1. Organizing Files What is a file?
A file is a collection of related pieces of information stored together for easy reference.
In an Operating System
A file is a collection of program instructions or data stored and treated as a single unit.

2. How is the hard drive organized?
The “C” drive is the top of the file structure.
It is usually referred to as the “Root Directory”
Windows Explorer can be used to view the files on our system.

3. Naming Files The format of a file is: filename.xxx
The letters following the dot is the file extension.
The file extension identifies the type of family of files the file belongs to or which application should be used to read the file.

4. Extension
Application Used
.doc or .docx
Microsoft Word
.xls
Microsoft Excel
.mdb
Microsoft Access
.ppt
Microsoft Powerpoint
.pdf
Adobe Reader
.txt
Text file
.htm or .html
Web Page
.bmp or .jpg or .gif
Image
.zip
Winzip

5. File Path C:/My Documents/Spring 2009/English Comp/Ebronte.jpg
Drive location
Extension
Filename
Primary Folder
Subfolders