Computer and Network resources are described by using path descriptions.  In the same way that you describe the location of your house by indicating the country, state, city, street, and house number, we use conventions to describe the locations of documents and other resources on our network.  The description for a document on the network requires the following:

1.  Computer Name  (preceded by double back slashes)
2.  Share Name (separated from the computer name by a single black slash)
3.  Folder Name(s) (separated by single back slashes)
4.  Document Name (generally includes a period followed by a 3 character extension indicating the type of document)
 
NOTE:  Document name extensions are sometimes hidden unless you change your folder options to not Hide Extensions for Known File Types.   In a Windows Explorer window, you can modify the folder options by going to the tools menu and selecting Folder Options.  Look in the views tab for this setting.

EXAMPLE 1:

\\mths2\public\PrintingAtMths\paperu.mdb

In this case, \\mths2 is the computer name.  The share name is public.  On the public share there is a folder called PrintingAtMths.  Inside that folder there is a document called paperu.mdb.  The .mdb extension indicates that this is a Microsoft Access Database file.  Microsoft Access is required to open this document.

EXAMPLE 2:

\\mths2\public\docs\training2001\StudentTraining2001.doc

This path also describes a document on the public share.  In this case on the docs folder there is a folder called training2001 which contains a Word Document titled:  StudentTraining2001.doc.

Mapped Drives

It is possible to map a drive letter to a network share so that the share looks just like another hard disk to the computer you are using.   If you wanted, you could map the \\mths2\public share to the P: drive, then the path described in Example 2 above would be  P:\docs\training2000\StudentTraning2001.doc.  However, you must keep in mind that this mapping is your own, and other's may have P: mapped to a different drive, or not at all.