The File Menu is where you’ll find commands that affect the file you’re working on in its most basic aspects. This is where you’d go to create a new file, open a file, save a file, or print a file. In fact, most basic phrases that end with "file" will be found… guess where? In the File Menu.

We’ve already looked at the File Menu in our overview of using menus, so let’s get right to it:

When talking about a specific command, we use the arrow notation. For instance, if we wanted to tell you how to open a new file, we might say, "Create a new file." But if we wanted to give more explicit instructions, we’d say something like, "Go to File ® Open."
 

New	Creates a new, blank (white) image file.
Open	Initiates the Open dialog box to open (view) an existing image file.  Note that in Paint only one image file can be open at one time.  If you try to open a second file, the first file will be closed automatically.
Save	Saves changes to the current file.
Save As	Saves changes to the current file, and allows you to pick a new or different file name for the file.
Print Preview	Displays the image on screen as it will appear when it is printed out on paper. This lets you get a sense, among other things, of how big the image will be when you print it to the page.
Page Setup	Displays options for setting up how Paint will print your file. Note that these settings will not be saved with the image if you use the Save command later.
Print	Displays the Print dialog box, where you can Print out the current image file.
Send	(Not covered in this class.)
1, 2, 3	Opens the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd previous files opened with Paint.
Exit	Shuts down Paint.

Tip: While older versions of MS Paint were capable of working only with the .bmp file format, Paint currently handles a  variety of image formats, including of the commonly used formats such as JPEG and GIF.  This makes Paint appreciably more flexible for working with images and converting from one file type to another.

Tip:  The Save command may be your biggest friend in Paint, with the possible exception of Edit ® Undo.  But if you combine using Save with Undo, you can reduce your anxiety and work more efficiently.  Ordinarily, you can only Undo your last action in Paint.  That means, if you want to Undo the second-to-last thing you did, you're stuck.  And if you want to go back five or six steps, you may have changed the image so much in the interim steps that the only thing you can do is start over. However, if you Save (or, better yet, Save As) your image after you successfully complete each major change, you'll have effectively worked around this limitation of the Undo command.  Each time you save your intermediary work, use Save As to give your file a new name.  Each new file that you save will serve as an "undo point" that you can go back to if you really scrwe up and all else fails -- if, for some reason, you find that you've made a mistake and can't Undo it, just go back to one of the previously saved files, and begin working again from there.  It's a lot smarter to do that than to have to go all the way "back to the drawing board" (no pun intended) and re-create your original image and begin again from step one.

Tip:  If you're going to print your file from out of Paint, be sure to take a look at it with the Print Preview mode before you actually print it out.  You may notice that the image doesn't fit completely on the page, or that something else is wrong.  If you catch it in the Print Preview, it saves you from wasting paper and toner, which can be pretty expensive, as well as time, which is also valuable.