Viewing and Downloading

This is a general tutorial about how to view and download online files. These basics will apply to almost any web page on the internet.

Contents:
Viewing Files in the Browser
Downloading Files to Computer
Additional Information

Viewing Files in the Browser

• You can view files that are compatible with your web browser by left-clicking on the file links, which are usually underlined.

• If the file you are trying to view is not supported by your browser, a download pop-up will appear:

• While the appearance of the pop-up box can differ between different browsers, it should generally have the following options:
  • Open will open the file in a temporary folder. This is what you want to pick for viewing the file once or for printing it out. Once you close the application, the file will be gone. Note: your computer will open a file with the default program for the type of file. If you would like to change this, simply click the arrow in the drop-down menu next to Open With.
  • Save will allow you to download the file to your computer. Pick this if you want to hold on to the file for later or if you have to add or change it before turning it in. Please note that some browsers will automatically download the file to your desktop or designated download folder, unless you change this setting in the browser's preferences.
  • Cancel will let you go back without doing anything.

• Click OK to carry out the action you have selected.

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Downloading Files to Computer

• You can download the files by right-clicking (Apple users will have to use control-click instead of right-click) on the link to get an additional menu and selecting Save Target As... (Internet Explorer) or Save Link As... (Mozilla Firefox).

• Then, choose your preferred destination and click Save.

• List of places where you can save files (names and drive letters may vary between different computers):
  
  • Local Disk (C:), My Documents, and Desktop - Save here if you are using your own computer. You can transfer files later on through email, USB drives, or other storage or transfer media. Do not save at these locations if you are using a UWB computer or you will risk losing your data!
  • name (E:) and Removable Disk (F:) - USB drives have large capacities and are very portable (thus they are starting to replace floppies). Use this if you want to transfer files between different computers.
  • username on 'uwb.edu\students\home' (U:) - Network folders are the best choice if you need to access your file from any computer on the UWB campus network. Each student has a UWB network folder with a 500MB capacity. Use floppies or USB drives if you wish to move files between UWB computers and outside computers.

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Additional Information

• Working online: Students cannot work online on assignment files in Blackboard. Assignment files must be saved to a hard drive or other storage media, edited as needed, and then submitted to the instructor through email, the digital dropbox, or the assignment link.
• Mac users: the easiest method for viewing files on a Macintosh computer is to save them first. To do that, control-click on a file link and choose either to save the file or download the file (depending on your browser). You must have the software necessary to open the file installed on your Mac.