Centre for Learning and Academic Development IT Training File Management Windows Vista Version 1.0 www.skills.bham.ac.uk
File Management Windows Vista Author: Phil Smith and Linda Clark Version: 1.0, August 2011 2010 The University of Birmingham All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be photocopied, recorded or otherwise reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any electrical or mechanical means without permission of the copyright holder. Trademarks: Microsoft Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All brand names and product names used in this handbook are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders.
Contents File Management Windows Vista... ii Contents... i Windows Explorer... 2 Folders... 3 Rename a folder... 4 Open a folder... 4 Create a sub-folder... 4 View the hierarchy... 5 Navigate to a Folder... 6 Files... 7 Copy a file... 7 Move a file... 8 Delete a file... 9 Delete a folder... 9 The Recycle Bin... 9 Properties... 10 File Properties... 10 Folder Properties... 11 Computer... 12 Safely eject a USB memory device... 12 MS Word 2007: The Essentials Page i
Windows Explorer Windows Explorer is where you can find information about the files, folders and devices that are on your PC. To Start Windows Explorer Click the Start button Select Programs Select Accessories Select Windows Explorer You may see a number of different drives and folders. These will be dependent on which computer you are using and which networks you are connected to. We need to navigate to the Documents folder. The Documents folder is specific to the particular PC. Any files saved here will only be accessible from this particular machine. To Navigate to a Folder In the Folders list on the left, click on Documents If the Documents folder is not open, click onto it to open it from the Folders view on the left of the screen. You can easily see which folder is currently open by looking at the Address Bar (there may be some files and folders already in there). If the Folders list on the left is not visible, click on the Folders button at the bottom of the left hand column. August 2011 Page 2 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
Folders We use folders so that we can easily organise and find our files. Creating folders and naming them appropriately will help us locate our documents quicker. To Create a New Folder Click on the Organise button at the top left Click on New Folder A new folder is created with the new name highlighted blue. Overtype with the name for your new folder, then press Enter. You will only be able to type the text directly in if the background is blue with a flashing cursor. Otherwise, you will need to use the Rename function described below It is important to give each of your folders a name that is descriptive of the type of content that it contains. August 2011 Page 3 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
Rename a folder It may be necessary to rename a folder, should the type of content change over time. Having relevant names for your folders will enable you to find your documents more easily. To Rename a Folder Use the mouse to right click on the folder you wish to rename Select Rename Overtype with the new name of the folder Open a folder In order to view the contents of a folder, you will need to open it. To Open a Folder Double click directly on the name of the folder to view the contents Create a sub-folder Sub-folders are just normal folders that exist within other folders. For example you may have a folder called Lesson Plans and within that you may have sub-folders such as English, Maths, etc.. To Create a Sub-Folder using Organise Navigate to the folder in which you want to create a sub-folder and click on it to select it Click on Organize Click on New Folder Type a name for the new folder August 2011 Page 4 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
There is a second way to create a new folder. To Create a New folder using Right Click Navigate to the folder in which you want to create a sub-folder and click on it to select it Right click anywhere on the blank area of the screen on the right hand side Select New Select Folder Type a name for the folder Use this blank area to right-click View the hierarchy The hierarchy, or tree is a way of viewing all of the drives and folders on your PC. This view allows you to easily see where each of your folders and subfolders are located To View the Hierarchy If Folders View is not already open, click the Folders button at the bottom of the left hand column You can widen this left hand column by dragging on the border between the left and right panes August 2011 Page 5 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
Move your mouse over the Folders list to see the Expand ( ) and Collapse ( ) buttons next to the folder names. Click on these to view the contents of the drives and folders. Navigate to a Folder You can navigate to a different folder or drive in several ways. To navigate to a Folder Either Click on the folder or drive name in the Folders list on the left (click the Folders button at the bottom of the column if it is not visible) Or Double click on the folder name in the right pane Or Double click on the folder name in the address bar at the top Or Click on one of the arrows in the address bar to see a drop down list of the other folders or drives at the same level, then click on the folder or drive name in the list. Or Click on the Back button at the top left of the screen to return to the previously viewed folder or drive August 2011 Page 6 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
