The Magic of Macintosh... Lesson 4

The Magic of Macintosh... Lesson 4 Files - Where Do They Come From? Where Do They Go?... This is a very simple topic, but it can create some of computer life s biggest mysteries. Let s make it simple. Every time you create something using a software program on your computer, you create a File. File is Mac-speak for document. In most software programs, you must intentionally, and manually, Save the File or it will disappear when you quit the software program. When you Save the File, you choose where to put it, and hopefully, you will then know where to find it again. So, let s just step through the sequence of creating and saving a File using one of the best and simplest little software programs on your Mac - Text Edit. Text Edit is a word processor (not a fancy one but an adequate one), and we will explore it a bit later, but for now, we will just use it for our demo. You can find Text Edit in the Applications Folder. If it is not on the main list, it may be in the Utilities Folder within the Applications Folder. It is a useful enough program to reside on your Side Bar or in the Dock, but wherever it is, a Mac Power User might just grab it using Spotlight. By the time you have typed Text in the Spotlight box, Text Edit is already on the list. As you get used to Spotlight, you might find yourself using it constantly to grab whatever File, Folder, or Application you want at the moment. Unless something is already on your Side Bar, it s the fastest way to get to it. Text Edit will open a blank document with the cursor already flashing and waiting for you to type something. If you add nothing and just close this window, it just disappears. as if it never existed. 1

But if you add anything at all, it becomes a File. Write yourself a cute little note. Let s Save this File. Click Save under the File Menu. You get taken to a place that seems to be confusing to a lot of people, and which looks like this. See how it looks like a Finder Window? That s because it is a Finder Window, and it behaves just like one. You use it to navigate to the Folder where you want to Save this File. If this is a newly created File, the Window will probably open to the Desktop Folder by default. From there, you can use all the info we learned in this workshop so far, to find the place you want to put your File. You can use your Side Bar to go to another Folder or choose one using any type of View in the Window. Try clicking this button. 2

It gives you the path to the current Folder - in this case, the Desktop is in jessica, which is in Users, which is in the Hard Drive. Below is a Recent Places section where five of the most recently visited Folders are listed for you to choose from. Give your new File a name (I called mine Note To Self). The other part of a File name is the Extension. The Extension consists of a dot (period) and 3-5 letters. The Extension identifies the type of File it is - like a.jpg File, we know to be a photo File. Many software programs have their own Extensions - like Indesign saves.indd Files and Photoshop saves.psd files. And most programs can save more than one type of File. Text Edit can save your File seven different ways! The.RTF (Rich Text Format) is the most common because it saves any formatting you did to the text. It is a very good idea to uncheck this box if it appears. Having the Extension as part of the File name is a good way to instantly know what type of File it is, so why hide it? In the Save Window, you also have the opportunity to create a New Folder to hold your File. Click this button. 3

Name your New Folder Correspondence and click Create. The new folder will be created inside the currently open Folder shown in the Save Window (in this case, the Desktop Folder), and it will replace that Folder as the active one, so your File will be Saved in it when you click Save. Quit the Text Edit program. Summary: We have just created a brand new File using the Text Edit program, and we have named that file Note to Self and have Saved it in a new Folder named Correspondence that we created inside the Desktop Folder. Our new File will have an.rtf Extension in its name because we Saved it in a Rich Text Format. If any of that is even a bit confusing, go back and do it again. Creating and Saving Files is what computing is all about and so you need to have a good understanding of exactly what is going on when you do that. We will now go to our Desktop and look for the new Correspondence Folder we made. You might see it as an icon on your desktop. Or you will find it listed as a Folder in your Desktop Folder... Double click to open it... 4

And there s your File. We are going to talk a bit about what you can do with Files... And the first thing is that you can double click to open both the File and the software that created it (in most cases). Double click the name of the File It should open and launch the Text Edit program at the same timel. Next, we want to understand a very important function called Save As. I use this twenty times a day at a least! To demo, let s add a sentence or two to our Note. Many times, we want to make changes to a File but we do not want to change the original. An example of this might be a letter you want to send to several members of the family, but you want to change the intro to be personal to each recipient. The Save As command is found under the File Menu under the Save command, and what it does is Save a copy of your changed note As a separate file with another name. In the family letter example above, you might open the original Letter File, change the heading, and Save As that copy as Letter to Bob or some such title. The original letter would remain unchanged, so you could open it again to make changes for a Letter to Sue and Save As that copy. And so on. 5

We are Saving this changed File As Note To Self PS. This will Save the renamed copy to the same folder as the original File - unless you choose a different Folder to put it in, and it will change the open File to the new one. Your open File is now Note to Self PS. You can see this in the title. Your original Note To Self File is no longer open. It has been closed without any changes being made to it, so you can open it and use it again. That covers the basics of making and Saving a File. Now we can talk about what we can do with the Files we make and Save. If you double-click a File, you Open it. If you single click a File, you Select it... You can also right-click the File name and get a drop-down menu with the Get Info command on it. Too many ways to do everything, right? This right click drop-down menu duplicates several items from the regular File menu. Once a File is selected, there are lots of things you can do with it. A biggie is the Get Info window. Select a File, and type Command-I, or choose Get Info from the File Menu Perhaps the most interesting in the Compress Command. This instantly gives you a Zipped copy of the File, eliminating the need for Zipping software. A Zipped Copy is both compressed to a smaller File size, and protected for online sending. Very Cool. But I digress... 6

