Module 1Free7 min read

Where files actually live (and how to never lose one)

Folders, paths, file types and a naming system that makes searching almost unnecessary.

Phones hid the file system from us, so an entire generation arrived at work never having seen a folder. Then someone says "put it in the shared drive under Q3" and it's genuinely confusing.

Let's fix that in seven minutes.

The filing cabinet

A computer's storage is a filing cabinet.

Drive — the cabinet itself (C: on Windows, Macintosh HD on Mac)
Folder — a drawer, and drawers can contain more drawers
File — an actual document
Path — the full route to a file

C:\Users\Meera\Documents\Work\2025\budget.xlsx

Read it left to right like an address, getting more specific: this drive → this user → Documents → Work → 2025 → this file.

File extensions

The letters after the final dot say what kind of file it is.

Extension	What it is	Opens in
`.docx`	Word document	Word, Google Docs
`.xlsx`	Spreadsheet	Excel, Google Sheets
`.pptx`	Presentation	PowerPoint, Slides
`.pdf`	Fixed document, looks identical everywhere	Any PDF reader
`.csv`	Plain text table	Excel, anything
`.jpg` / `.png`	Images (png keeps transparency)	Anything
`.zip`	A folder squashed into one file	Right-click → Extract

Naming files so future-you can cope

Bad, and universally recognised:

report.docx
report final.docx
report final FINAL.docx
report final FINAL v2 use this one.docx

Good:

2025-03-14-sales-report-v2.docx

Three rules:

1Date first, as YYYY-MM-DD. This is the magic bit — it sorts chronologically automatically, because 2025-03 sorts before 2025-11. Write it as 14-03-2025 and sorting becomes nonsense.
2What it is, in a few plain words, no spaces at the start.
3Version at the end, if there'll be versions.

A folder structure that survives

Don't over-engineer it. Three levels is enough:

Work/
  2025/
    Clients/
      Sharma-Traders/
      Kumar-Co/
    Reports/
    Admin/
  Templates/
  Archive/

Cloud drives

Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox put a folder on your computer that syncs to the internet automatically.

Two things beginners get wrong:

1Saving to Desktop instead of the synced folder. Desktop files aren't backed up. When your laptop dies, they're gone. Save inside the Drive folder and it's on the internet within seconds.
2Sharing wrongly. When you share a link, check whether it says "Anyone with the link can view" or "can edit". Sending edit access to a whole mailing list is how a finished document gets accidentally rewritten.

Three keys that save you constantly

Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on Mac) — save. Press it every few minutes out of pure habit.
Ctrl+F — find, inside almost any document or web page.
Windows key (or Cmd+Space on Mac) — then start typing a file name to find it instantly. Faster than clicking through folders, always.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

A path is a file's full address; the letters after the last dot tell you the file type.
Name files starting with the date as YYYY-MM-DD so they sort themselves chronologically.
Save into your synced cloud folder, never the Desktop, and check whether a share link grants view or edit.

Your tiny task

Pick the messiest folder on your computer and rename five files using the date-first format. Then press the Windows key (or Cmd+Space) and find one of them by typing part of its name.

It takes a few minutes and it’s the bit that makes the lesson stick.

Quick check

0 of 3 answered

Three questions. Get one wrong and you’ll get a hint — there’s no penalty and you can try again straight away.

Why should a file name start with the date written as 2025-03-14?
You are sending a document to a client outside your company. Which format is safest?
Why is saving important work to the Desktop risky?

Your score is saved to your dashboard.

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Next lesson

Up next: Word, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Calendar

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