File Management Windows

Transcription

1 File Management Windows : Explorer Navigating the Windows File Structure 1. The Windows Explorer can be opened from the Start Button, Programs menu and clicking on the Windows Explorer application OR by right clicking on the Start Button and selecting Explore. The later is readily available regardless of the application in use at the time. 2. Examine the Explorer Window and notice that the Tool Bar is different than other applications. There are two Window Panes and it has an Address Bar similar to the Internet Explorer. This address however, shows the current folder within the computer system and not on the Web. 3. The Left Window Pane is the Folders Pane. It displays the relationship of all the file folders on the system beginning at the top with the Desk Top. A line drops down from the middle of the Desk Top Icon and has other items attached to it indicating that they are INSIDE Of or Subordinate to the Desk Top. My Computer is attached with a box that has either a plus sign or a minus sign inside of it. If it is a plus, then My Computer is collapsed and not showing the subordinate folders inside of it. If it is a minus then a line is dropping out of the bottom of the icon and several items including the local hard drive C and the CD Rom drive D. Other items down the line include special folders for the Recycle Bin, Network hard drives and so on which we are not concerned with in this class. Clicking on the plus or minus will toggle the expanded or collapsed state for that folder. This method progresses down through the folders thus showing the relationship of all the folders. We will concentrate on the Local Hard Drive C for this class and disregard the rest. 4. To expand or collapse a folder click on the Plus or Minus sign respectively. To Open a folder, click on the folder Icon. To rename a folder, click on the words that make up the folder name, hesitate for a second and then click on the words again. You will know that you are in Rename Mode because the words are surrounded by a blue box and they are selected. Simply begin to type the new name and press Enter when you are done. 5. As you click on folders, they will change to an Open Folder Icon and the previous folder will change back to a Closed Folder Icon. Only one folder can be open at a time and the open folder icon indicates which one is currently Active. Its name will also appear selected. Using the left pane to navigate through the structures is fast and straightforward. You can open a folder from the right side, but it requires a double click to do it. 6. As you open and collapse folders in the left pane, notice that Scroll Bars (Vertical and Horizontal) appear and disappear. This is an automatic feature of Windows, which only displays a scroll bar when everything in the window cannot be seen. The scroll bar then appears so that you can move the window view around. When there is nothing that would be hidden by the current view, the scroll bar for that dimension disappears. Notice in the picture that there is no Horizontal Scroll Bar for the left pane but the Vertical Scroll Bar is showing and needed since the folders continue out of view as you look down the windowpane. 7. The bottom of the window has a Status Bar showing which will display valuable information as we progress through the class. The Address Bar at the top is showing the current PATH statement to the active folder, which in this case, is C:\My Documents. This means that the My Documents folder is Inside Of or Subordinate to the C: drive (local hard drive). The Back Slash (\) separates the individual steps in the path. This is the only place in a Windows computer where the back slash is used. 8. The Right Pane is the Contents side and shows everything, (Subordinate Folders and Files) that are contained within the active folder selected in the Folder Pane. Most of our work will be done here as we move, copy, delete, rename and change the Properties of files. We can also create, delete, move, copy and rename file folders as needed.

2 Using Different Views to Make It Easier To Locate Files Or Folders 1. The right side of the window can be displayed in four different ways, Large Icons, Small Icons, List View and Detail View. In addition, it can be displayed as a Web Page or not depending on your preference. If it is as a Web Page, you will see a preview of any graphic file that is selected under the logo and in color. The trade off however is that you lose about three inches of space to accommodate this web page band down the left of the window pane. 2. Of the different views represented above, the most common is the Detail View because it shows not only the file Large Icons Small Icons and Web Page List View and No Web Page Details and No Web Page name but the file type, size in bytes and the date and time it was last modified. This is valuable information, which will be important as we progress. 3. To change views you can drop the View Menu and make your selections or you can use the Drop Down Arrow on the right side of the View Button on the Tool Bar. Either way will work just fine. Copying, Moving, or Deleting, Files And Folders. 1. You can perform any of these operations on files or folders. In the case of folders, you have to do them one at a time but with files, you can do one or many at a time. We will concentrate on files for now and look at the various methods for selecting them on the Right Side of the Window. The Contents Side. 2. For One File simply click once to select. (Do this on the icon for the file not the words to avoid rename mode.) 3. For multiple non-contiguous files, hold Control (CTRL) key and click on each file. 4. For multiple contiguous files, select 1st, position mouse on the last one, hold the Shift key and then click. 5. To Copy files: With the file or files selected, position the mouse pointer anywhere INSIDE of the black selection block on any one of the selected files. Tap the right mouse button quickly (don t hold it down or press slowly). A pop up menu will appear. With the left mouse button, select Copy. Select the Target Folder to which you are going to copy the files to.. Tap the right mouse button with the mouse pointer on the target location. Select Paste with the left mouse button. The files will be copied to the target location. 6. To Move files: With the file or files selected, position the mouse pointer anywhere INSIDE of the black selection block on any one of the selected files. Tap the right mouse button quickly (don t hold it down or press slowly). A pop up menu will appear. With the left mouse button, select Cut. Select the target folder to which you are going to move the files to.. Tap the right mouse button with the mouse pointer on the target location. Select Paste with the left mouse button. The files will be moved to the target location. 7. To Delete files: With the file or files selected, position the mouse pointer anywhere INSIDE of the black selection block on any one of the selected files. Tap the right mouse button quickly (don t hold it down or press slowly). A pop up menu will appear. With the left mouse button, select Delete. You will get a dialogue box that asks if you want to send the selected files to the Recycle Bin. Click on Yes and the files will disappear Note: the Recycle Bin is only available for files on the hard drive. It is a temporary storage location that allows the restoration of files deleted in error. It is NOT 100% reliable for several technical reasons. Do not count on it always working and never use it as a storage location for anything you want to keep.

