Explaining computer files to people...

[pam123]

Have you got an answer for this?
I tell them about setting them up.
I explain what will happen if files turn up in the shared folder.
It makes no difference.
Just how difficult is it to get organized?

[rspassey]

Do you mean File Management?

Wikipedia: Computer file - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_file

[HAL9000]

Would you believe that I used the idea of putting dishes away from the dishwasher to explain to one person about a filing system?..... and stranger yet.... it worked!

[pam123]

Originally Posted by HAL9000 Would you believe that I used the idea of putting dishes away from the dishwasher to explain to one person about a filing system?..... and stranger yet.... it worked!

Okay I'll try that.
Something should get the point (necessity) across.

[rspassey]

I use a messy desk / room idea: all the stuff (files) is just sitting around and finding anything that way is very difficult. But, if you take the stuff, and put it into drawers and closets, and cabinets (folders), it's organized and much easier to find.

[Cricket]

Compare it to a real filing cabinet that is located in one room?

Cricket

[Kareeser]

I personally think of my computer as a room as well... and all the extra files that are supposed to be temporary, are pieces of litter.

Of course, my "room" is knee-deep in litter... mostly in the desktop department.

On a related note, however, if I want to explain computer terms to people, an excellent analogy is to use cars.

e.g. Intel is Toyota, Pentium is the Camry, etc...

[freakitchen]

Undoubtadly the biggest problem I have is trying to get people to differentiate between the music files on their computer, and what appears in their choice of media player. I've looked at computers before with triple copies of peoples' music in .mp3, .wma, and .aac - simply because they have three different media players on the system.

Even harder than that? Getting people to organise it

FK

[pam123]

Originally Posted by Kareeser I personally think of my computer as a room as well... and all the extra files that are supposed to be temporary, are pieces of litter. Of course, my "room" is knee-deep in litter... mostly in the desktop department. On a related note, however, if I want to explain computer terms to people, an excellent analogy is to use cars. e.g. Intel is Toyota, Pentium is the Camry, etc...

I'm going to do another "can you find it easily" thing with my customers.
They're sitting ducks for anyone now and this has got to stop.

[rjfvillarosa]

I have always been of the opinion that Windows is like a typical untidy teenager, it drops stuff on the harddrive where ever it was last using it and not bothering to attempt to look for where it should be put. Add to this the human element of natural untidiness and you have instant clutter which creates appalling system lag.
Keep your stuff in order and do frequent defrags and you will be amazed at how much smoother if not faster your machine runs.

[blue60007]

I just read an article in Max PC with a good analogy about frag'ed hard drives (same would kinda apply to file organization). It's like having the cereal bowls in the attic and the spoons in the basement.

Shows pretty well that if you want to have a bowl of cereal you have to do a lot of work running around the house (or your hard drive). Keep the spoons and bowls in the same area (ie, a folder) and you can have your breakfast faster.

[Strider]

Today in my college photoshop course, someone actually took the teacher's folder off the network drive that store some digital photos that everyone in class needed. The instructor put the folder with the picture back on the network drive, but I was thinking about the person who did this. If they don't know how to manage files; how are they going to be any good working with photoshop? It definitely has a person wonder?

[David M]

No analogy is necessary...just relate it to what you have in a file cabinet.

[rwest]

Well whad'ya do about the wife and kids who keep storing everything in 'my documents' or directly to the C drive?

[Kareeser]

If you have family (that is, mainly kids), it may be worth it to make a "Downloads" folder somewhere easily accessible on the computer.

It teaches the kids a bit about basic file management, and when the download pile up, you don't have to pick and choose which programs to delete (like you would if everything ended up on the desktop). Just bin the folder and make a new one

[Marke522]

I keep my old computer in my daughters room, and instead of cleaning the files, about once a year, when it starts to act like a jar of molassis on a cold day I reformat. Much faster. Just leave it alone all year long, then spend one rainy afternoon in front of it reinstalling windows.

NOBODY gets on my computer but me and my wife. She downloads music and puts it wherever she wants. I say yes dear, no trouble.

[pam123]

Kids can be a real problem,
Sometimes if you give them their own folder when you set up their account and tell them that only that folder will be private it can work but only sometime.

[rspassey]

Better to just not allow others to download stuff on your computer. I mean really, besides downloading a bunch of stuff, what are they going to do? Make 50 word documents a day? I don't even let others touch my computer, let alone have any chance of coming close to messing something up