As I have mentioned before on the show and in these articles, I teach the local basic computer classes for the Parks and Rec. department. I teach the classes as a four-part series in which I dedicate an entire two hour session to file management.
Teaching the concept of how your computer organizes information is a huge struggle for me. I don't think it is because if my teaching technique or the inability of my students to comprehend the topic.
The reason that file management is so difficult to teach and comprehend is that it isn't sexy, it isn't tangible and it is isn't universal in it's use. By the latter, I mean that each person can apply the concept differently.
While one person may use file management techniques to organize their photos, another may use them to organize financial files or text documents.
Just as there are dozens of ways to setup a regular filing system on your computer, there are just as many ways to organize information on your computer.
Here are a few truths of file management that are difficult to teach but critical to understanding and using your computer:
1. Your computer is a filing cabinet. It is a filing cabinet that holds about 80 million pages of information so keeping it organized is important. Files are individual pieces of information and folders are directories or categories of similar information. Think of your drives as the drawers in your filing cabinet. Use Windows Explorer (Right click on your START button and choose EXPLORE) to look for and organize information as you would in a filing cabinet. The left side of Windows Explorer will help you find folders, once you've found the folder you need, use the right side to find the exact file you are looking for. Drag information from the right side to the left side to easily place a file or folder into a given folder in one move.
2. No files are located or contained in programs. Programs do not hold files or folders. Your programs are like secretaries in an office that know where to find and how to use the filing system, but the secretaries do not carry the entire filing system around with them. If you delete a program, the files you created with that program do not disappear.
3. Your computer sets up a basic filing system, but leaves it to you to customize it. Windows thinks by using files and folders, but Windows doesn't know the difference between a recipe and the eulogy you wrote for Uncle Bert's funeral. If you want to keep different types of information sorted, you must build your own filing system with folders for each type of file such as pictures, financial information, poetry, important letters, etc.
4. When you're lost, use the right-click. To create new folders, click on your right mouse button in any folder window or on your desktop and choose NEW->FOLDER. To rename a file or folder, right click on the folder or file and choose RENAME. To send an item to a disk, My Documents, the Desktop, or many other popular locations, right click and SEND TO. To delete a folder or file, right click and DELETE.
See? I told you it wasn't sexy. But, if you learn how it works, so many of the mysteries of your computer will be solved.
