IMPORTANT POINTERS

File Management: File management is the process of storing files and

folders in an organised way on a computer.

Folders: We save our files in folders. Folders arrange files in a particular

order so that they can be easily found, when required.

Subfolder: A folder located within another folder is called a sub-folder. A

folder can also contain subfolders and files and each subfolder can
further contain more subfolders and files.

Parent Folder: The main folder is called the parent folder. You can create
multiple subfolders under it.

Advantages of organising files into folders

The following are some of the advantages of organising files into folders:

• The folders make it easier to locate and access files.

• It save time in finding a particular file.

• It enables you and others to understand what you have done.

File Explorer: We can view all hard disk drives along with the files and
folders stored there by using the Computer application on the desktop.
This application is also known as File Explorer.

Drive: A drive is a location on a storage device capable of storing and

reading information.

The different drives that are found on a computer are:

• The C: drive or C: — refers to a location on the computer’s internal hard

disk
• The D: drive or D: — may refer to another location on the internal hard
disk or to a CD or DVD drive

• Letter E and F are also used to indicate more storage devices such as a
pen drive or external hard disk.

File Path: A file path shows the location of a file on the computer. The
names of the drive, folder, subfolder and file in the path are separated
from each other by a back slash (‘\’).

File Extension: A filename has two parts. The first part is the actual
name, while the second part is the file extension that shows the file
type. A dot separates the two parts of a file name. For example, if a file
is named sky.docx the file name is ‘sky’ and the extension is ‘.docx’.

Some of the file types and their default file extensions are given below.

• Text file – These file have a .txt file extension.

• Document file – Microsoft Word file has extension .docx.

• Spreadsheet file – Microsoft Excel spreadsheets has extension .xlsx.

• Presentation file – Microsoft PowerPoint presentations has extension

.pptx.

• Image file – Image files are saved with a number of file extensions
such as .png, .jpeg and .gif.

• Audio file – Audio files are saved with extensions, such as .mp3 and
.wav.

File Properties: You can display information about a file, such as its type,
location, size, and when it was changed last using the File Properties
window.
Searching for a File or Folder: The search feature allows you to find a
specific file on the computer.

Searching for files at common locations: Windows offer default folders

that are used for storing specific files and folders.

• Documents: It store word-processing files, spreadsheets,

presentations, and other files.

• Pictures: It store digital pictures, captured from camera, scanner, or in

e-mail from other people.

• Music: It store all digital music, such as songs that you copy from an
audio CD or download from the Internet.

• Video: It store your videos, such as clips from your digital camera or
video files that you download from the Internet.

• Downloads: By default, a computer will place downloaded files in a

specific folder, known as the Downloads folder. If you want to find a file
that you have downloaded from the Internet, such as a photo attached to
an email message, check the Downloads folder.

Searching using wild card character

A wildcard character is a special character such as an asterisk (*) and

question mark (?) that is used to match one or more characters while
searching for files or folders. Wild card characters are used in place of
one or more characters when you do not know what the name of the
file/folder or you do not want to type the entire name.

Example:

1. The wildcard character asterisk ‘*’ means any type or number of

characters can be used to take the place of an asterisk ‘*’.

• G*.* will search for all files whose names starts with ‘G’ followed by

any number of characters and having any extension. Example: Grade1.

docx, Grade4.pptx.

• *.docx will search for all files whose extension is .doc

• G*.docx will search for all the files whose extension is .doc and their
name begin with the letter ‘G’.

2. The Wildcard character ‘?’ can be used to substitute for a single

letter or symbol.

• project?.docx will search all the file names starting with ‘Project’
followed by any one character and extension as .docx.

File Compression: File compression is the process of reducing the size of

a file to save the disk space. Compression is usually done using softwares
such as ‘WinZip’, ‘WinRAR’ and ‘WinAce’.

Zipping files: Zipped files are one or more files combined into a single
file in a space-efficient manner to reduce their total file size.

Unzipping files: Unzipping involves extracting the files from a single

zipped file.

Reasons to compress a file

• It takes less storage space.

• It helps in faster downloading and uploading of files and folders.

• It helps in reducing the size of the file for email attachments.

• It helps to upload and download audio and video files quickly.

File Decompression: Decompression is the process of changing the size

of the file to its original size.
File Naming Conventions

File convention comprise guidelines for naming our files in a way that
describes what they contain.

• Keep the file name under 31 characters.

• Use capitals or underscores instead of spaces and ampersand (&) to

separate words in a file name.

• File and folder names are not case-sensitive.

• Use versions (V1, V2, etc.), if different versions of a file have to be

maintained over a period of time.

• While naming a file, do not use characters such as ‘\ / <> |’ ‘?[ ] ; = + & $
αβ’. Each of these characters has a special meaning and may cause some
errors while saving or opening that file.

• Avoid using a short form of a word or phrase that are not easy to
understand.

• Avoid using words such as ‘file,’ ‘current,’ and ‘document’. These have
some specific meaning in the operating system.

Etiquette for using files and folders

Each computer might contain files created by different users. Therefore,

you should follow certain etiquette while working in a shared space:

• You should work with only those files and folders created by you.

• It is not right to copy, move or make changes to documents that belong

to someone else. It may cause inconvenience to them.

• If you wish to use or modify someone else’s files or folders, you must
ask for their permission, first.

• You should not claim others’ work as your own after renaming their files
and folders.

• You should not delete any files from any folders.