The following instructions, images, illustrations, and outline are based on the use of a PC computer operating under the Microsoft Windows 11 operating system. The details and images in these instructions may vary if you are using a different computer, operating system, or electronic device; for example, if you are using a PC computer operating under the Windows 10 operating system, or if you are using an Apple/Macintosh device. The general concepts and procedures should apply to any similar device, however.

We will use the pictures from the ‘Peanuts Wisdom’ example project in the illustrations for the following instructions. You can view the ‘Peanuts Wisdom’ example project (and other example projects) by clicking here.

INSTRUCTION

ILLUSTRATION

We assume you are using File Explorer in Windows 11 to perform the operations described in this document. We will use images and instructions appropriate for File Explorer in the following instructions.

You can find File Explorer by clicking the ‘Start’ button. Doing so will show a number of options that should include the icon for File Explorer.

Start Button

Click on the File Explorer icon to open a window that will look something like this:

Click on the three dots on the File Explorer window. This will drop down a list of options.

Click on ‘Options’ from the drop down list.

Clickng on ‘Options’ will open a ‘Folder Options’ window that looks like this.

Click on ‘View’ to open the View version of the Options window.

De-select or un-check the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ option. The check box on the left should NOT be checked.

Click the ‘OK’ button to close the Folder Options window and return to the File Explorer window.

De-selecting or un-checking the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ option as above will cause full file names to be displayed in Windows Explorer as shown in the image. Full file names include the file’s extension which indicates the type or format of the file.

Full file names are composed of two parts: the name of the file itself and the file’s extension which indicates the type or format of the file. The file name itself is that portion of a full file name to the left of the decimal point or period. The file’s extension is that portion of the full file name to the right of the decimal point or period.

For the files shown in the image, the file extension ‘mp4’ indicates that it is a video file; the file extension ‘docx’ means that it is a Microsoft Word document file; and the file extension ‘jpg’ indicates that it is a jpeg-formatted image file.