3 Renaming Files And Folders. 1. To Rename files: It is recommended that renaming of files be done one at a time. Attempting to change the file name extension for example on multiple files at once often has disastrous consequences. Select the file to be renamed. Hesitate and then click on the file name a second time. The file name will become selected and surrounded by a box. You do not have to delete what is there. When you type the first character of the new name, the old will be replaced automatically and completely. When you are done, press the Enter key. 2. You may get a warning that Changing the file Extension may make the file unusable. In a computer, all files have a Name and a three character File Name Extension separated from the file name with a period. In Windows, the extension is used to designate the software that created the file. For example, DOC is for Microsoft Word, XLS is for Microsoft Excel, MDB is for Microsoft Access and so on. If you change the extension that the software put on when the file was saved, the parent software might not recognize the file as its own and refuse to open it. For that reason, be sure to put the correct extension back into the new file name following a period.. 3. Follow this same procedure for a folder. The only difference is that with a folder, you do not use an extension. Creating Folders. 1. Make the folder that will become the parent of your new folder active. Your new folder will be created inside of the active folder and therefore become subordinate to it. 2. With the mouse on the right (Contents Side) of the explorer window, snap the right mouse button. In the resultant menu, scroll the mouse down and let it rest on the word NEW. A sub menu will appear and the word Folder is at the top of it. Slide the mouse into this sub menu and up to click on the word Folder. Within seconds a new folder will appear in the right side with the title New Folder already in rename mode. Type the new name and press the Enter key. You now have a brand new and empty folder within the parent folder you chose ready to accept files and other folders as you wish. 3. If you discover that you created the new folder inside of the wrong parent folder, select it by clicking on it one time. (Note: Do this on the left Folder pane to make it easier. You may have to expand a branch to see the target folder). Put the mouse pointer on the folder Icon and hold down the left mouse button. Drag the new folder on top of the target folder that you want as its parent. When the target folder highlights, let go of the mouse. It will be moved to become a subordinate folder of the target you chose. Creating Shortcuts To Applications, Files Or Folders On The Desktop. 1. One of the handiest capabilities to increasing your efficiency and ease of use is the ability to create a Shortcut to a file, a folder or even an application (like Word or Excel) right on the desktop. That way you do not have to open the application and go through the process of looking for the file you want. This is of particular use when you have a project that causes you to work on the same file day after day. A shortcut is an Icon of the application that created the file or of a file folder. It contains just the path statement to that file, folder or application and nothing else so it is quite small in terms of bytes. When you double click on a shortcut, Windows follows the path to and opens the target for you. You can tell an Icon on your desktop is a shortcut because of a little black arrow in the lower left corner. 2. To create the desktop shortcut, select the file by clicking one time. Then, with the mouse on the icon of the file, snap the right mouse button. At about the center of the resultant menu is Send to. Let the mouse rest on this selection and a sub menu will appear. The second choice is Desktop as a Shortcut. Click on that and a dialogue box will appear to confirm that you want to create a new shortcut on your desktop. Click on Yes and the shortcut will appear on the desktop. Once there, double clicking will launch the application with the file inside ready to be worked on. 3. To remove a shortcut from your desktop, simply drag it over and drop it on the Recycle Bin Icon. The Recycle Bin Icon will turn blue. Let go of the mouse and a dialogue box will appear to confirm that you want to send the item to the Recycle Bin. Click on Yes and the shortcut is removed from the desktop and into the Recycle Bin. Keep in mind that doing this has absolutely no effect on the actual file, folder or application.

