Understanding File Management

Understanding File Management The Path to Successful Computer Use.

Data Storage Terminology Computers store information in “bytes”. One byte of information equals approximately 8 characters    

1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte (kb) 1000 kb = 1 megabyte (mb) 1000 mb = 1 gigabyte (gb) 1000 gb = 1 terabyte (tb)

A one page typed letter ≅ 25 kb One average digital photo ≅ 1 – 5 mb (1000-5000 kbs) One mp3 format song ≅ 4 mb A dvd movie ≅ 4.7 gb (4,700 mb)

Data Storage Comparisons Newer computers are capable of storing at least: 30,000 photos, 1.5 million word processing documents, or 10,000 songs. CD-R/RW discs can hold 700 photos, 28,000 word documents or 175 songs. Dvd+R discs can hold 6x that of a CD-R Jumpdrive storage space varies from hundreds of megabytes per drive to a few dozen gigabytes per drive.

What is a drive? Drive refers to the physical object where your information is stored. Windows identifies your drive by a letter, usually C: More specifically, a drive reads the information from a disk placed into it. Sometimes the drive and disk are one unit. (I.E. Hard drives, Flash(Jump)Drives, etc)

Hard Drive Physical disk inside your computer that stores your programs and data. Size is measured in GB(Gigabytes) Most commonly your “C” drive If a hard drive is partitioned it could be C, D, etc.

Optical Drive Optical drives come in many flavors; DVD, CDR/RW, DVD-R, CDROM, etc. CDs can store a maximum of 700 mb DVDs can store a maximum of 4.7 GB Its drive letter will usually start somewhere after the Hard Drive letter (D, E)

Other Drives There are many other types of drives from old floppies to new ‘thumb’ or flash drives. All drives are assigned a letter by Windows to keep track of various drives we connect

We can access all these drives by their corresponding letters by double-clicking on “My Computer”

More Terminology.. ALL drives/disks have the ability to maintain an organizational structure to help us find our data quickly. This is done with FOLDERS.  Folders are the containers that keep our information  separated and organized  Any folder can contain many other SUB-FOLDERS to further organize data

Folders, Sub-Folders & Files After your drive, folder offer the first level of organization. Sub-Folders can be created to organize data Files are the objects we or programs create like photos, documents, spreadsheets, databases, etc.

Drive Folders Sub-Folders

Files- Data that we create.

Desktop The Desktop is the name of the screen that opens after the Operating System has loaded. You can store folders, files and application short-cuts on the desktop.

Task Bar on Desktop The “Start” button (left side of toolbar) can be clicked with your mouse pointer or you can use the Windows short-cut key on your keyboard. The icons from the “>” button to the right are in what is called the “System Tray” These items come up here when your computer is started. To the far right is the time, you can adjust clock and calendar settings by double-clicking here if the administrator has enabled it The icons to the right of the start button are programs that are open.

System Tray

Launching Applications There are many ways you can open your applications.   

You can use short-cuts placed on the desktop. System Tray Icons Find the program by using the “Start” button. Most programs are installed under “All Programs”

Demo .

Creating Your Own Shortcuts You can create your own application short-cuts for easy access later on. Useful if you hate digging around in “All Programs” for your applications.   

Right-Click the program you want to make a short-cut for Highlight “Send to” Click “Desktop (create shortcut)

When you look at your desktop, the short-cut should now be there Demo

Menu Bar You can either use your mouse and click on the word to open the drop-down menu or use the short-cut key by pressing and holding down the Alt key + the letter that is underlined in the menu bar. Example: Alt+F will bring down the File drop-down menu

Demo

Opening a file 

Click “File” on the menu bar



Find the file name that you want to open 

Look for drive letter, folder, then file name

3. Highlight “Open”. Press Enter 4. Click on “Open”

Demo

File-Open * This drops down

your directory

*Clicking here allows you to go up one folder. *Clicking here allows you to select the filename

Clicking here allows you to select the file type. HINT: use “all files” to show all file types. Demo

Caution Make sure that you only open a file from the same application.     

.doc is a Word document .xls is Excel .ppt is Powerpoint .mdb is an Access Database .pub is a Publisher file

A warning box should come up when you open a different file type in an application.

Saving a file Save your file by following these instructions:     

Click on File Highlight Save As, Press Enter Specify the correct folder in the Save In field Name your file by typing a file name in the File Name field. Click on Save

Making a folder when saving

Click this icon to open up the folders. Click this icon to go up one tier Click on this icon to create a new file folder

What’s the difference between Save and Save As? Save - overwrites or updates the file you are working in. Save As – Allows you to change the name of the file and/or location of the file, but will work the same way as “Save”.

Saving Tips When saving a file, always pay attention to where the file is saving to. Try to organize your folders and subfolders in a way that makes sense to you. If you have “lost” a file, try looking in “My Documents”, as this is usually the default save location. Or, try the last location you saved in.

Questions? Next Up: 

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