All of the information stored on a computer is saved on a hard disk inside the box of the computer. To help you to locate the information when you need it, you can use a series of directories (sometimes called folders) to segregate your work. Each piece of information actually saved, whether it is a geometric model or a picture is stored in a file.
This structure can be very confusing to a computer newcomer but a simple analogy to a paper based office may make it easier to understand.
In an office, most information is stored in a filing cabinet for security. Each filing cabinet may have several drawers. To further separate the information, to make it easier to find, each draw of the cabinet will have dividers. Inside each divider will be kept the pieces of paper on which the information (letters, memos, drawings, sketches etc.) is written.
Can you see the analogy? The filing cabinet is the computer. The draws are the disk drives in the computer (there may be one or several disk drives). The dividers are the directories and the pieces of paper are called files.
In general, DeskArtes simplifies this structure for you. You only need to worry about files and directories. The directory names can be seen in the left-hand pane (titled DATABASE) of the File Window. The file names stored in that directory then appear in the middle pane. The right hand pane is the contents of the help directory - a second directory which allows to to move or copy files from one place to another.