At times you may not be looking for information; you might be looking for files or something instead. MP3s [which stands for Mpeg Layer3] are popular, and I personally collect fonts for my artwork, many of which are available free online [and don't get worried about the legal battles over MP3s - there are plenty available online legally]. In order to use these file, however, you must first download them. You have a number of options when it comes to this procedure. Usually there will be a hotlink on a web page that connects to the file you want to download, and when you click on it, the file will start to download. A dialogue box will pop up and ask you where you want to save the file on your computer. You tell it where, by selecting the appropriate directory in the dialogue box, and in a few minutes [or a few hours, depending on the speed of your connection and the size of the file you want to download], the file will appear in the directory you choose. If for whatever reason the hotlink doesn't work properly, what you have to do is right-click on the hotlink and select save file as... from the menu. Your download should continue as normal.

A WORD ABOUT FILE FORMATS: When you download a file, one thing you have to keep in mind is that you have to have a program that can use that file [if you are downloading a program, make sure it works with whatever platform you use - Windows, Mac, Linux, whatever]. In order to tell what format the file is, look at the three character file extension after the "." [dot]. When I download an MP3, for example, I have to have to have a program that plays them. I use one called WinAmp, which is available online, but there are a number of others if you don't like that one.

There are also a number of files that are compressed in Zip format. That means that they have been altered by a program like WinZip in order to make them smaller and therefore faster to download. In order to use those files [and sometimes programs], you have to have a copy of WinZip [or a similar program], because the files need to be decompressed in order to function.

The good news is that most of these types of applications are available free online. You can look for WinZip and WinAmp in any search engine and find them quite quickly. Just remember to keep track of what kind of files you are downloading.

There are a number of virus protection programs available, like Norton Antivirus. You can get these online, but I would recommend going to a store that sells software and getting one there. It's safer that way. Also, whoever sold you your computer might have put some virus protection on there as part of the package. If you don't know, ask. This is important. Chances are if you get a virus, nothing too bad will happen [you might lose some files and programs], but there's also the possiblity that it will annihilate your computer. Get a virus scanner. That's about all for downloading. Now we're going to keep you in the know.