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Welcome to the "Android tablet: Saving and sharing files" course. You'll learn how to safely save an important file onto your tablet, and find a file and share it using email. You'll also learn how to securely delete a file when you no longer need it.
There are many types of Android tablets. If your Android tablet is a different model to the one shown in this demonstration, the steps might be slightly different, but you can still follow along.
You can use your tablet to keep important documents and other files close to hand. For instance, if your travel agent emails you a travel itinerary, you can open the file on your tablet using your email app. But it can be a hassle to have to search your inbox each time you need to find the file, so we'll look at how you can save it to your tablet and access it later using the My Files app.
My Files is the place on your Android tablet where saved files are stored. You don't even have to be connected to the internet to access saved files. So, if you save your travel itinerary to My Files, you'll be able to access it whenever you need it. You have received a travel itinerary in an email. Let's see how to save it to the My Files app.
Begin by opening the email app to find this email with the itinerary attached. For this demonstration, we're using the Gmail app for our emails. From the Home screen, tap the Google folder to see all the Google apps and tap the Gmail app icon to open the app. The inbox view opens and shows a list of recent emails. Your travel agent has just sent an itinerary for your trip, so it appears as a new email at the top. Tap on the email to open and read it.
[eSafety tip] While it can be safe to open and read an email, never click on a link or open an attachment. you're unsure about. A link or file inside an email may contain viruses or other unwanted software.
When the email opens on the right of the screen, you can see the itinerary document attached to the body of the email. Instead of tapping on the attachment to open and read it, we are going to download it to save it to the tablet. The download icon looks like a downward facing arrow with a line underneath. Tap it to save the travel itinerary to your tablet.
Now let's look at the top left of the screen next to the time to check if your document has been downloaded. Here you'll see an icon that looks like a small tick with a line underneath. If you can see this icon, your download has been completed.
Tap the Home button to go back to the Home screen. Now let's find and read the itinerary using My Files. On the Home screen, look for the My Files app icon. It looks like a document folder. If you can't find it here, it might be on the app screen. When you found it, tap on it to open it.
The My Files app has a lot of features to help you keep files on your tablet organized, but for now, we are going to focus on opening the travel itinerary. Find internal storage in the options on the left of the screen and tap it. A list of all the folders in your tablet will display on the right of the screen. To see the files inside a folder, you just need to tap on it. Most files, including email attachments, are automatically saved into the Download folder in alphabetical order.
Find Download in the list and tap it to see the files inside. From the list of files, look for the file that you downloaded from the email earlier. To open the itinerary, tap on it.
[eSafety tip] It's a good idea to save important documents to the My Files app for when you might not have access to Wi-Fi or mobile data, like when travelling. Even when you don't have internet, you can still access your files.
When you're finished, tap the back arrow at the top left of the screen to close the itinerary and see the download screen again. Once you have saved a file to your tablet, you can easily share it with other people. In this demonstration, we're going to send the itinerary to a friend as an email attachment.
First, we're going to tap and hold the itinerary. To do so, simply leave your finger on the screen for a moment longer than a normal tap, until a blue tick appears next to the file. And a row of icons appears at the bottom of the screen. Find the Share icon, which looks like three small circles connected by two lines. Tap on it. The Share panel appears, showing the different ways you can share files and other content from your tablet. It's worth exploring the many options here, but for now, let's find the Gmail icon and tap on it.
A new email screen appears with the itinerary already included as an email attachment. Tap the To field and the keyboard appears. Type in your friend's email address. Next, tap the Subject field and type in the subject of the email. You can tap Compose email to add a message, but we're not going to do so for this demonstration. When you're ready to send the email, look for the Send arrow in the top right of the screen, which looks like a paper plane, and tap it. Once the email is sent, you'll return to the list of files in the download folder.
To finish up, let's look at how to safely delete a file from your tablet. Tap and hold the file you want to delete until a blue tick appears next to the file, and a row of icons appears at the bottom of the screen. The Delete option looks like a rubbish bin. Before you tap it, be sure the selected file is definitely one you want to delete.
[eSafety tip] You should only delete files that you saved onto your tablet. It's not recommended to delete any other files as it might cause your tablet to stop working properly.
Tap Delete. From the options that appear, tap Move to Recycle bin and the file will be removed from your tablet. If you need to access the file again, you'll have to find it from its original source and save it to the My Files app once more. Now tap the Home button to return to the Home screen.
You have now completed this course and should be able to save, open and read files on your Android tablet using the My Files app. You should also be able to share and delete files.
If you are unsure about any steps, you can rewind the video or click the chapter headings to jump to the start of a chapter. If you're ready to move on, there are many other courses to explore on Be Connected.