INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO MANAGE FILES AND FOLDERS



Click an option to quickly read it so that you don't waste time finding the answers you need. If you're new to managing files, please read everything.

  ABOUT FILES AND FOLDERS
  HOW TO FIND THE FILES AND FOLDERS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
  FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH USING MY COMPUTER OR WINDOWS EXPLORER
  HOW TO OPEN WINDOWS EXPLORER AND MY COMPUTER
  HOW TO CREATE A NEW FILE FOLDER, OR SHORTCUT   HOW TO RENAME ITEMS   HOW TO MOVE ITEMS   HOW TO COPY ITEMS   HOW TO DELETE ITEMS

NOTE: System colors and settings may vary per system, and your system's colors and settings may be different than mine. That's OK.

ABOUT FILES AND FOLDERS

Files are the items that your computer runs on. Windows Explorer is composed of many files to make it appear as it does. Files are items that contain information of some sort. A file name is given to identify files. Files are given a special code, usually 3-digits, that will tell the computer what program to use to open that file with, called a file association. meaning that a program is designed to use a certain file extension. Such a code is called a file extension. Files will generally contain icons which is used to also identify them. Usually this icon matches the extension; however, it can match the file's name or contents, representing the contents of that file. Programs/applications (.exe) (files that let you do fun or business jobs on a computer) allow you to save work that you do as an associated file extension, called a file type so that you may open the file with the program saved from. Below are some common file icons, their assigned extensions, their type, and a breif description.

.html or .htm        Web Page        Used to present web content

.txt        Text File        This is a file which contains just text, and absolutly no formatting.

(no extension present, or unknown file type)        Unknown File Type        This is only displayed when a file extension is not provided, or a file type is not recognized by the computer.

Folders are no different than the tab folders you use at work. Like at work, a computer folder must be given a folder name, and it is used to keep documents or files organized. A subfolder is a folder within a folder, and it too can hold files. Folders will always appear before the files they hold; to determine whether a folder is opened or closed, a closed folder will appear has a closed folder icon , while an open folder will appear as an open folder icon . A closed folder will not show nay files, while an open folder will show the files found within that folder. To best understand my point, let's think like this: Your students keep a folder of everything that they do during the year. Everything that they put in it can be called a file, since they're "filing" it in there. So in reality, can a file hold a folder? No, and it can't in the computer world either.

To better relate office folders with computer folders, let's look at it another way:

On your desk you have quite a mess... fifteen unorganized documents that aren't all related. You find three sets of relationships, and immediately pile them into three piles. Each pile will then be placed in its own folder and given its on name. You may actually have another folder inside that folder (your first folder is probably a binder). Your boss comes in and sees, not a mess, but a nice neat stack of three folders, organized probably alphabetically. Then your boss gives you a promotion!

Let's say that one day you come into your office to find that you can't find your folders! But your friend knows where they are. He or she tells you where to find them with the best kind of directions that he or she can give. You find it.

Just like in reality, computer files can be located by their paths (the exact location of a file). However, you must be able to understand the parts of the path as you understood the parts of your friend's directions. Here's an example:

C:\Folder\file.txt

In red will be the letter of the drive that the file is located. We know the file is on the hard drive, because the letter C:\ on our computer (and on most) stands for our hard drive letter. Notice "Folder" (without the quotes) has the backslash after it. Any word with the backslash following is the folder that it's located in. After the blackslash, (in green) you find the filename/extension, which signifies that that's the file and that you found the file correctly.

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HOW TO FIND THE FILES AND FOLDERS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR


Finding files and folders

One of the most important problems people have with computers is that they don't know where to find the files that they saved, or even downloaded. In order to know this information, you must know how to search and where to search. Before I explain how to search, I will tell you the default paths (the preset exact location of a file) of where many of your files are located. If we can't find your files this way, we will search the alternative (and quicker) way.

File TypeDefault Path
An Image File (.bmp, .gif, .jpg, etc.)C:\WINDOWS or C:\My Documents\My Pictures or C:\My Pictures
A Text File (by Notepad)C:\WINDOWS
A Wordpad Document (.doc)C:\My Documents
A Downloaded File (.exe or .zip, generally)C:\Desktop (or your online service's download folder if you're using an online service to connect to the Internet with)

Explaining how to search will be difficult for me, so I will have to use an example that requires you to search for files (or even folders that you wish to save your files in) as well as pictures to further help to explain just what I'm talking about.

Let's say you want to download a file, and want to download it into a particular folder, let's say Download. You get a window like below. Boxed in red is the field that begins your search. First you tell the computer to save the file in your Desktop (you can choose My Computer, My Documents, or Network Neighborhood, for examples). Boxed in blue lists a list of items where you start your search for a file or folder, called a tree; once you open an item in the tree, the next list that appears is called a branch, or level, because the list "branches" from the tree. You can go up a level or down a level on to another level through browsing the folders and system folders as shown in the red box. If you choose My Computer, you can search for a particular folder to place the file in or put it on disk. If you choose My Documents, the file will just be saved to the My Documents folder. We won't worry about Network Neighborhood. The yellow box lists the name of the file, while the green box lists the type of file. Anyway, so you want to download the file to a folder called Download, which is located in the C:\ drive (called the root folder) under My Computer, which is under Desktop. Here's how to save the file in the Download folder. You will start from the Desktop.


Searching for files and folders

Knowing that the Download folder is located on your root folder under My Documents, open My Computer (you can also drop-down the menu displaying Desktop and find C:\ and the other things without opening My Computer - see for yourself). Once you have the branch of files/folders listed under your root directory shown, take notice of the folders that are on your root folder, particularly My Documents. Anyway, open the folder My Documents, then Download, which may be listed with other folders. Finally, click the Save button, and the file will be saved in the path you specified.

