A computer file – a folder – a directory – what is this ...



1-3: File Management

A computer file – a folder – a directory – what is this gobbledygook? This unit will take you through the paces of creating, saving, retrieving: general management of the information on your computer.

Windows has always used the analogy of the classic metal filing cabinet to help users understand digital storage of information. Look at it like this – each drive (hard drive, floppy, CD drive) is a separate drawer in the cabinet, and you can magically add and remove drawers by plugging in removable drives, such as a USB flash drive (“memory stick”). You decide which files go in which folders, and which folders go in which “drawers”.

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A real filing cabinet is a useful piece of furniture, but the utility is completely lost if there is no organization of the contents. Maybe you have a drawer or drawers like this at home: you’ve just chucked everything in there willy-nilly, and when you want to retrieve something, it’s a mad scramble of rooting around for it. Don’t let this happen to your computer!!! It can VERY QUICKLY get cluttered and clumsy in the same way, but this can EASILY be avoided. You’ll be glad you got things organized!

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As you move through this assignment page, follow the exercises given under the “Your Task” titles for each section. I suggest opening your own windows of “My Computer” and “My Documents” to follow the pictures provided with your own live versions. Practice as you go!

Creating/Opening/Closing files and folders

a.k.a, the answers to the questions:

• “What are files, anyway?”

• “Where do files come from?”

• “How do I choose where to save the file, so I can find it later?”

A computer “file” is analogous to a piece of paper with information on it. Your computer has all kinds of files on it already, whether you have created any or not. Information on a file might tell the computer to display a picture, some text, a pile of numbers, or multimedia such as music, etc. The information in a whole pile of files can tell the computer to do complicated things, like run a video game or open a powerful program.

In order to create a file, you need to open a program such as Microsoft Word. The window will look something like this:

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The computer has already created a temporary file, and it has given it the name “Document 7” – see the information bar at the top?

In order to save this document, Click the “File” menu, and then choose “Save As”.

This is what I see when I do that:

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I recommend saving ALL the files you create or download from the internet in the “My Documents” folder – you’ll always find them in the same place. As I’ve shown you at the top of the picture, you can click to change where the file is being saved, and you can even make a new folder at this step if you wish. Your computer will always have an idea where to save the file, but make sure YOU decide where your files get saved!

I am simply going to click in the “File name” area, and name this file “my poem”. Then I’m clicking the “Save” button. I’ve done it! I’ve created and saved a file, in the “My Documents” folder.

Now it’s one day later…..

…and I want to open the “my poem” document up to work on it. One way to do this is to open Microsoft Word again. Then, click the “File” menu, and choose “Open”. This gives me the following window. It looks similar to the “Save As” window, doesn’t it?

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In order to open the “my poem” file, I simply need to double-click it in the window above. Alternatively, I can single-click it, which puts its name in the “File name” box, then click the “Open” button.

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1/ Open a program such as MS Word, create a file by entering some text, save it in the “My Documents” folder, and then open it again. If you have difficulties or cannot find the file you’ve saved, just try again, carefully following the diagrams above. Your computer has lots of storage room, and a few errant files sitting in odd locations won’t hurt anything!

2/ Create a new file, choose “Save As”, and then create a new folder (you’ll have to name the folder) to save it in. Be sure you can find it and re-open it!

Managing and viewing your files and folders

a.k.a. the answers to the questions:

• “How can I work with my files without being in the program that created them?”

• “How can I rename files?”

• “How can I delete files and folders?”

Windows XP has a function that allows you to see and organize your files and folders right from the Start Menu. It’s called “My Computer”. Go ahead and click the Start menu now, and then click on “My Computer”. Alternatively, you can find the “My Computer” icon on the desktop.

**NOTE: “My Computer” was called “Windows Explorer” in earlier versions of Windows, like Windows 98.

“My Computer” looks like this:

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The “My Computer” window looks a bit like a web page in Internet Explorer, with its menus, buttons, and address bar.

Click “My Documents” in the left column to open it up. Here it is:

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There are my subfolders – each one contains files, and some have more subfolders inside them. The individual files that are stuffed in there with those folders are at the bottom (there are more, as indicated by the scroll bar on the right side).

**Note: I can open the “my poem” file from here, by double-clicking it.

Now, prepare to meet one of your best friends in the Windows world: Mr. Right-Click. Using the right hand mouse button to click icons gives you several useful options. In the picture below, I’ve right-clicked on the “my poem” icon:

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See that menu?? I can choose to:

• Open the file (will automatically launch MS Word)

• Print the file

• Cut or Copy to the clipboard (more on this later)

• Delete the file (don’t worry, if you select “Delete”, you’ll be asked to confirm before the file is turfed out

• Rename the file (select Rename, then simply type the new name)

• View file properties (this gives info on the file’s size, when it was created, etc.)

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1/ Please use the “My Computer” window to look at the contents of the “My Documents” folder. Play with the “View” menu to change how the items in the folder look on the screen (a matter of personal preference).

2/ Open any subfolder by double clicking it. Note how the Address Bar of the “My Computer” window keeps you informed of where you are. Use the “Back” or “Up” button on the window to return to “My Documents”.

