Any file uploaded from your local system is represented in BSCW as a document. A document may contain text, spreadsheets, graphics, print files, pictures, sound, video, etc., typically stored in various proprietary file formats. On the Internet, these file formats are identified by their MIME types. Each document in BSCW is associated with a MIME type when it is uploaded (see 3.3.2). This MIME type is represented by a specific icon in front of the document name (or by the icon for a MIME type that does not have an individual icon on your BSCW server).

BSCW provides specific functions for two kinds of documents.

Plain text and HTML documents:

Documents of MIME type text/plain or text/HTML may be edited directly on the BSCW server (action   Edit ; see 5.1).

Zip/Winzip and Tar archives:

BSCW can create Zip/Winzip and Tar archives from objects in a folder (including personal objects like your home folder, clipboard and trash). Such archives are again BSCW documents (of MIME type application/zip or application/tar). BSCW can also extract the files from Zip/Winzip or Tar archives that you have uploaded from your local system; the files are put into your clipboard as BSCW documents and folders (actions   Archive  and   Extract ; see 9.1).

Depending on the MIME type of a document and on the configuration of your Web browser, several things may happen when you click on the document name in a folder page:

• the Web browser may interpret the underlying file and display it;
• a program on your local computer may be started to display the file;
• a dialog box may come up that lets you store the document as a local file;
• the Web browser may offer a set of options for handling the document.