Work is saved onto a storage device as a file, and you should always give each file a sensible file name so that you can find it again easily.
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The computer automatically adds a file extension after the file name. This tells you what sort of information the file contains. Some common file extensions are:
| Text | .txt .doc |
| Images | .gif .jpeg |
| Sound | .wav .mp3 |
Files can be organised into different directories or folders to make it easier to find them. This organisation is known as making a directory tree.
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In this directory tree:
- The root directory is called ‘My Files’.
- There are three subdirectories called: ‘Photographs’, ‘Homework’ and ‘Music’.
- There are four files in the ‘Homework’ directory called: ‘Adventure story’, ‘Roman mosaic’, ‘Roman research’ and ‘Town map’.
Sometimes data saved on a storage medium can get lost. This might be because of: a computer virus, accidental deletion, a hardware fault or simply leaving it lying around. It is therefore a good idea to save more than one copy of your work in case the original gets lost. This is known as making a backup.