3/ Right-click on a file and rename it. Perhaps you have some files here that you don’t want – delete them. Remember, only delete files or folders if you are SURE you don’t want them any more!

Check out the “Properties” of some files and folders.

Get organized!

a.k.a. the answers to the questions:

• “How can I create a system of folders and subfolders?”

• “How can I put files or folders in certain places?”

• “What if I can’t find a file or folder?”

When in the “My Documents” window, you can make a new folder very simply. The picture below shows you how:

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Once you’ve clicked File ( New ( Folder, a new folder with the name “New Folder” will appear in the “My Documents” window. You can right-click it and rename it, or delete it if you were just checking it out!

Once the new folder is renamed, you can double click it – and that will show you an empty window, because it’s an empty folder! However, the folder exists, and it’s ready to have files or other folders put in it.

You can create any number of folders within folders. It can get quite confusing! I suggest creating folders in “My Documents” that represent broad topics. You might make a folder for each subject you study – Science, Math, Social Studies, etc. – and then make subfolders within them, as needed. For example, the Science folder may have subfolders called “Assignments”, “Essays”, and “Internet Pictures”.

Now, on to the moving of files from one place to another.

Let’s say I want to now move the “my poem” file to a folder called “Writing”. I’ll click to create a new folder in “My Documents”, and I’ll name it. “My Documents” now looks like this:

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Windows lets you “drag and drop” files and folders, a process analogous to physically grabbing a paper and stuffing it into a cardboard folder.

In the picture below, I’ve left-clicked on “my poem”, and dragged it over top of the Writing folder. See how the word “Writing” has become highlighted? This means I can drop the file into the folder by releasing the mouse button.

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I’m going to check to make sure the file actually went there! I’ll double-click the Writing folder to open it. Have a look! Note that the Address bar tells me where I am.

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**Note: As usual, there’s more than one way to perform the task. Moving a file or folder from one place to another can also be accomplished by right-clicking the file, choosing “Cut”, then navigating to the destination folder and right-clicking in the right pane of the window and choosing “Paste”. Using “Copy” and “Paste” leaves a copy in the original location as well.

Now let’s look at copying a file to another drive, like the CD drive.

Here’s another peek at the “My Documents” windows, found either by going through the “My Computer” window (described above), or from the desktop icon or Start Menu.

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Here’s a neat little trick that escapes many users: click the “Folders” button in the toolbar at the top of the window. Go ahead and try it on your own computer’s “My Documents” window. You’ll see something like this:

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Notice how the left pane has changed? It has become an expandable list of all the stuff on your computer. You can quickly glance through to see your folder structure, and can jump to any folder by clicking it. The real power comes in when you want to move files or folders to a different folder than “My Documents”, or to another drive, such as a CD.

In the picture below, I’ve scrolled the left pane down to show my other drives on the computer. Then, I’ve clicked and dragged the “my poem” file all the way over to my DVD/CD drive. I can drop it, and the file will be burned on to the writeable CD I have in the drive.

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1/ Take some time to organize your “My Documents” folder. Work on creating a system that suits you. There’s a fine balance to strike between having too many folders (cumbersome to search through) and too few (folders are too full of files that have little in common). Remember that any folders you create can effortlessly be deleted by right-clicking and choosing Delete from the menu. YOU CAN NOT BREAK ANYTHING BY CREATING/DELETING FOLDERS!! Please practice this important skill now.

Finding your lost files or folders

It happens to all of us – files or folders go missing! What has really happened in these instances is that you saved the file without realizing just where it was going. A missing file in a steel filing cabinet can be a needle in a haystack to find, but it’s really much easier in a computer.

First, Click the Start Menu button. I’ve circled the Search item for you in the picture below:

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When you click “Search”, you’ll see the following window.

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This window looks again like the “My Computer” window, doesn’t it? The options on the left allow you to start a narrower search. I’m going to choose “All files and folders” because I want to find my misplaced Writing folder.

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The more detailed the info you can remember about the file, the faster the search will be! I’ve entered “writing”…Let’s hit the “Search” button!

Here are my results – my folder is found, and it lists the location. Oh right…THAT’S where I put it! (

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1/ Have a look at the “Search” function, and give it a try. If you haven’t lost a file yet, try searching for a file whose location you know – just for practice.

2/ Complete the open-Internet Quiz 1-3. Your Participant ID is the same as your Portal ID (Lastname_Firstname), and your password for test-taking is your 10-digit phone number (e.g. 2501234567), without hyphens or spaces.

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The folder where

the file will be saved

Click to see where “My Documents” lives, or to choose a new place to save the file

Click to make a new folder inside “My Documents”

Click and type the file name here

Click here when you’re all done!

We’ll open a file from THIS folder

Click here to look in another folder

These are SUBFOLDERS that live in the “My Documents” folder. Double-click any one to see the files inside

These are FILES, not in subfolders, but directly in the “My Documents” folder. There’s “my poem”!

You can navigate around in the organizational structure by making selections here

These represent the different drives on my computer. Any other storage places (floppy drive, USB memory stick, etc.) will show up here, too, if connected

Tells you where you are!

Your “hard drive”

Can be clicked to show or hide subfolders

Can be clicked to show the contents of this folder in the right pane

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