A letter in Word, a holiday photo in a digital album or an Ikea manual in PDF. They are all files. Working on the PC or tablet is just that little bit easier with basic knowledge about files.What is a file?
A file is a collection of data that can be read by a computer, tablet or smartphone. For example, the operating system of a device consists of files. Programs, such as Word or WhatsApp, also consist of files. But in this article, we’ll leave those types of files for what they are. We focus on the files that are used every day to display text, photos, videos or music.
File types
A device must be able to see which collection of data it is dealing with. This is indicated in a so-called file extension. In the example “document.docx” the extension is “docx”, which denotes a Word document. And in ‘holiday photo.jpg’, ‘jpg’ is the extension. A device therefore knows that it has to do with a photo.
File naming
Whether it concerns a photo, a Word document or a holiday budget in Excel: each file must be given its own name. You can determine that name yourself. The only restrictions are that the name can take up to 215 characters and that certain characters cannot be used. These are the following characters: / : * ? “ < > |
By the way, you don’t have to remember this string: when you try to use it in a file name, the system automatically rejects that name.
File manager
To manage and organize files, a program is needed. On a Windows computer it’s Explorer, on the Mac it’s Finder. The following articles cover these indispensable helpers:
- The Explorer
- Organize files in Windows 10
- finder
- Work easier with Finder on Mac
Save files
All files you save can be found in different ways. You can find a saved Word document by opening Word and selecting the document. But the document can also be traced via the Explorer or via Finder. Removing a program, such as Word, will not affect the Word files. They simply remain on the computer and remain findable via the Explorer. The article ‘Help! Where are files stored on the PC?’, elaborates on this.
Open files
Files can only be opened with suitable programs. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be from the program itself. Start the Explorer, double click on a Word document and the Word program starts and displays the document in question. This works for all files.
Find files
Since you can’t remember everything, it’s better to let the computer do the searching if you want to find a file. How, you can read that in the following articles:
- Search in the Explorer
- Find files faster on Mac with Finder
Make a backup
One file is not a file. It sounds funny, but you won’t be the first to lose all the photos because the computer gives up. Therefore, make backup copies of important files.
- Windows 10: Backup and Restore
- Back up with Time Machine (Mac)