"How To" save files from the internet to your computer.

First find the file or files you want on your favorite site or page. Click the link to get the file and you will see the "File Download" dialog box pop up. Your options are to either open the file from its current location or save the file directly to disk.

For this particular illustration of how to save files from the 'net, we are using Embroidery Designs, located on the Embroidery SA website.

For whatever software files you choose, you will want to save the files to disk. This is typical for almost ALL files you download, unless you want to preview a sound or video file, in which case you can open it from its current location. It will spawn the appropriate program on your computer and run. If you like what you see or hear, you may then save it.

When you select "Save this file to disk" the Save As dialog box pops up. The computer wants to know where you want to put the file. Select a location on your hard drive to save the file. We recommend yout Desktop in order to find it quickly. At this point it is a good idea to create a new folder that you can put that particular file into. In the example shown, I have selected the Make New Folder Icon, and named the folder Embroidery Designs. In this folder I will put ALL of my designs, and create sub-folders based on the type of designs being downloaded.

For example, if I find an angel design I like, I could put it in the Embroidery Designs folder, and in turn, into another folder called Angels, or Religion, or something similar. For every type of design, you should make a folder for it. All dog designs should be put in a dog folder, all cat designs in a cats folder, etc. So in this particular case, I have found a free sample pack of different baby designs. I double clicked on the Embroidery Designs folder to open it, made a new folder by selecting the "Make New Folder" icon and named it Babies. I then double-click the Babies folder to open it and start my download.

The WinZip file is then saved in the Babies folder. Simple huh? Basically when you have many designs, and they are archived properly, it is significantly easier to find them based on a folder name. Not everyone names files alike and will save you many hours of search time in the course of a year.

From the sample dialog box shown to the right, you can see that Babies.zip is being downloaded into my Babies sub-folder in the Embroidery Designs Main Folder.

Please note, this a suggestion on how to properly download an archive downloaded file, and may not represent the way you like to do it. Whatever method you use, remember, a neat and tidy hard drive is a happy hard drive.