Computer Lab Teachers are welcome to change or add slides within this presentation to suit the needs of their students or better accommodate the structure of their classroom management plan.

How to Manage Files on your Computer

Understand documents, files and folders.

Documents, Files and Folders

What is a File?A file stores information such as a picture or a document.Think of your computer as a file cabinet that holds all of

your files.Files are usually stored in folders.A file path is the address where a file is stored on a

computer.If you don’t name your files well, you won’t be able to

organize them in a way that you can easily find them when you need them.

Americathe Beautiful

Americathe Beautiful

Reading Reading

Haywood

Haywood

HP 6000 HP 6000

Verbatim

Verbatim

File Paths on a Computer

This file path is presented

as seen on Windows 7.• Documents is a folder.• Verbatim Files is a

subfolder.• HP 6000 is a subfolder.• Haywood is a

subfolder.• Reading is a subfolder.• This is the path to the

file “America the Beautiful.”

DocumentsDocuments

Saving Files

Saving to My DocumentsSelect File>Save AsSelect a file name:

Fewer than 260 characters (Use a short, descriptive name.)

Do not use these characters: \ / ? : * " > < |

Select a file type manually in the “Save as Type” drop-down list, or

Accept the default file type.

Saving FilesThe easiest way to save is to choose the icon

that looks like this:

Saving to CD, DVD, BD, or External Hard Drive: If your computer has a Writer installed, you can choose the CD or DVD drive as the destination for your saved file. “Write” or “Burn” are common terms for doing this.

Saving to a USB drive:Select File>Save As and navigate to the drive.Name the file and click Save.To remove the drive:

Close associated files, right-click the drive in My Computer, and select “Safely Remove.”

Document Storage

File ManagementFile management is the use of computer

software to create an organizational structure of documents, files, and folders stored on a computer.

Options like “Search” can make finding documentsfaster and more efficient.

Matt’s Work

Matt’s Work

Local Storage

It is common to store files in My Documents or Documents.

Documents are often arranged by description, date or application.

Folders are created to sort files.It is important to backup important files.

External Storage

CD-ROM discs are recordable plastic disks that hold about 650 MB of data.

Digital Video discs are recordable disks that hold a minimum of 4.7 GB of data and are designed for multimedia.

Blu-ray discs are recordable disks that store 25-50 GB of data and are designed for high-definition video.

External Storage continuedUSB drives are easily portable drives that

store 1-64 GB of data.External hard drives are usually connected

to a USB port on a computer. They have large storage capacity and are used as portable backup devices.

Cloud StorageCloud storage is a

model of networked computer systems where data is stored not only in the user's computer, but inside virtual areas on the internet and is generally hosted by companies who specialize in virtual storage. All of the computers on the network usually have access to the files if the creator grants permission.

Common Cloud Storage Sites:

Note to Computer Lab Teachers:Feel free to use any or all of these slides as you wish. Be sure and change to suit the age/level of students you will be teaching.