Downloading and using files

Files are the backbone of the Internet. Every website we view is a combination of files lumped, linked, and grouped together. Files can take the face of digitized photos, songs (entire albums), tax forms, visual art, movies/animated shorts, and etc. etc.

This lesson will go over several of the different types of files we may commonly come across while browsing the Internet, as well as methods of saving these files to a disk for use in the future.

It may be a good idea to review the information on files in the Intro to web browsing lesson from Introduction to the Internet before proceeding with this lesson. Pay special attention to the section about File Types.

What's in a name?

Because they can be so different from each other, it may be best to read a full file name from right to left, that is reading the file extension before reading the file name. The file extension is the best way to determine what kind of file it will be. Take the following full file name:

king.jpg

From the full file name alone we can determine several things:

1. The file is an image.
   From the "jpg" file extension, we determine that this particular file is an image.

2. The file may be about, or have something to do with a king.
   Since file names may often identify some unique attribute a particular file may have, we infer that this particular file may have something to do with a King.

3. The file is a hyperlink.
   There are several clues that this file is a hyperlink: the name is a different color that the body text, the full file name is underlined, and most importantly, the cursor turns into a pointing finger when it is over the file name. (see the lesson on hypertext and hyperlinks for more info on links).

Clicking on the file will tell us that our guesses were correct, it was indeed a picture of a king. Bravo. However, look at the file below:

image27.gif

From the full file name alone we can determine some things:

1. The file is an image.
   From the "gif" file extension, we determine that this particular file is an image.

2. This file has something to do with the number 27.
   Maybe it's the 27th image on a page. Maybe it was the 27th image that the web developer scanned that day. Maybe the image is 27 inches wide. We're not really sure of the importance of 27.

3. The file is a hyperlink.
   There are several clues that this file is a hyperlink: the name is a different color that the body text, the full file name is underlined, and most importantly, the cursor turns into a pointing finger when it is over the file name.

Clicking on the hyperlink for image27.gif lets us know it is indeed another picture of the King himself. While we were unable to determine what the image would be of, we were certain that the link was indeed an image. The moral of the story is that full file names always let us predict what kind of file it will be (image, sound, text, document, etc.), but may or may not inform us of what the particular file will be of (a picture of Elvis Presley, a picture of Kevin Berner).

Therefore, a file extension can be the most helpful thing when trying to determine what kind of file we are observing. Here is a list of widely used extensions (all named sample). This is not to be memorized, just used as a reference:

Filling the disk

Let's say you have found a file that you would like to keep for future enjoyment— whether it is a digitized photo of the king, or a live recording of Elvis singing Suspicious Minds. Because the Internet is huge and changes frequently, it may be a good idea to download the file and keep it for future reference. If we are able to view a file, we usually have the freedom to select a file to download and place it for future reference. The following section will show some sample files, as well as instructions on how to download them to a disk. Here's some vocabulary you'll need before moving on:

Dialog Box: A dialog box allows is a pop-up window which allows a channel of communication (dialog) between the user and the computer. Dialog boxes pop-up in a variety of situations.

Task one: Downloading an Image

The Internet has tons of images to collect and keep. While it violates copyright laws to distribute or sell these images, it is not illegal to download these images for personal use unless the website states otherwise. It is always best to double check to see if a particular website has a sharing policy with images. We will be practicing with the image below:

A blooper from the filming of Star Wars I, A New Hope, The Stormtrooper on the right smacks his head.

The image above visually shows a blooper from Star Wars I. In reality, it is just a file with thousands of characters in code, decoded by our web browser and computers to display as an image on our computer screens. We can print this image if we wanted to, but the quality on a black and white printer would be less than optimal. We can save it to disk, and appreciate it at a later date, perhaps on a different computer. Follow these simple steps:

1. Place a 3.5" floppy disk into your Floppy (A:) drive.

2. Holding your mouse pointer over the center of the image, right mouse-click once.

3. A menu of options will drop down. Among the options are View Image [trooperblooper.jpg], Set Image as Wallpaper, and Save Image As...: BINGO!
   Left-mouse Click on Save Image As...

