Saving your work
Before you turn off the computer, save your work to the hard disk
drive or a diskette. This is one of the most important rules of
computing.
NOTE: Save data even when you are using Standby, in case
the battery discharges before you return to work.
Many programs offer a feature that saves documents at regular
intervals, such as every 15 minutes. Check your programs'
documentation to see if they have an automatic-save feature.
To save:
❖
A file you are updating, open the File menu of your Windows
program and click Save.
❖
A new file, choose Save As from the File menu, type a name
for the file and click OK.
HINT: To make another copy of the file you are currently
working with, choose Save As from the File menu and give
the new file a different name.
File names
Windows 95 and newer operating systems support file names of
up to 255 characters. You may use all the letters and numbers on
the keyboard plus the following characters:
_,^,$,~,!,#,%,&,{,},(,),@,[,], +, -,; , and '. The names can include
spaces.
Most programs assign an extension of a period and up to three
characters that identifies the file as having a particular format. For
example, Microsoft Word saves files with a
Learning the Basics
Saving your work
Part I: Getting to Know Your Computer
71
extension.
.doc