Have you ever walked into someone's office and seen hundreds of pieces of paper laying around their desk?  Or am I talking about your desk here?   You wonder how in the world they ever find anything?  It's a scary thought that maybe your paperwork is in that mess somewhere never to be found again?

Don't let your computer fall victim to the "messy desk" syndrome.  Trust me, it could be a lot harder finding a file on a messy computer disk than on a messy office desk!

Let's start with Folders

Folders in a computer are pretty much the same as folders in a filing cabinet.   That is, they can be created whenever you want, with any name you want, and hold just about any type of file or additional subfolders that you want.  It's all up to you!

Don't get folders and files confused.  This is the icon that represents folders and subfolders

The folder can have as many subfolders and files as you can imagine - literally hundreds and hundreds.  The folders can hold programs or data.   (We'll explain the difference in a minute.) 

The important thing to remember is that folders in the computer are the same as folders in a filing cabinet; they are a holding area used to organize other items into similar groups.

Files not Folders

Files on the other hand, are totally different in a lot of ways, from folders.   Files contain data that is useful to you or the computer. 

If the file contains information useful to you but not necessarily to the computer, it's called a data file.

If the file contains information useful to the computer but not to you, it's called a program file.

Here's a real handy tip that will save you and the computer lots of headaches:   you leave the computer's program files alone (don't delete them or move them around) and the computer will leave your data files alone.  You and the computer will get along nicely if you follow this golden rule.

Files are represented by various icons associated with the program used to create them.  Here's a few of the more common file icons you'll see:

The left picture represents an Excel spreadsheet file while the right picture represents a Word document file.  After awhile, you'll start to remember which programs the icons represent although in the overall scheme of things, it really doesn't matter that you know - the computer knows!

Naming Files

In the old days, you weren't allowed to use more than eight characters in your file names.  I guess studies proved it was bad for your health or something.  Now you can use up to 256 characters in your file names so you should get away from using hieroglyphics such as   cwl2md12.doc  and make that file name something you can understand and remember six months later like  Christmas Wish List To Mom December 12 98.doc.  Then for Christmas 99 you can make a copy of that file, change the date and try again!

File Extensions

Remember our motto?  "Let the computer do the work for you."  When it comes to file extensions the smart cookies will let the computer add the file extension because it's based on the application used to create that file.  If you used Word to create your Christmas Wish List the computer will add the file extension - the three letters after the period in the file name - based on the Word application.  If you used Excel spreadsheet program to calculate the cost of your Christmas list, the computer will add the file extension for Excel.  See how it works?  Then the next time you want to use that file, you simply click on the file name, the computer opens up the appropriate application program and the file, and you're ready to go to work!

If you start trying to do the computer's work for it, it tends to get rather irate and insists on doing it's own work so what you end up with is something like this:

Christmas Wish List To Mom Dec 12.doc.doc

So don't do the computer's work for it.  If it wants to be stubborn, let it!   And it's less prone to typographical errors than you are.  Hey, sorry, but it's trew!

Deleting Files and Folders

Many times people tell me they deleted a file off their hard drive but the next day it was back!  They delete it again and by golly, sure enough, the next day it's right back on the hard drive.  By this time they're thinking about calling the X-Files.   I have a better idea - delete the file properly and you won't have the next Stephen King novel to worry about.

When you delete a file you don't open it up in the application, let's say Word, and delete the data inside the file and then save your changes.  You still have the file name, the file extension, and all the other file specifications.  What you don't have is any data in that file.  But you still in fact, have the file.  It's just a shell of its former self!  If you want to delete a file, you don't have to open the file, delete the contents and then save it.  You go to My Computer or Windows Explorer, click once on the file name, press the <delete> key on your keyboard and you've deleted the file itself and all of its content.