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File Management
Imagine your computer is a filing cabinet with drawers that are represented by the different drives of your computer. (floppy drive, hard drive, zip drive, CD drive). Inside each drawer (drive) you have folders that hold other folders and/or files. You can save a lot of time by keeping your files organized.
Tips for File Management
Understanding your computer's filing system
Save a file in Rich Text Format
Understanding your computer's filing system
In the example below, drive G contains 2 main folders (Documents & Folder Examples). The Folder Example contains 3 folders (A, B, & C), and folder C contains 2 sub-folders (1& 2).
To access a file located inside Sub-Folder 2 you will:
Open the software program associated with the file.
From the menu bar select File>Open..., a window similar to the one below will show up. Click the Look in drop-down list (the triangle pointing down) and select the drive that contains the file you are looking for. For this example we will select drive G.
You will now see a window that lists the folders inside the drive you selected. For this example, the two folders on the G drive are "Documents" and "Folder Examples".
Double click on a folder to open it. In this example, we would double click on the folder "Folder Example" to open it.
You will now be able to view the folders that are inside the folder "Folder Example".
To find the file you are looking for, double click on the correct folder or sub-folder. In this example, you would open "Folder C" and then select "Sub-Folder 2" to find the file you are looking for.
Saving Files
In order to keep your files organized, it is a good idea to save your files inside folders. Here are the steps to save a file and create a new folder:
Open the program you will use to create your document.
From the menu bar select File>Save As....
Select the drive/location where you want to save your document. For example C.
Create a folder by clicking on the following icon
A new folder appears on the screen. Press the backspace key to delete the New Folder name and type a new name for your folder. For example Online Courses.
Type a name for your file and press the Save button.
You do not need to create a folder everytime you are saving a file. Give your folders meaningful names in order to easily identify the contents of each folder. For example, if you are taking 3 online course you may want to create a sub-folder for each course inside the Online Courses folder. This way you can save the files relevant to each course inside its respective course sub-folder.
Finding Lost Files
If you have saved a file, but you are unable to locate it, the following instructions will help you find your lost file.
If you know the file's name:
Click on Start>Find>Files or Folders... and select the Name & Location tab
Type the name of your file in the Named box.
Click the Look in drop-down list (the triangle pointing down) and select the drive where you want to start looking. You may use the Browse button to specify a location.
Click the Find Now button for windows to start searching.
The search will result in a list of files and folders.
If you remember the date you saved the file:
Click on Start>Find>Files or Folders... and select the Date Modified tab.
Select Find all files created or modified.
Select one of the other 3 choices presented (between, during the previous month(s) or during the previous day(s).
Click the Find Now button for windows to start searching.
The search with result in a list of files and folders.
Saving Files in Rich Text Format (RTF)
This file format enables you to save text files in your word processor with formatting, font information, text color, and some page layout information intact. Sure, saving a document file in your word processor software format does the same thing, but by saving your document file in Rich Text Format (.rtf) your instructor will be able to read it without being required to have the word processor that you used to create the document. Also, RTF creates a much smaller file which takes less time for you to upload.
Please follow the following instructions in order to save a file as RTF:
When using MS Word:
Open the document you want to save as RTF.
On the File menu, select Save As.
In the File name box, leave the same name or type a new name for the document.
In the Save as type box, click the drop-down list and select Rich Text Format.
Click on the Save button.
You'll have two versions of the same document. The one with the smaller file size is the RTF file.
When using WordPerfect:
Open the document you want to save as RTF.
On the File menu, select Save As.
Type a new name for the file in the File name text box. Tip: If you do not specify a new name, the original file will be overwritten with the new format.
In the File type box, click the drop-down list and select RTF file format.
Click on the Save button.
Other word processing programs work essentially the same as these two.
For more information, contact:
Online
Learning
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Online Learning
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Oklahoma City, OK 73159-4444
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