The Get Info Window has been around since the beginning, but it was a tiny infant version of what it is now. This window tells you everything you want to know about your File and stuff you didn t even know you wanted to know: Format, Size, Location, Creation Date, Modification Date are here. The Spotlight Comments box allows you to add keywords and phrases that will help you find this File in the future. Color File Labeling is a very convenient thing and we will talk about that next time. If you check the Stationary Pad box, you turn the File into a template until you uncheck this box again. When double-clicked, it will open a copy automatically and not the original. Checking the Locked box makes the File a read-only file meaning that it ca be opened and read, but it cannot be changed. You can change the Name of the File and hide the Extension through the Get Info Window should you want to do that. Open With is an important feature. Text Edit is set as the default application associated with this File, but you can change that to another application if you so desire. The pull down menu offers other choices of compatible programs. Once you have chosen another program, the Change All button becomes active. By clicking Change All, you are saying that all RTF Files on your computer should open in Pages (in this example) instead of Text Edit. This becomes more important when dealing with Files that can be opened in several different programs, like photo files. Using the Get Info window for any.jpg photo file, and setting it to Open With Photoshop Elements, and then clicking the Change All button, would result in all.jpg files on your computer opening with Photoshop Elements when double-clicked. 7

You can make a Duplicate of a File by clicking once to select it, and then typing Command+D. The copy will have the same name followed by the word copy. You would probably want to change the name of that copy to something else. Double-clicking a File name at a slightly slower speed than you would double-click to open it, highlights the File name so you can type a new one. The problem is that the clicking speed thing can be very tricky. You often end up opening a File when you only wanted to change its name or correct the spelling of its name, etc. If the File is set to open with Photoshop or some other program that takes a long time to launch, it can be really frustrating having to wait while the program goes through its whole opening sequence, just so you can shut it down again.. A much easier way to select the name for changes is to click once and then hit the Enter Key on your keyboard. This key is also called the Return Key these days. Type your change and then hit the Enter Key again to save the change. With this method, you might never accidently open a file again. Dragging Files I am pretty sure everyone knows that Files can be dragged from one Folder to another. That s another way to put Files where you want them. When you drag a File from one Folder to another within your Mac, you are moving the actual File from one place to another. However, when you drag Files from your Mac to another Device, or from another Device into your Mac, you are actually making a copy, and the original stays right where it was. 8

The advent of the internet brought us the terms Upload and Download. Upload refers to copying your Files from your computer to a server on the internet. Download refers to copying Files from the internet to your computer. The terminology comes from that feeling that the internet is some big place up there in the sky. Like heaven. But when the internet is not involved, it is more clear to just refer to copying Files from here to there. About Photo Files This is a general Macintosh workshop, not a photography workshop, and in the last chapter of my Art of Digital Photography Workshop, I talk extensively about photo files, formats, resolutions, etc. However, because all of us have so many digital photo files, it is appropriate to use them as an example of how to put some of what we have learned into action. From Camera to Mac The best way to get photo Files from your camera to your Mac is to drag them. It may surprise you, but allowing your photos to come in through the iphoto doorway is a big mistake. A photo File is a file like any other file. They should be kept in a folder on your Mac where they can be organized and accessed through all the ways we have been learning. And where they will not be changed unless you change them. The problem with programs like iphoto is that they keep your photos in their own system, and you cannot access them from the outside. The only way to get a photo free so you can work with it in other software is to export a copy. This is tiresome and troublesome to say the least. But the biggest problem for important images is that iphoto works only in JPG format. JPG is a lossy compression format which means that every Save throws out some pixels. This is obvious damage to your image. Worst of all, if you have a camera that shoots at a resolution higher than 72ppi (like Olympus SLRs shoot at 314ppi), iphoto reduces your photo on import!! It turns that 314ppi into 72ppi but does not increase the dimensions of the photo to retain all the image info. In other words, it makes the pixels much bigger without making the overall photo bigger - throwing out all kinds of pixels to make it fit. If you know what I am talking about, you know that is a terrible thing. If you don t know what I m talking about, trust me that it is a terrible thing. If your camera has a removable memory card - which all do except for the iphone, you do not need iphoto to import your files. 9

