What are they exactly?

A computer file is a resource on the computer, a collection of data which can be a written information, a photo or a graphic. Just as words can be written or drawn onto a piece of paper, information can be written or designed to a computer file. Files can then be edited, sent and shared on the internet.

How do we store files?

Ususally we store our computer files through some kind of system in order to help us find them later. Computers have a system within themselves where they have different automatic storage places depending on the format of the file being saved, whether the file was downloaded or even the date that it was last opened. To make files more accessable to it’s user a good filing system is trivial. Creating a folder that might be relevant to the theme of the file can be a way to store it. Another way could be creating a folder with the names of the people who are likely to need access to it. When a file needs to be used by a big number of people, creating a google doc is a very popular way of storage. When saving between a selected number of people through the internet a dropbox can be a good idea. That can also be a good idea when the file is big, which tends to happen if it contains photos.

How should we name our files?

Naming files may seem a fairly insicnificant thing. However when working in a large workplace, a system of some sort will make things easier for everyone. Things to keep in mind are to try and have the file names short, use underscore or camel case when to be on the safe side. Having the name containing the version number of the file is always good. Same is to be said for the files date, there it is good to keep in mind that format of ordering of the numbers. Not to use dots or hyphens and even start of with the year, rather then day.

What is the difference between the different file formats?

The three big ones are Pdf, jpg and png. PDF stands for a portable document format, which is great for sending files for read only purposes when you want to make sure the embedded fonts, images and hyperlinks are intact, as in not out of place. JPG stands for joint photographic group and is great for sharing and sending images. It compresses and flattens images, without layers. PNG which stands for Portable Network Graphic, differs from JPG in that it supports transparency and is more used for graphic. It compresses through numbers of colours and generally prefers less colours.