What is subfolder?

What Does subfolder Mean

Subfolder is a term that does not appear in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). The concept is formed with the prefix sub- (which refers to a subordination or what is underneath) and the noun folder (an element that allows to store and organize documents).

The idea of ​​a subfolder is used in the field of computing , where a folder or directory is a set of files that are saved and grouped under a certain name . A subfolder , therefore, is a folder that is inside another folder .
It can be said that these folders are virtual containers where the storage of digital documents takes place . In general, a folder gathers files with similar content or that have some kind of similarity to each other according to the user's criteria.

Inside the folders, in addition to documents , other folders can be deposited, which in this way become subfolders. This possibility helps to optimize the organization of the material.
Take the case of a person who wants to store his digital photographs in an orderly manner on the hard disk ( hard disk ) of his computer ( computer ). First create two folders or directories: "Family Photos" and "Photos with Friends . " In "Family photos" , in turn, it generates several subfolders: "Summer holidays" , "Winter holidays" , "With uncles" , "With grandparents" , etc. He does the same in "Photos with friends" : "At the club" , "Dinners" ,"Birthday" ... This way, each photo is saved in the corresponding subfolder, in such a way that later it has a simple access to them.
Since the organization of personal files depends exclusively on the tastes and preferences of each user, it is not possible to establish a single guide or a single correct method to carry it out. On the other hand, we can recognize a series of tips that help us boost our level of productivity when using our electronic devices.
Before continuing, we must point out that in the early days of computing the existence of files and folders was limited to computers, but that since the beginning of the third millennium this has spread to almost all devices with operating systems, a group in which They include mobile phones, video game consoles, and tablets.
As mentioned in the example of digital photos, one of the most common tips for organizing our personal files is to divide them into different categories and subcategories. This method can be very convenient when navigating the folder tree, as long as there is a sufficiently "vertical" hierarchy, that is, with many levels of importance.

Let's look at a particularly suitable case for the use of subfolders: a software development project . We start with the main one, which probably bears the name of the program itself, which can in turn be a subfolder within another, belonging to the operating system or the application used to create it, such as "My projects".
Inside (or below, depending on our way of interpreting this concept) there will be several subfolders, such as the following:
* "Packages";
* "Resources";
* "Export";
* "Objects";
* "Configuration";
* "Registration".
In turn, each of them may have its own subfolders; In the particular case of "Resources", you probably have some in which models, code files, images, sound and more are stored, which can be organized in subfolders for better navigation .
If, on the other hand, we want to store files grouped simply by the year or time in which they were created, without further subdivisions, then we should avoid subfolders or create a single level, since the benefit of their use is minimal.

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