Computer Skills Course: File Management, Part 1
Free Computer Skills Course: Learn the core concepts of file management, including folders, filenames, and file extensions.
Transcript:
In order to accomplish any kind of real project on a computer, it’s important to have a solid understanding of file management. Let’s start with the fundamentals. No matter what operating system you’re running - whether it’s Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, all data on a computer is stored as files. A file is basically a chunk of a certain kind of data. There are many kinds of files, including video files, audio files, image files, text files, and many more. In order to keep files organized, we use Folders. A folder on your computer is just like a real-life folder - it’s a place you can put files to separate them into groups that make sense.
Every folder has a folder name, and every file has a filename. The filename serves a couple purposes. The first purpose is to help you, the user, identify what that file is about. So if you wrote an essay about climate change, for example, you might name that file ‘climate essay’. The second purpose of the file name is to help the computer recognize what kind of file it is, so that it knows what program it should use to open that file. There is a special part of the file name that is used for this purpose. It’s called the File Extension. At the end of every filename there is a period, and the letters or numbers that come after this are the file extension.
The file extension is very important, because without it, the computer doesn’t know what kind of file it is, or what to do with it. It’s good to keep this in mind when you rename a file, because if you accidentally change or remove the file extension, your computer might not be able to open it anymore, and you’ll have to rename it again and put the file extension back in order to fix this problem. Let’s take a look at some common file extensions, grouped by category. We’ve got some that are for audio, some that are for video, some that are for images, some that are for a variety of different types of documents, and then a few other important ones.
This may look like a lot, but in reality there are actually many, many more. You may be wondering why there are so many file extensions. Why are there a dozen different formats just to store one kind of data? The answer is that even though they may store the same kind of data, they do it differently. For example, among the audio formats, some are uncompressed, meaning that the audio is high quality but takes up a lot of space, and some are compressed, meaning that they sacrifice a bit of quality in order to take up less space. One of the most common compressed formats that you’ll probably recognize is MP3, and one of the most common uncompressed formats is WAV or ‘wave’. A similar comparison can be drawn between some of the image formats. For example, a PNG is higher quality but takes up more space, while a JPEG sacrifices some quality for smaller size. Another reason for the length of this list is that many programs have their own specific formats and file extensions. Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Photoshop are just a few of the examples shown here.
All of these file extensions may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but there’s no need to know all of them; the ones that are important to your specific work will soon become familiar. That concludes this video. In the next one, we’ll take a hands-on look at working with files and folders in an operating system.
Пікірлер: 86
Dane, I’ve been using computers for over 25 years and I never tire of hearing the basics just like this. I would love to get my brother-in-law to watch this and more of what you have to offer. Thanks for sharing some really good content.
Thanks because of you I pass
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!!
As basic as this was, I really NEEDED a plain, elementary lesson despite working with these most of my life. This was never taught in school (although I'm sure it is now.. I'm 27) but I needed to understand the foundation in order to move forward. No wonder everything has felt SO complicated before! Also.. the thing about not deleting the file extension name just answered so many problems as to why my files are always not working. WOW! Most informative 5 min I could have spent. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Awesome! Thank you for the kind words, I'm so glad it was helpful! Please forgive the long delay, I teach high school computer science full-time and have neglected my KZread channel.
Thank you for sharing your expertise!
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
Finally an actual fundamental explanation of a course. In particularly (What is) File Management.
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you! Glad it was helpful!!
This is good. I'm using this with my advisory students on Monday. Thank you.
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Awesome! Glad it was helpful!
omg! thanks so much! you're an excellent teacher, you explained it well completely.
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks so much!! Please forgive the long delay, I teach high school computer science full-time and have neglected my KZread channel.
I like how the video is short and gives me the same information as the other videos. Keep making more videos like this one. Thank you for posting this video.
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks, glad it was useful!!
thank you so much for the short and informative video
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!!
Thanks. Very useful and clearly explained.
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
Greetings from India,loved your channel Brother 👍 amazing and useful stuff
@DaneHartman
7 жыл бұрын
Glad you liked the videos! Thanks for the kind words!
So clear! Please more!
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
Thank you! I'll try to get to it! Teaching high school Computer Science full-time leaves very little extra time. :)
Fantastic video! Very easy to follow & understand for those of us who didn't grow up with this type of technology. You'd be a great teacher!
