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:

Working documents and/or folders were often created, reviewed, and temporarily stored on your “desktop”.

When no longer active, documents would be organized into named folders, which in turn were placed into file drawers.

File drawers were often part of a file cabinet or file room.

Pre-Computer Physical File Organization

Computer File OrganizationD:

C: A:

Photos

Documents

Databases

A folder (i.e., directory)

Charts

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 “.” 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 PowerPoint .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) .mp3, 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”