 One of the new features of Moodle 2.3 is the ability to reference other files with an alias or shortcut. So what does this mean? Well, this means that instead of just copying an instance of a file, you can reference instead. So that if another file has been uploaded into Moodle and you have access to it, then you can just create a reference to that file so that if it is updated, your reference entry is also updated. Now there are a number of use cases for this. I want to start with the use case that needs shouting from the mountaintops across the valleys and all along the watchtowers. So Teacher A teaches history in English, and Teacher B teaches Spanish in English. So they both have access to the English course. Now Teacher A uploads an interesting document into the course, but Teacher B likes it and wants to use it in his course. So all he has to do is add a file into his Spanish course and then browse to the English course and create an alias to it. And this way he knows that when the original Teacher Updates his document, it will be updated here too. So let's demonstrate that. So here I am logged in as Teacher A. As you see, I have access to my English and my history course. So let's go into the English course. Now I want to turn editing on. So what I'm going to do is drag over a file from my folder here. So now I've uploaded a test Word document into topic 2 in the English course. So let's swap back to the other Teacher and see what he can see. So now you can see that I'm Bertie. So I'm Teacher B. And again here I can see English, but now I can see Spanish. So let's go into the English course. Now I can see this test Word document. So it means that I could download it and reuse it. But I just want to link to it for my other course. So let's go back out and let's go into my Spanish course. So I want to turn editing on. And I'm going to add an activity or resource and choose to add in a file. So this is going to be a test document. And here I'm going to click on Add to get the file picker. Now I know that using server files, I can now see all the courses that I have access to. So I can go into English. And I know that the test Word document was uploaded. And here we go. So I can actually now select this. When I select it, I now have a choice of make a copy of the file or create an alias and shortcut to the file. And that's what I want to do. So I'm going to click on Create an alias and select this file. And now you can see here that the alias icon has appeared on the document. So I'm going to just force download here as I always do. Take those two buttons and save and return to course. And it's as easy as that. This document is now linked to the document in the English course. So when that document is updated, this one will also be updated. Now you probably noticed that there was a third course there. So let's go back out to home. So this is a shared resources course. It's a normal Moodle course, but all teachers who want to share resources can be enrolled in here. This way they can use this course as an in Moodle repository without requiring to use an external one. So they can store files here and then just update them centrally. So let's say that I want to use one of these files in my course. So I'm going to go back out again. I'm going to go back into my Spanish course. And I'm going to go into Add an Activity and File. Now at this time I want to add that PDF. So I can click on Add. I can go back out to System and see the shared resources. So here we can go down through all the different files. So Test Files is where the PDF is. So I'm going to go and select that. I'm going to create an alias or shortcut to it. And click on Select this file. And again you can see the shortcut icon. And I'm going to just scroll down and save and return to course. So now this PDF here is linked from the shared resources area. So if the other teacher goes in and updates it, this is also updated. This is going to be a great time saver, especially for things like those files I showed in the shared resources course. So it could be for things like a student's charter that needs to be linked in every single course. Or it could be library information, or health and safety documentation, or just terms and conditions for using the computer center. But basically what this means is that it's going to be easier now to have a centralized resource set for all the Moodle courses and people can just link to them easily. So that's it. It's just a very easy way to reuse files from one course in another but without having to duplicate it and ensure that they're always updated.