Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My Translation

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!* * Translation: Files and Folders and Such

Organizing Your Computer: How to Use Files & Folders

Overview ¡ Computer data are organized essentially as in the pre-computer era. In that era: l Working documents and/or folders were often created, reviewed, and temporarily stored on your “desktop”. l When no longer active, documents would be organized into named folders, which in turn were placed into file drawers. l File drawers were often part of a file cabinet or file room.

Pre-Computer Physical File Organization

Computer File Organization D: C: A: Photos Documents Charts A folder (i. e. , directory) Databases

Windows Desktop View Click on “My Documents”

Windows Explorer – Folder View

Windows Explorer – Document Icon View

Windows Explorer – Document Detail View

Windows Explorer – Photo Icon View

Windows Explorer – Photo Thumbnail View

What’s in a (File) Name? ¡ File names have a specific format comprised of two parts separated by “. ” l l Basic name File extension ¡ The name can be any length up to 256 characters but must not include special characters such as: /, *, #, ? , . ¡ The extension is typically three characters and identifies the file type and determines which program(s) will work with the file. ¡ Important: the file extension is often not shown.

Common File Types (Extensions) ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ . doc – Microsoft Word. xls – Microsoft Excel. ppt – Microsoft Power. Point. pdf – Adobe Portable Document Format. jpg, . jpeg – Photographic Image. psd – Photoshop Data File. tif, . tiff – Scanned Image (tagged image file format). bmp – Bitmapped Picture File (screen savers). mp 3, mpeg – Audio File. mpg, . mpeg – Video File. htm, . html – Web Page. txt – Plain Text File. zip – Compressed Data File

Using Shortcuts ¡ Definition: short·cut – A more direct route than the customary one. A means of saving time or effort. ¡ Definition: file shortcut – A very small data file which contains the location of an actual folder, program, or data file. ¡ Shortcuts are used to place references to your computer’s resources in convenient locations. ¡ Many shortcuts can be used for a single resource.

Creating Shortcuts ¡ Using Windows Explorer, locate the “target” object (i. e. , folder, program, or data file) to which you want to create a shortcut. ¡ Right click the “target” and left click “create shortcut” to create the desired shortcut. ¡ Move the new shortcut to its desired location using “drag & drop” (see next slide). ¡ Shortcuts can be deleted without affecting the “target” object.

Drag & Drop ¡ All graphical objects (icons, windows, toolbars, etc. ) can be moved from one location to another by clicking the object with the mouse and moving it elsewhere. ¡ Files (and shortcuts) can be moved from one folder to another by clicking the folder or program icon in Explorer and dragging it to another folder location. ¡ Shortcuts are usually dragged to the Windows “desktop”