Order and Organization: Managing Files and Folders

Reading time: about 7 min

You now have a system where you can navigate and install the programs you need. A big step! But what happens with all the files you create, lesson plans, student work, pictures, and downloaded material? Where are they saved and how do you find them?

In this lesson we go through Ubuntu's file manager and the important "Home" directory. Understanding how you organize your files is the key to an efficient and stress-free digital work life, regardless of operating system.

What You Will Learn

After this lesson you will be able to:

Use the Files program (Ubuntu's equivalent to Explorer).
Understand the central role your personal Home directory has.
Create a logical folder structure to organize your school work.
Perform basic file management like creating, moving, copying, and deleting files.

The Basics: Your Digital Filing Cabinet - The Home Directory

In Windows you are used to everything starting from "This PC" and the C: drive. In Ubuntu your world is much more centered around a single place: your Home directory.

The Files Program: To manage files you use the Files program (in English "Nautilus"). You can easily find it in your Dock, the icon looks like a filing cabinet.

The Home Directory (/home/yourusername): Think of the Home directory as your very own, protected space on the computer. Everything that is yours, your documents, pictures, downloads, and settings, lives here. When you open Files you almost always start in your Home directory.

Inside you find a number of pre-created folders to help you keep order:

Documents: For your texts, lesson plans, and other work documents.
Pictures: For photographs and other graphics.
Downloads: Everything you download from the web ends up here by default.
Music and Videos: For your media files.
Desktop: Files you put directly on the desktop surface are in this folder.

Pro tip: Try to always save your own files inside your Home directory. The rest of the file system contains the operating system's own files. You can see it as you being the king in your own "Home castle," but a guest in the rest of the system.

Practical Examples: Working with Files

Working in Files is very similar to Explorer in Windows.

Navigation:

Sidebar: To the left you see your favorite places, like Home, Documents, and Trash. Click on them to quickly jump there.
Path bar: At the top you see which folder you are in. You can click on the folder names in the path to go back up in the hierarchy.

Create folders: Having a good folder structure is essential. For a teacher it might look like this: ~/Documents/Teaching/Subject_Grade/WorkArea

To create a new folder: Right-click in an empty space and select New Folder. Give it a suitable name.

Move and copy files:

Drag-and-drop: You can easily move files and folders by clicking and dragging them to another folder.
Copy/Paste: Right-click on a file and select Copy or Cut. Then navigate to the target folder, right-click, and select Paste.

Rename and delete:

Rename: Right-click on a file/folder and select Rename.
Delete: Select a file and press the Delete key on the keyboard, or right-click and select Move to Trash. Files in the trash can be restored if you accidentally delete something by mistake.

Exercise: Create a Lesson Structure

Now you get to test your new knowledge by creating a simple and practical folder structure for your teaching.

Open the Files program.
Go to your Documents folder.
Create a new folder named My_Teaching.
Enter the My_Teaching folder and create two new folders: Math_Grade8 and Science_Grade8.
Enter Math_Grade8. Create an empty text document by right-clicking and selecting New Document > Empty Document. Name the file Test_Algebra_week42.txt.
Copy the file and paste the copy in the Science_Grade8 folder.

Next Steps

Excellent! Now you have full control over your files and can keep order in your digital material. When the system starts filling with important information, the next step becomes crucial: making sure everything is secure.

In the next lesson, Security, Updates, and Backups, you will learn the simple routines for keeping your Ubuntu system protected, updated, and ready for unexpected events.

From Windows to Ubuntu