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
So glad it was helpful! I actually am a High School Computer Science teacher (which is why it took me so long to reply). Thanks for the kind words!!
Really I needed it to understand ,really good and informative
brillant video
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks!! Glad it was helpful!
Excellent easy to understand. Thank you for your work on this I will be using it in my class.
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the kind words, glad it was useful!
Thank you bro
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Welcome! Thanks!
Thanks for your spreading knowledge...
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for sharing.
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Most welcome!
Thanks a lot for giving us lot of information and very easily we get.....
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks and welcome!
Sir please tell me in which category does .ERP comes or it is not there Sir please help me I want to know this very urgent Please sir please.
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Please forgive the long delay, I teach high school computer science full-time and have neglected my KZread channel. The .ERP file extension appears to be related to a computer game and to the British Economics & Social Research Council Electronic Form. It's not one that I've ever come across personally.
In which pane of windows explorer are file names displayed?
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Please forgive the long delay, I teach high school computer science full-time and have neglected my KZread channel. If you switch to 'Details' view, the file names should be on the left side. Hope that helps!
Nice video
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you!
Thank You, I was recently promoted and all my work is off the computer. Please share more context. I cant afford college at this time.
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!! Please forgive the long delay, I teach high school computer science full-time and have neglected my KZread channel.
Very clear
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you! Glad it was helpful!
Thank u
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Welcome! Glad it was helpful!
So intriguing series . i like it . could you please tell me how the file stored exactly in memory . i read that the names of all files are stored in separate location and the data are in different place.is that right?
@DaneHartman
7 жыл бұрын
Hi Mosab, Yes, you're right. The file system (such as FAT32, NTFS, HFS, etc) keeps track of where the data is for each file and folder, so that it is accessible regardless of the actual physical location of that data on the drive. Certain file systems are more reliable and have better performance, while others suffer from lack of redundancy. For example, exFAT is convenient, but it's far less reliable than NTFS. Hope that helps!!
Thanks
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Welcome!
very good work , greetings from Guayaquil, Ecuador . Teach us to do videos or tuto videos , i like your design video
@DaneHartman
7 жыл бұрын
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the videos! I would love to visit Ecuador, I hope to have the chance one of these years! The majority of the animation is done using Adobe After Effects - You can actually find some really great tutorials (like the After Effects CC Essential Training) on Lynda.com, and there are some good free ones on KZread as well. Once you have a grasp on After Effects, you can also very quickly create awesome intro videos and stuff by using After Effects templates from Videoblocks.com. Hope that's helpful!
Nice
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks!
😍😍
thank you sir
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
You're welcome!!
Thank
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Most welcome!
Useful for me.
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
Glad to hear it!
How Do I create a File ?
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Please forgive the long delay, I teach high school computer science full-time and have neglected my KZread channel. You can create a new file from within an application (like Microsoft Word), or you can create a new file from within Windows Explorer by right-clicking and choosing New > and then the file type. I hope that helps!!
good info
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks!!
Plz make more videos!..
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Please forgive the long delay, I teach high school computer science full-time and have neglected my KZread channel. I do have one new video, which is an update of the digital storage terminology video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/p2iEkq6In8mrdtY.html
U are telling very good to children👶👧👦
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you!
what is the role of the operating system in managing files?
@DaneHartman
7 жыл бұрын
The operating system is fundamental to file management, and most provide a graphical interface for doing so. For example, Windows, MacOS, and common Linux builds all have graphical interfaces for moving, copying, renaming, compressing files, etc. I actually have a series of videos on File Management that you may find interesting, they're on this same channel. Thanks!
in what category is the .MID?
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
.MID is a Midi file, so it would fall into the Audio category! :)
@victorv4298
5 жыл бұрын
@@DaneHartman Thank you very much, in principle I thought the same thing, then I got the doubt because MIDI does not produce sound directly but through orders and I had left it in the Other category, taking a simile in the text area with the HTML format ..
nice
@DaneHartman
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks!!
“PNG, or a ping-“ **TRIGGERED!!!** It stands for Portable Network Graphic!
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
Lol! Don't be triggered. :) Remember, JPEG stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group", and most of us say "JPEG", not "J.P.G."... the "ping" comment was along those lines, as I've heard it referred to as such in design circles. :)
Are You In Khan Academy?
@DaneHartman
5 жыл бұрын
No, but I teach High School Computer Science and I consider Khan Academy a great resource!