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Windows Explorer Tutorial | ||
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Opening Explorer To open Windows Explorer, Go to the “Start” menu, select “Programs” and near the bottom click on “Windows Explorer” I right dragged a copy of that icon to my desktop, and then to the quick launch portion of my taskbar, from there it is always only one click away. You can Double Click on “My Computer” on the desktop. This looks much like the Windows Explorer, but enough different to be confusing. (at least to me ) I cannot make it stay the way I set it. Settings: To change the way Windows Explorer looks, the View menu is used Let's see if we can make it into something more useful: Click on the “View” menu and click on “Toolbars”, Toolbars: I don't think you need any of these, but you can use your own judgment here. Status Bar: Tells you how large a folder is, how many files are in it, or how many you have selected, I sometimes find it useful. Explorer Bar: the only option I find useful is the “Folders” option, (The others are of some use in Internet Explorer, which is not the same as Windows Explorer, although Microsoft seems to be trying to merge them this way) The window should now be divided so that the left side shows the directory structure of your computer, and the right side shows what is in the folder or drive that is selected in the left window. You can choose to View “As Web page” if you want, although it seems to me to be a waste of display area, more form than function. Now, we have the screen divided as I think it should be, But it looks like a mess to me, a bunch of little pictures, I passed third grade, so I can read a file name better than I can determine what it is from those silly icons. To change it to a more adult type of display, select “View” again, and click on the “Details” option. The right side of the display changes to four or five columns: Name, Type, Size and Modified, and if selected, Attributes.
Customize: The customize feature let's you customize the way a folder appears. So far, I have found no logical use for this option. “Arrange icons” lets you sort the files in the right pane of the window in different ways. It is of little use when the details view is selected as the file sort can be changed by clicking on the heading of the column you want them sorted by, click the same column heading again to reverse the sort. “Refresh” This will reopen the folder to show anything new since is was last opened in proper order. When you add a new file or folder, it is usually placed at the end of the list, Refresh will force it to be sorted properly. Folder Options: opens a dialogue window with three tabs:
Navigating: Open a folder To open a folder so that you can view it's contents in the right window pane, just click on the folder name in the left window pane. Expand without opening a folder. When a folder or drive has a small [+] in front of it, it indicates that there are other folders within that folder. Click on the [+] sign to expand it. Collapse a folder. When the folder is expanded, the [+] sign changes to a [-] sign which you can click on to collapse the display of it's subfolders. Uses: Create a new folder. To create a new folder or subfolder, Open the drive or folder where you want it, right click the right mouse button, select “New”, slide into the new option window and select “Folder”. The new folder is placed at the bottom of the list of contents named “New Folder” and highlighted so you can type your name choice right over it. Try to name it something appropriate. Selecting Files To select a group of contiguous files, you click on the top one in a listing, and while holding the shift key, click on the bottom one, that selects and highlights the two you clicked on and everything in between. If you get the wrong ones, just click anywhere off the filenames and they are all un-selected. To select noncontiguous files, select the first one the normal way and all subsequent ones while holding the Ctrl key down. You can select two or more sections of contiguous files by selecting the first group as above, then holding the ctrl key down, click the mouse button on the top of the next group and the shift and Ctrl key to select the bottom one of the group. If you want all the files created after or before a certain date, then sort your list on the modified column. If you want all files with a certain extension, sort by file type. Sorting the right way can make selecting the files much easier. Delete a file or folder: Right click on a file or folder, and select Delete from the popup menu, OR, select a file or group of files and press the Delete button on the keyboard. Either way you get the option window asking if you really want to delete this file. If it is an executable file it will also warn that the program won't run right without it. The above sends the file to the recycle bin, where you can reclaim it if you made a mistake. They can be permanently deleted by holding down the shift key while hitting the delete button (Be careful here, there is no second chance this way) Move or copy a file: Go to where the file is, select the folder it is in so that the filename shows in the right window pane. (It makes it easier to now go to the left pane and move things up or down so that you can see the destination folder, don't click on any folders, or it will open and your “Source” folder will go away, just click on the [+] signs and the scroll bar at the right.) Now, move the cursor to the file you want to move or copy and press and hold the right mouse button while you drag the file to the destination folder in the left pane. While the destination folder's name is highlighted, release the mouse button and select either move or copy from the menu, as is your choice. If you happen to have made a mistake, you can choose cancel. The left button can be used too, but Windows has it's own rules for how it works, you get no choice as to whether it is a move or a copy. When you left drag to a folder on the same disk drive, it is a MOVE, when it is to a spot on another drive, it is a COPY. Move several files. Moving or copying several files works much the same, except you have to select the group first, then you can drag them. Move a folder: about the same as moving files, except that you shouldn't move folders with program files in them. Years ago when everything was DOS, you could, but with the Windows Operating system, the programs are so complicated that they cannot be moved from their original position. (Their folder shouldn't be renamed either, as later, when running the programs will probably be calling back for some part of themselves, and they will get really confused when they can't find their files with both hands.) Rename a file or folder: click on the file or folder you want to rename, then click again, not too quickly, The filename (or folder name) should be highlighted, in a box with the typing cursor at the end of the highlighted name. If you just start typing, the new name overwrites the old name, in fact the first letter you type erases the old name completely, but if you hit the home or end keys, or selectively click the mouse button in the right place you can change only one or a few letters, leaving the majority of the name unchanged. It is best not to change the extension (those last three letters after the preiod ) unless you know for sure what you are doing.
The Eller Chronicles Table of Contents Created by Alfred D. Eller, using Arachnophilia 4.0, Last updated, April 12, 2002 | ||