Files Copy a file For this exercise, we need to use files and folders, so we will create three new Word documents. To Create a New Document Navigate to the MS Office Docs sub-folder Right click on the white space on the right side Click on New... Microsoft Office Word Document The document appears in the list with the name highlighted blue, overtype with the name Trees.. Repeat the above to create two further documents, called Calligraphy and Altinkum Temperatures. Also create two new sub-folders in the Documents folder, called Word and Excel. We shall now work with these files. Copying files is useful for making backups of important documents. When backing up (copying), ensure that you August 2011 Page 7 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
use a different drive completely, such as a USB device, in case of a corruption of one of the drives. We will now copy the Trees document to the Word folder. To Copy a File Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder Click on Trees to highlight it Click the Organize menu Select Copy Double click on the Word folder on the right to open it Click the Organize menu Select Paste Move a file Moving files is very similar to copying, except for using the Cut option instead of Copy. Moving the file will physically take it from one location to another, without leaving a copy in the original location. To Move a File Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder Select the file Calligraphy Click on the Organize menu Select Cut Double click on the Word folder on the right Click on the Organize menu Select Paste August 2011 Page 8 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
Delete a file File Management Training for Windows Vista Deleting files can create extra disk space, which may make your PC run more efficiently. However, it is important to realise the implications of deleting files from certain locations. Files deleted from a Local Hard Disk (typically the C: Drive), will firstly go to the Recycle Bin, where, if necessary, they can be restored if deleted in error. However, files deleted from other drives, such as USB devices, will be permanently deleted, with no option of restoring. To Delete a File Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder Use the Folders button if necessary to view the hierarchical tree Locate the file Calligraphy and select it (it s in the sub-folder called Word) Click on the Organize menu Select Delete Click Yes in the dialogue box to confirm and send the file to the Recycle Bin Delete a folder Deleting folders is similar to, and has the same consequences as, deleting files. It is vital to remember though, that any folder that you delete will also delete any files or sub-folders that may be contained in that folder. To Delete a Folder Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder Select the Excel sub-folder From the Organize menu select Delete Click Yes to confirm the deletion of the folder and all of its contents To copy, move and delete, you can alternatively right click on the name of the file or folder on the right and from the menu select Cut, Copy, Paste or Delete. To delete a file or folder, you can also select it and then press the Delete button on the keyboard. The Recycle Bin The Recyle Bin provides a safety net when deleting files or folders. When you delete any of these items from your hard disk, Windows places it in the Recycle Bin and the Recycle Bin icon changes from empty to full. Items August 2011 Page 9 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
deleted from a floppy disk or a network drive are permanently deleted and are not sent to the Recycle Bin. To View the Recycle Bin contents Click on the Recycle Bin button towards the bottom of the Folder list on the left Or double click on the icon on the desktop Items in the Recycle Bin remain there until you decide to permanently delete them from your computer. These items still take up hard disk space and can be undeleted or restored back to their original location. When it fills up, Windows automatically cleans out enough space in the Recycle Bin to accommodate the most recently deleted files and folders. You can also choose to manually empty the recycle bin. To Empty the Recycle Bin Right click anywhere in the blank area of the screen on the right side Click on Empty Recycle Bin Or to empty without viewing the content, just right click directly on the Recycle Bin in the Folder list and select Empty Recycle Bin Once deleted from the Recycle bin, a file is permanently deleted and cannot be restored. Properties File Properties Checking the File Properties is a useful source of information for things such as file size, full location path, file type, as well as dates and times of creation, modification, and last opened. August 2011 Page 10 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
To View File Properties Navigate to the file whose properties you want to view Select the file Click on the Organize menu Select Properties Or right click on the file and select Properties Folder Properties Folder Properties are similar to File Properties, except that the Size element will show the total file size of all files contained in the folder. To view Folder Properties Click on the folder whose properties you want to view in the Folder List Click on the Organize menu Select Properties Or right click on the folder and select Properties August 2011 Page 11 Phil Smith & Linda Clark
Computer Use Computer in the Folder list to see how much free space remains on any of the drives on your PC. This will show the Hard Drives, such as the C: Drive which is specific to an individual PC, as well as any Removable Storage Devices (such as a USB stick), and also any shared network drives. To View Computer Drives Click on Computer in the Folder list on the left (usually towards the top) Safely eject a USB memory device Most of us use some kind of USB device to carry our files around and to be able to use them on several different machines. To avoid corrupting the data on the device, you need to eject the device from the PC before physically removing it. To safely eject a USB memory device Double click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the taskbar (in the bottom right hand corner, near the clock) Select the relevant device from the dialogue box Click Stop August 2011 Page 12 Phil Smith & Linda Clark