hello, when i type python "name of file" into the console i recieve an error message saying the file is not defined.

hi douglas gray . Since this is the first video in this course I assume it was working up until now for you? I would restart your web browser. Sometimes if you are idle too long workspaces needs restarted. Hope this helps. If not post back to the community.

It sounds like you want to give a shell command to the console but you already have something running, since "undefined" is not a typical shell error message. Take a look at the prompt on the line where you are entering the command. Does it look like this?

  >>>   this would mean you're running Python already

If so, get back to the shell by typing exit() or a Ctrl-D. The shell prompt would look like this:

  treehouse:~/workspace$   this is what you want to see

Then you can enter a command like Python yourfile.py.