This is a file name that shows up and I can not open it. It is hugeI
can delete it but am afraid to because I do not know what else it will
effect.Can you give me any incite?

Hello avojack,

And thank you for your question.

My first thought was that this file appeared to be thumbnail images
that are used in a PowerPoint presentation, but I went to FilExt.com,
my usual source to track down files by their extension at
http://filext.com/, and searched Letter "P" for ".ptn" to find:

.PTN  PaperPort Thumbnail Images (Hidden file: PPTHUMB.PTN)

So, it is a result of thumbnail images stored to be able to identify
PaperPort indexed documents.

I visited ScanSoft, the manufacturer of PaperPrort to see what
additional information could be found. I searched for both
"PPTHUMB.PTN" and just ".ptn" but neither provided any hits at the
site. Their page on PaperPort, http://www.scansoft.com/paperport/ 
describes the product as follows:

" PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 enables you to find and share documents in a
network file cabinet, significantly reducing the amount of time you
and your colleagues spend manually searching for documents. Once
documents are managed digitally, you will benefit from faster, more
reliable access, fewer lost documents, reduced storage costs, and
significantly less physical mail."


The file you questioned, "PPTHUMB.PTN", stores small images
(thumbnails) of these documents mentioned above to make them easier to
locate.

Consequently, if you use PaperPort, you will wish to keep this file to
assist you in easily locating the documents you require.

I searched the ScanSoft site for references to this file or "compact",
but found no hits. My reasoning is that files of this particular
genre, such as databases, often grow very large by having records
removed, yet not clearing the space they used and compacting the file.
Most databoses work this way and require a utility or menu choice to
shrink down to the minimum space required to store the requested data.
I would suggest checking the manual, or the help file for "compact" or
Thumbnail to see if they provide you with this utility. If so, you
might be able to dramatically shrink the size of this file.

If you do not have the manual, you can download it here in Adobe .pdf
format:
http://support.scansoft.com/manuals/#paperport

You will need to know the version of your PaperProt program which can
normally be found under the Help Menu / About. And you may require the
following utilities to view these manuals as noted by ScanSoft:

"NOTE: These user's guides are in the form of PDF files, which can be
viewed with the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® available FREE at
http://www.adobe.com/.

Some of the documents are compressed. These files are identifiable by
their ZIP filename extension. Decompression utilities are widely
available on the Internet from such sources as http://www.winzip.com/
and http://www.pkware.com/."


I trust this answers your question, but do request clarification if
needed.

Best regards,

-=clouseau=-

Thanks for the help..