FILES, DIRECTORIES, AND SAVINGWhere’s your stuff, how do I find it, and how can I put it somewhere that’s easy to remember?

PURPOSE

When using a computer, a typical student makes a horrendous mess of organizing and naming their files. It makes me, and you, very frustrated to find their work at times.

How bad could it be?

THIS KIND OF A MESS IS WHY

WHICH ONE OF THOSE…

Which one of those files was the one with all the tournament entrants in the Super Smash Bros. tournament the Gaming Club runs?

OH, THERE IT IS. SICK REFERENCE, BRO.

FILES AND DIRECTORIES A computer file is a resource for storing

information, which is available to a computer program.

Computers have tens of thousands of files, and all of them are largely named uniquely. Files with the same file names are differentiated by their placement within the directory tree. You could have c:\windows\helpme.txt And also have c:\private\helpme.txt Two identical files, but two different places.

A directory is better known to you in modern operating systems as a folder. But all directories sit inside other directories, branching out from the root directory.

A directory tree is a visual representation of files and folders in a system.

ROOT DIRECTORY

In a computer file systems, the root directory is the first or top-most directory in a hierarchy. It can be likened to the trunk of a tree, as the starting point where all branches originate.

For Windows, there is technically no root directory. The C:\ drive, which is the drive Windows is installed on, is the closest thing to the root directory. C:\ is the name given to the actual hard drive

For Macs, the root directory is “Macintosh HD” by default, or sometimes called “ / ”.

For Linux, the root directory is “ / ”

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

The root directory is called such because a directory tree looks like an upside down tree, and so the root ends up being on top.

Here there be root directory.

AS WE NAVIGATE DIRECTORIES…

The directory tree begins to grow, and branch out.

This directory tree is gratuitous and extends right down to the bottom of the slide. And it’s not even an important directory!

IT’S EASY TO SEE…

The need to organize your files should be a priority.

Things should be sorted in a logical manner, and for your purposes, should not require more than 5 or six clicks to get to.

Training yourself to name files in a logical manner is, in many people’s opinions, one of the easiest things to learn to make your computer use more effective.

LET’S GO BACK TO THIS MESS

FIRST, LET’S FIX (SOME OF) THE NAMES.

THEN, LET’S SORT THEM BY CLASS

Adding folders to subdivide your files may make it easier for some to find their way.

OUR DIRECTORY TREE NOW LOOKS LIKE THIS

EXPECTATION

It is my expectation that you apply some sort of consistent system to your files. I will not accept a flash drive with work on it if I cannot find the file easily. I will not go hunting for your work. It should be easy enough for anyone to find.

And when I do find it, it should be easy to know who it belongs to and what it is, if it’s being copied away from its home directory.

THEREFORE…

Any file you hand in to me should have the following things, in order, in its filename. You don’t have to do this for other classes, but you will do it for me.

Your class period number will go first – p1 through p7, whichever period it is.

Your LAST NAME The assignment name. Each section should be separated by an

underscore. “ _ “

EXAMPLE:

If your name is Sheldon Cooper and you’re in my fifth hour class, handing in the assignment “Professional Resume”…

The file should be called: p5_Cooper_Resume.docx

Howard Wolowitz, in my third hour class with the same assignment, will hand in a file called

p3_Wolowitz_ProfessionalResume.docx

Either way works. You should be in the habit of naming files logically and consistently all the time to avoid confusion and grading delays.

RESULT OF PROPER NAMING:

This is an example from last year.

The files are moderately well sorted by class hour, and then by first name, which was a mistake. But it was much easier to grade.

RESULTS OF POOR NAMING:I did not ask for any naming convention in my TV Production classes, leaving me with a mess of files without names on most of them.

I didn’t know whose was whose, had to dig through the files to figure it out, and it was a nightmare.

EXTENSIONS

In every computer, a file has an extension to tell the computer what program should open it.

Not every computer shows these by default, because changing them by accident could mean the file is no longer usable. If you changed a Word file to a JPG manually,

then forgot it was a Word file, there’s probably no getting it back unless you remember it started as a .DOCX file.

Originally, file extensions were three letters. Nowadays they still are, however 4+ letters in a file extension are becoming more common.

COMMON FILE EXTENSIONS

MP3 file (.mp3) Word file (.doc, .docx) Excel file (.xls, .xlsx) Powerpoint file (.ppt, .pptx) Program (.exe) Basic text document (.txt) Movie files (.avi, .mov, .m4v, .mkv) PDFs (.pdf) Images (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp) HTML files (.htm, .html)

SAVING FILES

Please. Dear god please. Please don’t be this guy:

“You asked me to save my Photoshop file as a JPG so I renamed the file from p1.psd to p1.jpg”

THERE’S MAGIC BEHIND THE CURTAIN

90% of the time, manually renaming a file like that will not work.

Even if it works 10% of the time, it’s still wrong, and bad form.

Never, ever, ever, ever mess with the file extensions unless you’re 210% sure you know what you’re doing.

Even changing a Word document to a text document will not be perfect, and cause a crap-ton of weird little glitches.

The file has more than just that “.doc” at the end of it telling the computer what it is. It also adds information to the file to make sure Microsoft Word opens it correctly.

SAVE. SAVE. SAVE AGAIN. BREATHE, SAVE.

Saving your files should be a common practice, and you should save often.

Should you need to convert a file, you re-save it through the appropriate program. Never change the filename extension!

If your Word file needs to be a PDF, changing the extension is not enough. It needs to be re-saved through Word so that any PDF-specific settings, like security, can be properly enabled.