File properties
To view information about a file or folder, right-click it and select Properties. You can also select the file and press Alt+Enter.
The file properties window shows you information like the type of file, the size of the file, and when you last modified it. If you need this information often, you can have it displayed in list view columns or icon captions.
The information given on the Basic tab is explained below. There are also Permissions and Open With tabs. For certain types of files, such as images and videos, there will be an extra tab that provides information like the dimensions, duration, and codec.
Basic properties
- Name
You can rename the file by changing this field. You can also rename a file outside the properties window. See Rename a file or folder.
- Type
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This helps you identify the type of the file, such as PDF document, OpenDocument Text, or JPEG image. The file type determines which applications can open the file, among other things. For example, you can’t open a picture with a music player. See Open files with other applications for more information on this.
The MIME type of the file is shown in parentheses; MIME type is a standard way that computers use to refer to the file type.
- Contents
This field is displayed if you are looking at the properties of a folder rather than a file. It helps you see the number of items in the folder. If the folder includes other folders, each inner folder is counted as one item, even if it contains further items. Each file is also counted as one item. If the folder is empty, the contents will display nothing.
- Size
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This field is displayed if you are looking at a file (not a folder). The size of a file tells you how much disk space it takes up. This is also an indicator of how long it will take to download a file or send it in an email (big files take longer to send/receive).
Sizes may be given in bytes, KB, MB, or GB; in the case of the last three, the size in bytes will also be given in parentheses. Technically, 1 KB is 1024 bytes, 1 MB is 1024 KB and so on.
- Parent Folder
The location of each file on your computer is given by its absolute path. This is a unique “address” of the file on your computer, made up of a list of the folders that you would need to go into to find the file. For example, if Jim had a file called Resume.pdf in his Home folder, its parent folder would be /home/jim and its location would be /home/jim/Resume.pdf.
- Free Space
This is only displayed for folders. It gives the amount of disk space which is available on the disk that the folder is on. This is useful for checking if the hard disk is full.
- Accessed
The date and time when the file was last opened.
- Modified
The date and time when the file was last changed and saved.