basics - folders organising

8/8/2019 Basics - Folders Organising

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22/10/2010 08:56:00 AM Title

Organising FoldersThis guide should be used in conjunction with the Folders guide and possibly the Copying Between

Folders guide.

Recap of Terms

Its probably worth reminding ourselves of the terms FILE and FOLDER.

A File is the document you create, the picture you take or download from the web, etc. Files can be

given meaningful names, and end in what is called an extension, usually a full stop and three letters,

such as .JPG used for pictures, .DOC for documents created by a word processor. Note that these

extensions are NOT always visible, but are essential to tell your computer which application to use to

edit them (an application is the tool to modify a file, such as Microsoft Word or The Gimp).

A Folder is where Files are stored usually the main folder is called My Documents, then often you

may have a folder inside that called Pictures or perhaps My Pictures. You can create any number of

folders and give them such names as you find meaningful BUT you are strongly advised to make new

folders as sub-folders (though we tend notto use that term) of the main My Documents folder or an

existing folder within My Documents.

As is usual with computers there is an almost mind-numbing number of ways you can arrange to see

the folders and the files within them this handout will try to unravel the confusion!

Viewing the contents of a FolderWhen you first open a folder Windows will display the

contents (Files) in a way IT thinks best.

Windows chooses the display depending on the main

contents of the folder, using thumbnails (small pictures)

when the folder has mainly pictures,see the adjacent screen

shot.

But probably uses a list style when the folder is mainly word

processor and / or spreadsheet type files again, see the

adjacent screen shot.

When there is a large mixture of file types we cant always

guess which type of display Windows uses initially!

NOTE: Windows XP (as used on the CAP PCs has a view

option called Filmstrip. This was subsequently found to be

disliked my many users and is no longer an option in Vista.

I would recommend that if your folder opens in Filmstrip

view you change it to Thumbnails view to prevent confusionof just what is in the folder.

You can subsequently change the view to suit your self and Windows will usually remember your

preference but occasionally changes else where cause Windows to go back to its own ideas!

XP vs Vista

Somewhat strangely Vista displays TWO View menu items

in the adjacent shot the UPPER view menu is the one

referred to in this guide, the lower one only shows a small

selection of what is available on the upper one. I have no

idea why this has been added to Vista, it is not on XP!

2008 Meldreth CAP Prepared for use by Meldreth CAP Trainers 1


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Changing the Display TypeTo change how your files are displayed click on the View

menu towards the top of the window.

A drop-down menu appears, roughly centrally in the drop-

down is the selection of how the files may be displayed,

from Extra Large Icons down to Tiles in the adjacent shot.

Remember, there is no correct view it is your choice and

indeed you may well want to change the views depending

on just what you are doing at the time. I use the Large or

Extra Large Icons for easily seeing which picture I want

but change to List when I want to select a number of them

to copy, move etc.

At this point it is best to EXPEIRIMENT open a folder

and change its views, trying all the options.

Remember the Windows XP has a different selection of views to that shown above, which is from

Windows Vista.

Side bar or no Side Bar?In all of the screenshots above I have the Previews and

Filters side bar turned off, in the adjacent shot they are

turned on (this is also showing the XP Filmstrip view).

The options in the side bar change depending on what is

selected in the main part of the window. The display of the

Previews and Filters area is under your control.

To turn off or on click the Tools menu, then Folder

Options on the drop-down menu.

A new window opens, called Folder Options (of course!)

Ensure the General tab is selected

To see the Previews and Filters area ensure the top round

button is selected (click the button if it isnt)

To turn off the Preview and Filters area ensure the Use

Windows Classic Folders is selected (it is not selected in

the adjacent shot). Click the button to select.

Again, there is no right and wrong to the display, I prefer to work with the area off and turn it on onlywhen I need it, BUT that is purely MY preference. The CAP PCs have the are turned on.



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Organising the order of the FilesUsually Windows shows the files within a folder in alphabetical name order, though with any sub-

folders within a folder shown first. Whilst this is a very easy way to find files sometimes you may not

remember a file name, but that you worked on it last week. The display can be reorganised into Date

order, also, though less useful perhaps, into size order, type order (e.g. .JPG, .DOC, .XLS etc) and with

Vista some even more exotic such as Tags and, for pictures, focal length none of which we will gointo here!

The easiest way, applicable to Windows XP and Windows

Vista, is to choose the Details view on the Views drop-

down menu.

As can be seen from the adjacent shot the information is

shown it tabular form, with just a very small icon against

the file name.

Initially the order will be by Name and descending, e.g. A at the top, Z at the bottom. To

arrange into ascending order click the Name tab.

To organise into any other order just click the appropriate tab, e.g. Date Modified

However, depending on how your PC was initially setup

you may not see the selection of ways to sort the files that

you may want.

To get your preffered selection you may first need to click

the View, Chode Details menu option.

On the dialogue box that appears a tick mark against an

item means it will display; click in the chckeck box to

toggle the tick mark on and off.

Vista only

In XP you need to be in Details view to see the tab names,

Vista shows them in any view, such as the Large Icons

view shown adjacent.

RecapRemember there is no correct view you chose your own preference, and can change it if you need

to, for example sorting by Date is useful for backing up new files.
