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File Management

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Functional Skills check

Student task accompanies this slide Printable activity

This lesson will cover:

How to organize files and folders.

Backing up your working files.

Creating and editing shortcuts.

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Why do we use folders?

What advantages do folders provide?

Computer data is commonly stored as files which can be organized into folders.

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Naming files and saving work

Whenever you save a document or file you will need to give it a file name. Sensible file names will make it easier to retrieve data. Calling something “Document1” does not distinguish it from any other files and makes it harder to find.

When working on a big project, you will alsofind it helpful to use sequential file names.For example, the first file could be saved as Project_vsn1.doc, and the second as Project_vsn2.doc.

Why do you think this is helpful?

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Organizing folders

Folders are named whenever you create them.

Sometimes you may need folders within a folder. For example, if you have a folder called ‘music’ containing all your MP3s, you might also want to have folders within this to divide the MP3s into different albums or artists.

These are known as subfolders.

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Deleting, copying and moving files

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Opening files from different sources

Most commonly used files are saved to a hard disk. These can be opened simply by double-clicking on them.

However, large files from the Internet must be downloaded before they can be opened.

Files stored in external storage devices, such as flash drives and CD-ROMs, need to be connected to a computer before they can be opened.

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Backing up is important to ensure that data is not lost.It involves making a copy of the files so that the copy can be used if the original is damaged.

On a networked system, data is backed up centrally by the network manager.

Backing up data

What does the network manager need to consider when backing up data?

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Backing up

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Restoring files

If something does go wrong with any files or folders you will need to restore them. For this to work well, you must back up all your data regularly. Making only one backup means you can still lose lots of data.

delete or rename the corrupted fileaccess the backup version from the backup foldercopy and paste it into the correct folder in the working files.

Similarly, deleted files can usually be restored by clicking on the file in the Recycle Bin, and selecting “Restore this item”. The file will then reappear in its original place.

To restore a file that has been corrupted:

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What is a shortcut?

Computer shortcuts, as the name suggests, provide a quicker route to getting where you want to be.

Instead, shortcuts take you directly to your chosen file, folder or application in one quick move.

They help you to avoid long, complicated searches through various folder levels.

Do you know how to create a shortcut?

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Creating shortcuts

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Editing shortcuts

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Summary quiz