IPhoto is a fine program for playing with your photos if your photos are intended for play. In other words, used for any web use or slide shows or email. IPhoto can even turn out a decent print for journaling. It is also a fine way to learn about Aperture, which is the big brother of iphoto and capable of handling important photographs. But, if your photographs are important, meaning you may use them for framing, notecards, and other printed projects, they should be kept in their own Folders like all your other important files. How to bring your photos into Mac... Most cameras will allow themselves to be plugged into your Mac s USB port and they will act as a card reader. In other words, they will allow the memory card (which is a little hard drive that holds your photos) to be seen as a connected Device from which you can drag files into your computer. Just a few models of camera do not (some Canons and Kodaks). They want you to import through their software, or through iphoto etc. However, these cameras do have removable memory cards. So you would need to buy a memory card reader - available at any office supply for about $15. This is a little Device that plugs into your USB port. You place your memory card in the slot and it can then be recognized as a connected Device by your Mac. Many MacBooks have a memory card reader for SD memory cards built in. I usually begin by opening a new Finder Window, choosing it under the File Menu or typing Command+N I have inserted my SD Card from my Fuji pocket camera into the memory card slot on my MacBook Pro. It shows up as an Untitled Device in my sidebar. Double-Clicking opens it. There is usually a Folder called DCIM at the top level with another Folder within that, which will be named whatever your camera named it. Within that Folder are your photo files. 10

I use my own personal Folder system for my photos that works for me, and you will make up your system that will work for the way you do things. There is no right or wrong. In my system, I have a Folder I call Photo Depot. Because I have thousands of photos, I have a numbered series of these Depot Folders. Photo Depot 5 is my current one. All previous Depot Folders are stored on back-up hard drives - more than one copy on more than one drive. That may seem like overkill, but as a professional photographer, I need to protect my images from loss. Within my Photo Depot 5 Folder, are Folders for every shoot. They are labelled with the name of the camera used and the Date of the shoot. For example Fuji 11/12/10 or Olympus 10/27/10. I have a Finder Window open with my memory card as shown on page 10. I open a second Finder Window and navigate to my Photo Depot 5 Folder, make a New Folder in there for the shoot, and Select and drag the photo files to the new Folder. A Tip on Selecting Several Files at Once... If you hold down the Shift Key, you can click on the first and last File in the list and all Files between will selected as well. If you hold down the Command Key, you can click on random Files to select them without selecting the Files between. Click a selected File again with the Command Key still held down to deselect it. 11

You have copied your photo Files from the Folder on the memory card to the new Folder on your Mac. You have not moved them off your card to your Mac. They are still there on the card as well. Therefore, they must be deleted from your memory card in order to make room for the next photos you take. This is a three step process and it is VERY important that you do all three steps before you pull that card from the card slot or card reader, or unplug your camera if that is how you are connected. STEP 1 Your photo Files on the card are probably still selected. If not select them all. Do NOT select the Folder they are in. Drag the Files to the Trash Folder at the bottom right of your screen in the Dock (the Trash is a Folder too.) Or - much easier - click the Delete icon you put in your customized ToolBar. STEP 2 Go under the Finder Menu and Empty the Trash. This step is very important. If you do not do it, the files will still be on your card but they will not show up because you have removed their addressing information by putting them in your computer Trash but not completely deleting them by Emptying the Trash. They will fill up your card and mystify you because the card will look empty but not have any room on it. So always Empty your Trash (good advice in life too!) STEP 3 Hit the Eject icon next to your Untitled card. It will disappear from the Devices on your Side Bar and it is now safe to remove the card from the card slot or card reader, or unplug your camera. 12

TIP: It is better to use a card reader than to plug in your camera with its USB cord because it saves battery life and wear and tear on the camera. Be sure to buy a card reader that will read your type of memory card(s). Most card readers will read most kinds of memory cards. HOMEWORK... This week, you have homework to get ready for next week. Make yourself a mother Folder for your photographs - like my Photo Depot Folder. Put it in a prominent location like the Desktop because you will use it so often. If you have photos currently in your camera, copy them to Folders you create within your Photo Folder. Give the Folders a naming system that will work for you. If you are one of those people who keep all of their photos on their camera until the card fills, it s time to get them off and into a safe place. Memory cards get handled too much to be permanent safe storage. Copy them all into one Folder and then view them in Icon View and open a second Finder Window to sort them into Folders according to time or subject. You can have two or more Finder Windows showing the same thing at once. In other words, the Folders inside your mother Photo Folder. Have the two windows next to each other. That way you can open a Folder in the left window in Icon View so you can see the photo images and sort them into other Folders that would be showing in the right window in List View. If you have been allowing iphoto to own your photos, you can export the important ones into Folders in your Photo Depot Folder. Open one of the Events, Select all the photos in it and choose Export under the iphoto File Menu. It is very important to choose Original in the Kind box. Otherwise, your photos will be compressed via JPG and lose more pixels You want the closest thing to what came from your camera. iphoto edits will not be copied in the Export, but they will still be there in the iphoto copy. 13

Note: Exporting from iphoto makes a copy and does not move the photos out of iphoto. When you click the Export button, you will be taken to a Finder Window where you can navigate to your mother Photo Folder. Click the New Folder button to create a new Folder for these Exported photos and give it an appropriate name of your choosing. Click the Create button, then OK, and the contents of that iphoto Event will be exported in their original condition to your new Folder where they will behave as ordinary Files that you can access freely. Next week, we will do some purging, sorting, and organizing with your photo files. The Magic of Mac, Lesson 4 2010, Jessica Wesolek, Santa Fe, NM For student use only. You may not share, sell or redistribute this document by any means. 14