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Filing systems. Using Microsoft System 7 (including reference to windows XP system) This guide as two sections; 1 The structure of filing systems…………………………….Page 1 2 How to build up you own filing system……………………Page 6 3 How to sort out a mixed collection of files into newly established group folder names……………………..Page 11 The structure of filing systems Filing all documents in a system of folders has the advantage of providing orderly and easy access to documents and photographs. There are two methods of accessing the filing system on computers running Microsoft system 7 software. The first is similar to earlier Microsoft software editions and is shown below;

Left Click on to the ‘start menu’ icon which will produce a menu similar to the one shown below on my computer. The contents will vary depending on what software programs are loaded on your computer.

Left click on ‘Documents’, (next to top on the dark panel) which will show the screen below on the next page, which lists the folders containing documents stored on your computer.

(Note in a Windows XP system, left click the Start button and choose My Documents from the right side of the Start menu. Your My Documents folder opens up onto the

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desktop. From its title bar, you know that the main pane is displaying the contents of your My Documents folder.)

In system 7, the screen above shows two menu lists. On the left side is a list of some of the main sections in the computer; Favourites (i.e. the addresses of web sites saved in an list); Libraries (contains the index of all folders and documents saved on the computer or on external devices that may have been attached at the time of saving the document); Homegroup ( a record of shared information between computers within a household); Computer (details of various computer discs storage systems on your computer); Network (which in my case is my PC and Media files). On the right side, is a list of the folders contained in the Documents folder. Note that the top of the list under the word libraries it states that it includes two (filing) locations. More on this is explained below. If you don’t have system 7 software you may skip this section and go directly to My documents heading below. (page 4) Alternatively in system 7 software, left clicking on to the library filing system image

at the bottom of your screen, will produce an image similar to this.

On the left side is a list of some of the main sections in the computer as referred to previously. Because the Libraries folder has been highlighted (by left clicking on it), the right hand side shows the folder titles within the libraries folder. ( i.e. Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos)

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Left click on the small triangle at the beginning of the Libraries folder title; and then left click on the triangle by the Documents folder, and left click on the triangle by My Documents. This will cause the triangle to rotate to show the titles of the folders contained within the My Documents folder. The screen image on my computer is shown below.

The right hand side of the screen remains unchanged at this stage.

The two entry routes (using the start icon , or the filing library system icon ) provide two different features. The start icon gives direct access to the list of document folders and the documents within the folders. Documents not stored in folders are also shown below the list of folders. The filing icon gives access to the libraries folder, within which are the documents folder and the my document folders.

The use of a libraries folder is a new introduction in system 7. The Documents file lists all folders and documents saved by your computer to your internal drives and to any external devise even after the external device is not currently connected when you list the files. However if you try to access a document that has been stored on an external device while it is not connected to the computer, a message will appear saying that the document is not currently available. It is useful to know that the file you tried to access is stored externally. It is also useful if you have accidentally saved a document in a remote folder within your computer, which may prove to be difficult to locate at a later date.

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My documents Folder

The my documents folder will only display the document folders and document files saved within the my documents folder. Referring to the screen image below, the folders that have a small triangle at the beginning in of the title contain additional folders within. Left clicking on the triangle of the FriendShip folder, reveals 4 folders within. Left Clicking on the Delaware Marina folder causes the sub folders in Delaware Marina to be listed in the left hand side menu. Left Clicking on the folder Delaware Marina causes the details of each file contained in Delaware Marina to be displayed in the right hand list; name date modified; Type (name of software that produced the file), and size of file in bytes. The right hand screen will only display information when a folder in the left hand screen is opened

The above files show the file information in ‘details’ style, which shows the name of the file, the date modified and the size of the file. There are there several styles available, accessed by right clicking on the icon symbol situated two icons to the left of the question mark ‘?’ symbol at the top right corner of the screen.

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The screen image below shows the options being selected. Right click on this pull down menu and move the slider pointer to select display style as required.

The following image shows the files listed by Date modified. This view is achieved by clicking on the panel next to arrange by and selecting the required option.