Play around with some of the folders I mentioned above, also familiarizing the contents of the folder Program Files. You now know how to search for files.

However, if you can't find the file, but you know its name, there is a way to find it. Click Start, then Find, then Files or Folders on the Desktop. In the Named field, type the file name. Some neat tricks you can do to find files with are listed below. Just type these in the Named field.

*."""      Replace """ with any file extension and your computer will find all the files with that extension.
*> Replace > with any letters/numbers/symbols that a file name may contain. For example, replace > with "win" (without the quotes) and every file that begins with "win" in its name will be found.
"*Replace " with a number/letter/symbol that a file may start with, and all the files that begin with that character you specified will be found.

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FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH USING MY COMPUTER OR WINDOWS EXPLORER

So now you know how to organize files in folders, but what do we put our folders in? That is, how do we find all of our files using one program? Like reality, where we store our files in a filing cabinet, computers also have a way of organizing folders in a single location, their "filing cabinet". There are two programs made for managing files and folders, and I will give instructions on using both programs: My Computer and Windows Explorer.

But first you should be aware of some of the icons and buttons you'll see and use in these programs. Here are the some icons, with a description following of each:


Icons

From Top to Bottom, Left to Right: The 3 1/2 Floppy Disk Drive Icon, shown with the Drive letter (A:\ on most computers) allows access to 3 1/2 floppy disks while inside these programs. The Hard Drive Icon, shown with the drive letter C:\ (as is on most computers) shows all the files on your hard drive. This next icon will always change when a CD is added into the CD-ROM drive, which is designated by its drive letter (D:\). This icon, when it's by itself, is called the CD-ROM Drive Icon, and it still retains this name when a game or program is in the drive, just the icon changes, displaying the name or title of the software on the CD. When a music CD is placed in the CD-ROM, the Audio CD Icon appears. When there is absolutely no CD in the CD-ROM drive, the CD-ROM Drive Icon appears. The Dial-up Networking Icon provides easy access to settings on how your computer will dial into the Internet, or how it's going to handle communications software (also known as telephony). The Scheduled Tasks Icon will provide easy access to setting the computer to check itself for errors, make itself run faster (trust me, it's not as good as it sounds), and other quick fixes rather than using the Start Menu or manually opening up these tools yourself. The Control Panel Icon will allow easy access to the control panel without the use of the Start Menu. Finally, the Printers Folder Icon will display all the printers installed to your computer, where you can quickly access the printer's settings without using the Start Menu.


Buttons

From Left to Right: The Back button will move back to the location that you just viewed, while the Forward button will take you into another folder in a selected folder. These two buttons work only in Windows Explorer unless you change the views in My Computer, which is not important for this entire tutorial. This button, the Up One Level button) will take you up one level from the folder or system folder you are currently in. The Cut button will cut any selected item and temporarily store it in a clipboard (Copy will do the same) until the Paste button is clicked to paste (put in a final resting place) the cut information. The Copy button will simply duplicate the item, leaving the original alone. Note that text, music, and pictures can be dealt with cut, copy, and paste. The Undo button will undo any last action that you want to be returned back to its regular condition. It will not work for items that have been permanently deleted. An example as to why you would use the Undo button is pasting an item in a location that you accidently pasted it in, and clicking Undo so that you won't have to hassle with re-cutting it and re-pasting it. The Delete button will delete any selected item that you wish to rid of.

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HOW TO OPEN WINDOWS EXPLORER AND MY COMPUTER

Windows Explorer can be opened by opening the Start Menu on the Desktop, pointing to Run, and type "explorer" (without the quotes). My Computer is opened by opening it on the Desktop.

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HOW TO CREATE A NEW FILE OR FOLDER

Select the folder that you wish to place the file/folder/ in, right-click on that folder, then choose New in the menu that appears. Choose any file type or a folder. Type in the name, press the Enter key, and you're done.

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HOW TO RENAME ITEMS

A fast and effective way to rename items is to select the name, wait a few seconds, and click it. A cursor where you can type in the new name should appear (if not you'll open the file; so next time go slower). Type in the new name and press the Enter key.

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HOW TO MOVE ITEMS

Simply cut and paste any selected item to where you want it. You can't drag and drop on the same drive because it will only create a shortcut to that particular item.

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HOW TO COPY ITEMS

You can drag and drop an item between drives, use copy and paste, or right-click, choose Send To, then 3 1/2 Floppy Disk to put items on a disk (you will learn how to add additional drives into your Send To folder later). To copy a disk to a disk, simply place in the source disk (the disk which from which the information is coming), right-click the disk drive, choose Copy Disk, then click Start. Follow the instructions. If it tells you to place in the source disk (or something of the sort) just go on to the next step, since it's already done. Note that multiple items may be copied, and/or moved as with deleting files, which is done by holding the Shift key as you perform an operation.

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HOW TO DELETE ITEMS

Deleting items will permanently or temporarily (depending on how you're discarding the item) remove it from your computer, and generally move to the Recycle Bin. To remove it temporarily, either drag and drop it into the recycled folder, right-click it and choose Cut, then Paste it into the recycled folder, select it and press the Delete key, or right-click it and choose Delete. To permanently delete items, hold down the Shift key as you perform any of the operations previously mentioned or right-click the recycled folder, then choose Empty Recycle Bin. To restore an item or items to where you temporarily deleted it from, use Undo or right-click the item you wish to be recovered in the recycled folder, then chose Restore.

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