or keyboard in a PDF reader, then there is no true text in the PDF.
To prevent this issue: make sure to export the document from your word processor using the "Export to PDF" option and avoid the "PDF Printer" option from the print menu. Also, don't use the option to 'outline' fonts sometimes found in advanced applications because it replaces the text with vector graphics of the same shape which aren't machine-readable.
