What a file actually is
Exactly what you are looking at when you see an icon with a name underneath it — and why nothing you save is ever floating loose.
A file is a single item you have made or been sent: a letter, a photograph, a bank statement, a piece of music. One file, one thing.
Whatever it happens to be, the computer treats it in exactly the same way. It has a name, it has a size, and it sits in one particular place on the machine. There is nothing more mysterious to it than that.
Each file takes up a certain amount of room, measured in kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes. You will meet those three words constantly, so it is worth getting a rough feel for them now.
Key points
- A file is one item with a name, a size and a place
- A folder is a container that holds files and other folders
- A name ending in a full stop and a few letters is a file; a plain name is usually a folder
- Nothing you save is ever floating loose — it is always somewhere specific
What to remember
- A file has a size. A folder has a list. That one difference tells you which you are holding, every time.
- Programs are tools. Files are what you keep.
- A full stop and two to four letters at the end almost always means a file. No ending almost always means a folder.
- Before we go on — how would you describe the state of your own files at the moment?
Try this
Look at your own desktop and count how many of the things on it are files and how many are folders. You are looking for the full stop near the end of the name. It takes about a minute.
Practice: What a file actually is. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.