4 Optimize Working Efficiency In The Office: 1. You are now equipped with the tools you need to optimize the efficiency in your operations and make your work much easier if you apply what you have learned. The next question is one of organization. How do you organize things to be able to find them quickly and efficiently? The answer is exactly the same as it would be if you were working with a metal file cabinet since the computer is organized exactly the same way. It is just electronic, with pretty pictures instead of mechanical with drawers. The hard drive is just a big file cabinet with the folders as drawers and the sub folders and folders within those drawers. 2. Windows 98 and Windows 95 version C creates a special folder when it is installed on your computer called My Documents. This folder becomes the default folder for all Microsoft software and most everyone else s too. When you create a document in Word for example, and tell the computer to Save it. It will automatically go into My Documents unless you tell it to go somewhere else. The same is true when you open a document in Word for example. Unless you tell it otherwise, it will open the My Documents folder so that you can look for the file that you want. 3. It makes sense then, that you can use the My Documents folder as the parent folder for a system of personal folders that you create to optimize your work. You might put a folder in for Letters for example and another for Memos and yet another for Personal Stuff and so on. Then as you create the files, simply save them into the appropriate folder just like you would with an old metal file cabinet and you will be able to retrieve them quickly and efficiently. Working with Objects: 1. In the Windows environment, everything that you work with, files, folders, icons, etc. are referred to as Objects. An Object is the noun and is a thing like the letter to Bill Gates or the Budget Spreadsheet or a picture of your dog. Things that you have saved on your hard drive. All objects have Properties which is like the adjectives that describe the object. By changing the properties, you can change the way the object looks or the way the object behaves. Files are objects and they do have properties. Things like the name of the file, the date and time it was created, where it is stored on the hard drive and so on. One set of properties that are useful in a file is referred to as the ATTRIBUTES. There are four of them but you can only manipulate three. Of those, only the Read Only attribute should be fiddled with. 2. To get to the properties of a file, select the file and right click on it. At the bottom of the pop up menu is the word Properties. Click on that and the properties dialogue box for that file will appear. At the bottom there are the four attributes one of which is gray and most likely the Archive will have a check mark in its box. Don t do anything with that; it is for a backup piece of software that is out of the scope of this class. 3. The Read Only attribute however, can be very useful. If you put a check mark in its box, you will be able to open the document, make changes but not save it with the same file name. You will be forced to save it with a different file name thereby protecting the original from be accidentally modified. You will not be able to delete the original either except while in the Window Explorer and even then you will be given a dialogue box explaining that the file is Read Only and please confirm your choice. This is especially handy when you are working with something like a form letter or memo form and you do not want to lose your template so that it is always available and blank for the next operation Flash Drive Operations: 1. It is a very smart idea to make copies of your important files and save them out to a safe place but in today s world, diskettes are all but a thing of the past. Today, we all use USB flash drives as our mobile storage. They are more convenient and more reliable than floppy disks and generally have the capacity to hold many times the volume of data than the old floppies. 2. Plug the flash drive into an available USB port. The computer will probably display a small message in the lower right corner indicating that a new device has been found (at least the first time). Then it will say that it is installing software (driver) for the device and finally that the device is ready to use. Shortly after that message goes away, a dialogue box will appear asking what action to take with the new device and the answer is Open a Window to view files. From that point on, it is just like copying or moving files to any other disk drive or folder. Once saved, keep the Flash Drive in a safe place until needed again.

5 Saving pictures and videos from your digital camera: 1. Some cameras and cell phones come with software to manipulate your pictures. While this software is convenient and generally provides you with limited editing capability, it is usually not necessary when simply copying files to your hard drive. As far as the computer is concerned, it is simply another flash drive plugged into your USB port and will handle it accordingly. 2. Follow the steps that your camera or phone manufacturer tells you to connect your device. For example, for my Droid, I connect the USB cable and when the phone recognizes the connection, I have to take an extra step on the phone to Mount it; which simply means begin communication with the computer. After that, it is identical to working with a flash drive. 3. Tip: As we have discussed, the easiest thing to do is open two windows side by side. Make one the camera (or phone) and the other a folder you have added under My Pictures for this specific purpose. For example, I have a folder for our Grand Canyon Trip and another for the shop that I keep for insurance purposes and yet another for the motor homes I have been dreaming about buying. You get the idea, just organizing so finding a specific picture is easy. 4. Once you have copied the pictures over I would suggest also copying them out to a flash drive for safety sake. Use the same techniques either now, or at a later time from the HD to the Flash but do make another copy to protect against loss. 5. When you are satisfied with the copy and the backup copy, you can go ahead and erase the pictures on the camera (or phone) if you like to make room for new ones. A quick word about flash drives: 1. Memory takes many different forms from Flash Drives to Memory Sticks depending on the manufacturer and the use. All of them are USB devices even though some may require a special adapter like the micro card in my phone but they all do exactly the same thing the same way

6 Notes: