Instructor Support for Educational Systems

How do I use Manage Files?

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In this article, you can use the Manage Files tool in your Brightspace course.

This article consists of the following subjects:

How do I use Manage Files? Course Tools | Course admin

Manage Files is the location where you have a useful overview of all the documents in your course. In Manage Files you can build the structure of your files and upload them, which you can then place in the course from Content.

You can create the folder structure of your course on your computer and fill it with the documents you wish to use in your course. After that you can easily upload the entire structure, including its content in Brightspace.

All of the files that you upload in Brightspace via Content (Upload/Create) will also be placed in Manage Files. 
If you have created folders in Manage Files, you will be presented with the option to place them directly into these folders when you upload a file under Content.

  • Navigate to Course Tools in the navbar of your course.
  • Click on Course Admin.
  • Click on Manage Files under Site Resources.

On the left side you will see the folder structure. The folder with the blue color is the folder that is currently opened. The table on the right side shows which sub folders and/or files are located in this folder. The uppermost toolbar will let you perform certain actions: 

  • Click on Hide Tree to hide the folder structure (click on Show Tree to make it visible again).
  • Click on New File to create a new HTML document in the folder concerned. 
  • Click on New Folder to create a new folder in the folder concerned.
  • Click on Upload to upload new files and folders in the folder concerned.

The lower toolbar will let you perform actions with selected files/folders:

  • Click on the leftmost selection box to select all the items in the folder.
  • Use the scissors icon to cut the selected item(s).
  • Use the documents icon to copy the selected item(s).
  • Use the trashcan icon to delete the selected item(s).
  • Use the arrow icon to download the selected item(s).
  • Use the folder icon to turn the selected item(s) into a zip file. The zip file will automatically be placed in the same folder.
  • Use the documents icon with plus sign to add a topic (of the file type) to a module in Content (this does not work with folders). After selecting the desired files and clicking the icon, you can choose in which module you want to add the files. You can also give titles to the topics.

Pop-Up menu

Behind each folder and file you have the option to unfold a pop-up menu. 

For folders:

  • Click on the arrow next to the folder.
  • Click on Rename to give the folder another name.
  • Click on Copy to copy the folder.
  • Click on Cut to cut the folder.
  • Click on Delete to delete the folder.
  • Click on Paste Here to paste previously copied or cut items into the folder.

For files:

  • Click on the arrow next to the file.
  • Click on Rename to give the file another name.
  • Click on Copy to copy the file.
  • Click on Cut to cut the file.
  • Click on Delete to delete the file.
  • Click on Download to download the file.
  • Click on Add Content Topic to move the file to a module in Content.

Uploading files/folders

  • Click on the tree structure of the folder in which you want to upload files or folders.
  • Click Upload.
  1. Click on upload and select the desired file or zip-file from your computer.
  2. Click on Save.

After you have uploaded a file, it will appear at the top of your overview. If it is a zip file, you will first need to extract the files

  1. Click on the arrow next to the name of the zip file.
  2. Click on Unzip.

After the folder has been extracted, it will appear in the tree structure.

  • If there are already existing files with the same name, you can overwrite these. Brightspace will automatically ask you if you want to overwrite files when it is detected that multiple files have the same name. If you do not do this, Brightspace will ignore the new file.
  • You will get a notification in the Subscription alerts in the minibar when all the files have been unpacked.

If you use Mac, you will find an additional folder named _macosx when unpacking zip files. This is a mac-finder file that you can delete without any problems. You can also install a zip program on your Mac that will allow you to create zip files in Windows format (for example yemuzip).

Copy/cut and paste

Each folder and each file can be easily moved to or duplicated in another location within the folder structure.

  • Select the folders and/or the files you wish to move or copy.
  • Click on the scissors (cut) icon or the documents (copy) icon.
  • In the uppermost toolbar you can see how many items you have cut/copied.
  • Navigate to the folder in which you want to paste the copied items.

For example, if you wish to place the copied files in the folder Documents, you can do this in two ways: In Documents itself, or using the pop-up menu in the folder above. 

In the folder itself:

  • Navigate to the folder.
  • Click on Paste.

Using the pop-up menu:

  • Click on the arrow next to the desired folder.
  • Click Paste Here.

If the folder in question already contains files or folders with the same name, Brightspace will ask whether the existing files will need to be replaced with the new files/folders.

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