The pop-up Dialog Box which appears when you select "Save Image As . . ." or "Save Link As . . ." from the option menu.

4. A Dialog Box will pop-up (see right), inquiring as to where on your computer you would like to save the image file, and inquiring as to what you would like to name the image. Click on the drop down navigation menu, and select 3.5" Floppy (A:) from the list of selections. It should be toward the top.

5. Provide a name for the file in the File name textbox. If one is already in the File name textbox, you can keep it as-is. If it is not, you must provide a name. The name of the Stormtrooper image is: trooperblooper.jpg

6. Click the Save button to the right of the File name textbox.

Congrats. Now this file is saved digitally to your floppy disk for appreciation in the future.

Task Two: Downloading a Sound/Song

While images can appear visually in the body of the text, sounds can only appear as a hyperlink to the particular file (you can't see a sound, can you?). We may be tempted to click on it like we would with any other hyperlink and hope for the best. However, sounds work best when we download them before we play them. Depending on how new your web browsing program is, it will usually give you a disheartening error message when you try to click on a sound as if it were a hyperlink. Follow these quick steps to download sound files:

1. First, determine the hyperlink is linked to a sound file. Look for contextual clues that the hyperlink may be a sound.

2. Once you know (or have a good idea) that a certain hyperlink is linked to a sound file, hold the mouse pointer over the hyperlink and click the right mouse button. You will see the option menu.

3. Select Save Link As . . . from the option menu. Our familiar "Save As . . ." Dialog Box will open.

4. Inspect the full name to make sure that the file to be downloaded is indeed a sound file (compare to above file extension table).

5. Select a place to save the file. Perhaps the 3.5" floppy drive if it is a small file, or somewhere on the hard drive if it is a large file. Additional options include a CD-RW or Flash Drive. Create a new name if needed which will allow you to easily locate the file.

6. Find the file on your computer or floppy disk, and double click on it's icon.

Give it a whirl by downloading this sound file of Chewbacca: wookie.wav

Task Three: Downloading Images from Hyperlinks

Sometimes, images are not embedded visually within the body of a web page, they are given as normal hyperlinks linked directly to the image file itself. We can treat this similar to how we download sound files.

Here is the same trooper-blooper image, but with the blooping trooper highlighted. Try downloading the image file from the hyperlink: trooperblooper-hlght.jpg

How much will fit on the disk?

There's no quick-n-easy response to the mystery of what determines file sizes. Generally, multimedia files like sounds and movies are the largest files, images are moderately sized, and text-based files like HTML web pages and Word Documents take up the least amount of room. However, there are certainly exceptions. A high-resolution digital image prepared for print can be hundreds of megabytes. A word file with alot of clip art and images can be several megabytes. For quick reference, you can look at this handout on file sizes:

File Sizes Comparison Handout (file-sizes.pdf)

On your own . . .

Try performing an Internet Search (via Search Engine or Internet Directory) for a topic you enjoy, and find some images or sounds to download. You can review the Intro to the Internet lesson on Search Engines and Internet Directories if you need to. A list of search engines is available.

If you would prefer, you can utilize some of these image and sound sources below. All links to external sources will open up in new browser windows:

Simpsons fan page:
http://members.aol.com/HomerNSX/simpsons.html
Some soundbites and images from your favorite animated family.

Classic Movie Sounds from About.com
http://classicfilm.about.com/movies/classicfilm/library/blsounds.htm
One-liners from movies like Casablanca, Ghostbusters, and Planet of the Apes.

WaveFile.net's Movie Wav collection
http://www.wavfile.net/wavs/movies/movies.html
Quotes and one-liners from movies like Back to the Future, Austin Powers, It's a Wonderful Life, and others.