File Management

Managing your files is really the first skill everyone must master for a class like Multimedia. Every project has its own folder and everything directly related to that project goes IN its folder. We will make an extra couple of folders for things like screenshots to upload to assignments and a place to keep "scratch paper" files away from the important ones, but all the documents, pictures and Adobe program files need to be in

230815 My Favorite Things - Project Folder

which we made in Week 1. Project folders will all "live" in our OneDrive - North East folder, which we didn't make ourselves but which appears when you are fully signed in to both Launchpad and OneDrive - remember, we want a "happy blue cloud". Check the cloud icon each day to see if you need get reconnected.

An unhappy Cloud :-(

We use File Explorer to create folders, copy/paste/move files and examine their details. Stay away from any Quick Access folder or pre-made lists of files and always navigate to the actual folder you working in. In fact, let's turn off Quick Access altogether by opening File Explorer and:

Step 1

Select the View menu option, then click on the last thing on the "ribbon", Options. Select "Change folder and search options".

First, change where the program starts out whenever you run the File Explorer, from the dangerous "Quick Access" location to "This PC".

Second, remove the checks from the "Show recent files" and "Show frequent folders". That way, if you accidentally end up in Quick Access when navigating, you won't seen anything and be led astray.

Click OK when you are done. Close and restart File Explorer.

You now use the Navigation Pane on the left to get from This PC to your project folder. Sometimes we'll go to the Downloads folder to find something we got from the internet but otherwise, keep File Explorer pointed to your current project folder.

Note: If the Navigation Pane is missing for some reason, you can always switch it back on with the first button on the ribbon. This happens by accident sometimes, but normally everything your computer has or is connected to is there on the left. Click on the little arrow to the left of a folder to expand it to see any additional folders inside it. The whole thing is known as a "directory tree". You can think of it as a map.

Step 2

SCRATCH FOLDER

There are some files we don't want OneDrive to be constantly uploading to the Cloud. We are going to make a folder named SCRATCH on our PC for these files, just like you might get out some scratch paper when you are trying to figure out how to work a math problem. Use File Explorer and navigate to This PC, then go to Documents. Use the new folder icon and type SCRATCH in all capitals for the folder name. This is where we will save the screenshot of our project folder for our assignment this week.

Step 3

THE FILE EXPLORER "DETAILS" VIEW

Adding New Detailed Columns

We MUST have more information visible about the files in our project folder. Although demonstrated in class, you will need to watch this video and/or follow the steps below to get important information about the size of the images AND an extra space where we are going to store the web address of the image you found. You will be referred back to this video whenever you need to adjust your File Explorer view of your project files.

Steps to add the Comments and Dimensions columns to your Project Folder details view:

Select the View menu option and select the "Details" view
Make the Details pane visible - it will open on the right hand side
Add the columns for Dimensions and Comments
- Right-click on the text of a column name - any one of them will do (File, Date Modified, Type, Size, etc...)
- Uncheck the "Tags" label to hide that column (we don't need that one and can use the space)
- Click "More" and find "Comments" and "Dimensions"
- Re-order the columns so that Dimensions comes before Comments
Select a file (your Word document) to show its Details on the right hand side

Below is a highlighted snip of the screen you will be turning in as your second assignment. The snipping tool allows you to select a portion of the screen and save it as an image file to a folder we will name ASSIGNMENTS - this will be one of the ways you can demonstrate your progress on a project. Watch the videos at the bottom of this page to review how to take a snip, where to save it, and how to turn it in to Google Classroom.

230822 Snipping Project Folder Details.mp4

The Snipping Tool

Use the older Snipping Tool instead of Snip 'n Sketch to capture a portion of the screen and save it to your computer. Remember, we are using our "SCRATCH" folder instead of saving things like this in with our project. Easier to find and turn in!

230822 Details View - Firstname Lastname

Turning in a File

Files saved on our computer instead of in Google Drive require us to use Add, File and Browse to navigate to where the file is. If you have trouble, make sure the file is not in use when you are trying to attach and upload it to Google Classroom.