export file

In computing, a file stored by the computer in a standard format so that it can be accessed by other programs, possibly running on different makes of computer.

For example, a word-processing program running on an Apple Macintosh computer may have a facility to save a file on a floppy disk in a format that can be read by a word-processing program running on an IBM PC-compatible computer. When the file is being read by the second program or computer, it is often referred to as an import file.