You use the binary transfer type for the files that do not contain human readable text. I.e. for EXEs, GIFs, JPGs etc. Where as you use Ascii transfer type for the files that contains a human readable text. I.e. for TXTs, HTMLs, and CGIs. If you try to transfer these textual files from one operating system to other in Binary format, the file may get corrupted as the character representation (E.g. New line character) may vary from operating system to operating system. This problem can be over come by transferring such files in Ascii mode.

To transfer a file in Ascii format Before downloading that file,
choose "FTP | Transfer Type | Ascii" from the menu bar and then proceed with the downloading process.

Similarly, If you want to transfer a file in Binary format,
choose "FTP | Transfer type | Binary" from the menubar and then proceed with the uploading process.

But, this would cause a difficulty when you want to download multiple files in different formats. In order to over come this problem, JFTP allows you to preassign the transfer types depending on the file extensions. In this way you can choose "FTP | Transfer type | Auto-Detect" from the menu bar when you want to download multiple files and JFTP automatically decides which transfer type to use depending on the file extension.

To associate a file extension with a Transfer type -

1. choose, "FTP | Options | File Extensions" from the menu bar.
2. A Dialog box will be opened (see the screen shot below) which will show a list of extensions of the files that are to be transferred in Ascii format. All the files that have an extension exsting in the list will be transferred in Ascii format when the transfer type is "Auto-Detect" and the remaining files will be transferred in binary format.
3. You can add new files extensions to the exsting list by clicking on the "Add" Button.
4. You can remove some from the exsting list by selecting the desired ones and pressing the "Remove" button.