Managing information on computers (Part 1)
Managing information on computers
Using computers and the internet to store, access and organise information carries some risk. You need to take responsibility to make sure files are not lost, corrupted or viewed by the wrong person.
Saving your work
It is very important to save your work regularly. A saved piece of work is easily recovered if something goes wrong. To save your work use ‘Save’ or ‘Save As’ from the 'File' menu. Do not rely on auto save.
The first time you save your work the 'Save As' dialogue box will appear. Name your file and choose which folder to save it in. From now on, when you save your work it will overwrite the original file with your changes. To prevent this from happening, use ‘Save As’ from the 'File' menu to save a copy of your work.
Use 'Save As' to:
- save something for the first time
- save a copy or a different version of your work
Use 'Save' to:
- save your changes (this will overwrite the original file)
- save your work quickly
You can use shortcut keys to save your work. In Windows press CTRL-S and in OSX press CMD-S.
Organising your work
The number of files and folders you use can grow quickly over the course of a project. If they’re not well organised, you can waste a lot of time trying to find what you’re looking for.
To ensure your work is easy to find, use relevant file and folder names and a sensible folder structure. It’s important to use an approach that will be understood by everyone, especially if you’re working on a group project, so other members of the group will be able to find what they’re looking for.
This is an example of a project with well-named files, folders and sub-folders. Good file and folder names instantly tell you what they contain.
File extensions
Files have two parts to their names – a name and an extension. The purpose of a file extension is to tell the computer what type of file it is. The file extension is typically three or four letters long and is always at the end of a file name. There are hundreds of different file extensions.
Common file extensions
| Extension | File type |
|---|---|
| *.doc | Document |
| *.xls | Spreadsheet |
| *.jpg | Image |
| *.exe | Executable |