Metadata or the Data Itself?

About this interactive

The Metadata lesson starts with a photo. The photo is made of pixels, each with an amount of red, green and blue, and that is the data the file exists to hold. But you may also want to know where it was taken, when, and how big it is. That extra information about the data is metadata. Metadata can be embedded in the file itself, kept in a separate file stored alongside it, or held in a database. Every file has some: its type, a description, and the dates it was created, modified and last accessed, which you can see under Properties, along with its location on the Details tab. Ask of each card: is this the content itself, or information about it? Five right in a row finishes the round.

What you'll learn

Tell a file's metadata (extra information about the data, such as its dates, location, size, type or author) from the data itself (the content the file exists to hold)

Aligned to

CompTIA Tech+

3.2 Compare and contrast components of an operating system.

Key terms

Metadata: Data that describes other data — such as a file's name, size, creation date, and author — allowing operating systems and applications to organize, index, and manage content without reading the content itself.

Topics

Metadata Files File Properties Interactive Streak Sort

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