Showing File Extensions for Better Digital scrapbooking Experience
One thing that makes digital scrapbooking easier is if the computer that you are working on shows file extensions. When we are looking for the perfect digital scrapbooking supply to finish off our digital scrapbooking page, being able to see the file extension really saves time!
What are they?
A file name extension is a set of characters added to the end of a file name that determine which program should open it. For example, dog.jpg means that this is a graphic file probably a photo, and because of the name probably a photo of a dog! The JPG extension that comes after the name (dog), tells me that this file is probably a photo or graphic and not an EXCEL Spreadsheet! I can tell a lot about what type of file it is without opening it by just by looking at the file extension! The default setting on most computers today is to have the extensions not showing, but hidden from viewer. In digital scrapbooking being able to see the extension is helpful and really saves time. So, it is nice to have file extensions turned on so that they are not hidden anymore.
Why is it important to digital scrapbooking?
When you can’t see the file extensions on your computer it makes extra work for you! Especially for the Digital Scrapbookers who needs to know before opening digital scrapbooking supplies into Photoshop what they are!
Take a look that the digital scrapbooking supplies below. Three of the supplies have the same name! That is right! Three files are named DSM_Sea_Frame in the same folder! Which one is the one I want?? It might be hard to know for sure. If the extensions had not been hidden then I could have easily seen that I had one that was a PNG file and one a JPG file and the last one a Photoshop file, PSD!
(You can see from the image above that the extensions are not showing.)
When the files are viewable, the digital scrapbookers can easily know that if they want to edit the digital scrapbooking supply they need to open the PSD (Photoshop file) and if they want a finished and completed digital supply without transparencies they need to pick the JPG (graphic without transparency) or if they need the transparency showing so they can put a photo behind then they need to pick the PNG (graphic that retains the transparencies). It is easy to pick the correct file when the extension is showing!!!
How do I get the File Extensions to show on my computer?
Follow these steps to choose if your computer will displays the file extensions.
If you have a PC and Vista Operating System do this:
Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button (See #1), clicking Control Panel (See #2).
Next a window will open, click on Appearance and Personalization.
Then click Folder Options.
A pop up window will appear, Click the View tab.
Then, under Advanced settings, do the following:
To display file extensions, uncheck the box for Hide extensions for known file types check box, and then click OK.
Now when I go back to my folder and look at my files I can see the extensions!
If you would like to see a video showing these steps, then click on the video below:
(Video is about Show Extensions in PC with Vista)
Showing Extensions on Other Computers and Operating Systems:
PC with Windows XP:
For computers with Windows XP, open My Computer and click on the Tools menu. Then open Folder Options > View. In the list of settings that appears, uncheck the box by the entry, “Hide extensions for known file types.”
Mac OS X Computers:
Mac OS X hides file extensions by default, you can choose to show all file extensions, overriding the “Hide extension” setting in the “Get Info” window. To do this, click on the desktop to activate the Finder if it is not already active and select Preferences from the Finder menu. Then click on the Advanced tab in the Finder Preferences window.
Check the “Show all file extensions” box. All file extensions will now be visible both on the desktop and in open windows.
Happy Scrapping and let your file extension show next time you are doing digital scrapbooking projects!
