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Managing files and folders
During my school days, one hour of the school time was reserved for library. Our library was a large place. It consisted of several bookshelves. Each bookshelf had books on a particular subject. It was easy for us to locate the book of our interest without any help. In the world of computers, beginners are directed to keep their files in folders. Each folder resembles the book shelf and files as books.
What are files and folders?
A file is your work saved on the computer using different programs such as MS words, MS Paint, MS Excel, PowerPoint, Notepad and Media player etc. It may be a letter, essay, image or audio clip. A folder is a place on the disk drives of your computer on which you can save files (essays, letters, and pictures).
What are the benefits?
Keeping files in folders has a number of benefits to offer:
1. Files if kept in folders, are easier to manage and your desktop does not get cluttered.
2. Saving your work in folders makes work more organized.
3. It is easy to copy, delete, save and move files if they are in a folder. Copying a folder means copying all the files in that folder.
5. Keeping all files of the same type (related files such as word documents) in one folder makes it easy to trace and find the missing files later. It is easier to locate a file if you know the folder in which it has been saved.
File management task
Create new folder
To save files in a folder we need to make a folder. To create new folders do as follows ; * Open ‘My Documents’. * Click on the ‘file menu’ option. * Select ‘New’ and choose ‘folder’. To create new folder on the desk top do as follows; * Select a blank area of the desk top and right click on the mouse. * Select ‘new’ and choose ‘folder’ from the menu.
Add label to the folder
You can add a label to a folder for example, if you want to save Microsoft Words files then you can name the folder “My Word folder”. To name a folder; * Type the name of the folder in place of ‘new folder’. * Press enter.
To make a personal folder insert your name on the folder such as “Aslam’s folder”. You can also save files of different subjects by name. For example you can save all of your work related to English, Physics, Chemistry in different folders with their respective names.
Save your files
When you complete your work you need to save it. To save your files in a folder: * Open file menu. * Clicks Save As. * From the dialog box select my documents. * If you have already created a folder on the desktop then directly select the folder. * Name the file. * Click save. This will save your work in the folder.
View your files
Folders are carriers of your files. To look inside the folder simply select it and click on it. This will open folder for you and all the files in that folder will appear on the screen.
Create sub folders
A sub folder is a folder that resides inside the main folder. To create a sub folder do as follows:
* Open the main folder.
* Click on the file menu and select new and choose folder.
* Give it a label to identify it. A sub folder within the main folder is now created.
Create backups of your files and folders
When you create a file it is best to make a copy of this file so that in case of any damage or loss your work remains intact. This process of making copies of files and folders is known as making “backups of a file.” A backup file can be saved in the hard disk, floppy disk or Zip disk (This disk has more capacity than the floppy disk and is used to save graphics and images).
The above figure consists of:
* Three main folders in a disk drive (C, D, E, F, and Floppy disk).
* The first main folder consists of essay files.
* Second main folder has a sub folder.
* The sub folder consists of graphic files.
* The third main folder also encloses a sub folder.
* The main folder consists of letters to Mom and the sub-folder holds a letter to Dad.
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