Where are Your (Final Exam) Files

You have all heard the question, "It's 11 O'Clock. Do you know where your children are?" Well, look for this on the Final: "It's Final Exam time. Do you know where your files are?"

Each exam, a few people do not have their exam files saved on the floppy diskette, or do not have the latest versions on the floppy. I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "but I thought..." Stop right there. What's wrong? For the Final, especially in Rackham, this is absolutely critical. The chances are that, if the files are not on your floppy, then they are on the hard drive. Many times I check, or ask you to check, the files are found, and you lose just a small amount of credit for not saving to the floppy. However, the hard drives in Rackham are completely erased soon after the finals to get ready for the next semester. This may also happen at NWAC. So, for the final, this backup does not work. This time, I will put on a question that asks what you have done to make sure that the latest copy of your files are on the floppy. Check the location in the order:

  1. Drive
  2. Folders (if any)
  3. File name

Here are some good ways to check, saving the best for last.

  1. Open the File / Save As... dialog and see what it says for the drive and file name. If you have saved the file at all, Save As... remembers the last place that you saved the file. If you are just checking, you can click on the Cancel button after you have checked.
  2. Use Windows Explorer (NWAC: Windows NT Explorer) to check that the file is on the floppy, that it has the right date, and that the time is reasonable. If the date and time are not shown, change this by choosing the View / Details menu item or clicking on the Details button shown below
    Details.gif (2409 bytes)
    Personally, I want to see the file extension also. If Windows Explorer is configured so that the extension is hidden from you, reconfigure it using the View / Options menu item and setting up the boxes as shown below. Please note in this figure that: (a) the Options dialog is shown shortened to take up less room on the page and (b) in Windows NT (NWAC) there is a fourth check box at the bottom of the Options dialog that is unimportant here.
    showwhat.gif (9476 bytes)
  3. The best! Close the application, open the application again, use Open to open the file from the floppy (double-check the drive), and see that all of your changes are there. While this may seem like a lot of trouble, it only takes a minute or two. If you open it from the list of four files at the bottom of the File menu item, or for Access, from the opening dialog, you may not pay enough attention to the drive. So use Open.