Open and save files

- [Instructor] Just about any time you work in an application in which you are creating, editing, or otherwise modifying some kind of content, you'll be producing and saving your work as files. For example, when you type up a report in a word processor, the report is saved as an individual file, which you can then reopen in the application to continue working on it. Or if you're editing a video you shot of a grade school recital, you're saving that video project as a file too. So it's important to understand the basic concepts involved in opening and saving files. For this example, I'll open up a built-in application in Windows 10 called Notepad. I can find it by going to the Start menu, scrolling down to Windows Accessories, and here is Notepad. And once I select that app, it starts and opens a new blank document for me to type in. Now in some apps, to create a new document or other project, you need to choose File, New. But in the case of Notepad, it automatically created a new document for me. And I'll just type a few words here. Now anytime you're actively working on a document or a project, it's a good practice to save your file periodically so you don't lose your work should the electricity go out or some other issue with your computer pops up. To save what I've written so far, I'll choose File, Save. That opens this window, prompting me to choose a location on my computer to save it. Notice it's automatically selected My Documents folder, but I can navigate to any other part of my computer, for example, maybe I'll just save this on the desktop. I also should name the file. Right now it just has an asterisk in place of the file name, but it also has this dot txt as part of the name. That txt is called a file extension. The purpose of including a file extension in the name of your file is to identify what kind of file this is. So if it needs to be opened by someone else, their computer has a better chance of knowing which application to use to open it. So plain text files like this one are dot txt files, Microsoft Word files are dot doc, Adobe Photoshop files or dot psd and so on. For the most part, your computer will be able to open files with hidden or missing extensions with the right applications, but if you have to share this file with someone running a different operating system, their computer might not know what application to use. So I always leave the extension as part of the file name, and I suggest you do too. So I'm going to save this on my desktop as story.txt. I'll click Save. And now my document is saved, and you can see it sitting here on the desktop. Now I'm going to close Notepad. If I want to reopen that file, the fastest way to do so in this instance is to double click it since it's sitting here in plain view on my desktop. Now if Notepad is already open, and I want to open a different document I previously worked on, I could choose File, Open, which lets me browse for my file wherever it is on my computer. Many applications also have a file open recent command, which gives you a list of your most recently opened documents so you have quick access to them. Notepad being a very basic text editor doesn't have this option. But there's a slightly more powerful built-in word processor called WordPad in accessories. Again, I'll go to the Start menu, to Windows Accessories, and here I'll locate WordPad. Now, WordPad's File menu looks a little different than Notepad's, but you get the same options. When I click File, you can see New, Save and Open. We also have a Recent documents area, which we can see over here to the right. And that shows me the documents I've most recently worked with in WordPad, and I can select them here to open them up again. And you'll find that most other applications also offer the ability to open recently used documents and files. All right, so those are the basic things you should understand about opening and saving files. What I've shown you here applies to almost every application out there. You will find some applications that save your files or data automatically and don't even offer a save command so you can do it yourself, but those are much more rare, and you should still get into the habit of saving your files regularly while working on them.