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Below is the screen image for ‘small icons’

Personally I prefer to use the details version of display arranged by name of documents. Building your own filing system The following notes describe how to build up a typical filing system. The images in this demonstration show the build up from a folder called 1 example documents. I used a number 1 at the beginning of the folder name to ensure that the folder appeared at the top of the list. (The inclusion of number prefixes to a document name ensures that the folders are listed in numerical order if that is requierd; otherwise files are automatically placed in alphabetical order of the name of the folders.) I couldn’t use the title name my documents because my compuetr would be confused with the existing folder called my documents.

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Step 1 Move the cursor to the My Documents folder and right click. This will cause the pop up menu shown below to appear. Move the cursor to New and right (or left) click.

The following side menu screen will appear. Left click on folder.

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Clicking on folder will cause a folder called new folder to appear within my documents as shown below.

Note; at this stage the new folder document is highlighted. Whilst it highlighted, type in the name of the required name of the folder. If by chance you have say inadvertently clicked on your mouse before you move it the folder title box, the highlighting will disappear making it unable to be named. It can be renamed. Re-naming the folder is as follows;

1. Place the curser over the New folder box and right click. 2. Select rename from the pop-up menu. 3. Left click on rename and type in the desired name. ( in this demonstration it is

called 1 example documents.)

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The 1 example documents folder will now be used as though it is the My documents folder

Your documents folder should be created to contain sub folders based on your own needs. In this example I am going to cover the following categories being typical of home domestic needs, such as Insurances, (which old contain sub folders for house, car,) Bank , Investments, Computer software corres, Health Issues, Holiday bookings, Walking group. If you have regular correspondence with particular friends, add folders in their names e.g . . . . John Smith, Mary Jones (Emails can be saved in these folders separately from your email software) Note: The 1 example documents folder has no triangle alongside at this time as there are no sub folders stored within it. To create folders within ‘1 example documents’. 1 Left click on 1 example documents 2 move the cursor to New and right click to select folder. That will produce a new folder which can be named insurances.

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Repeat this routine to create all the folders you require initially. The screen image below shows the folders placed within the sub folder insurance which is open showing the additional folders with in it. Take care when creating these folders to make sure you create them from the New documents folder (1 example documents in this example). New additional folders can be added at as required.

In the left side of the screen you have all the document folders automatically listed in order. The right screen at present shows the folders again. This is because the 1 example documents folder has been highlighted by clicking on it. If you left click on an of the folder names in the left side of the screen, the right side will show the contents of that folder, as shown below. The bank folder is empty as present, so nothing is displayed on the right hand side.

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Sorting through a mixed collection of files to save in folders If you have documents files that have not been saved within an appropriate folder, the two screen display is useful. Left click on the triangle next to My Documents, which will open the list in the left hand side. Then left click on the word My Documents, which will open the list on the right hand side. The Ravenshead Strollers document file can be placed in the Walking group folder, by pressing the left key down whilst on the file Ravenshead Strollers, continue to hold the left key on your mouse down and drag the file to the Walking Group folder. Release the left key on your mouse the file is now transferred to the Walking folder.

Left clicking on the walking group folder will display Ravneshead strollers file in the right hand side, as shown below.

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Saving a text word document to a folder. The following screens show the procedure for saving a ‘Microsoft Word’ file’. The screen below is a newly created word document. Note at this stage is labelled as Document 11 (an auto naming system until given a name for the user. To save it, move the cursor to the blue icon labelled ’File’

Left clicking on ‘file’ will bring up the screen shown below. There are two save icons

and .

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When saving a new file for the first time, clicking on either the save or save as icon will

bring up the screen shown below, asking you to indicate where you want to save the file.

Left click on >Documents>My Documents>1 example documents>John Smith in the left

side of the dislpay, in that order to find the John Smith folder in which to store the John

Smith document. When you have clicked on the John Smith folder, it will become

highlighted, left click on the ‘save’ button at the bottom right of the screen. Type in the

name of the file i.e.” Hello John Smith”

After you have saved the word document file, the panel at the top of the screen shows

where the document has been saved. i.e. In Libraries>Documents>My Documents>1

example documents>John Smith.

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When the John Smith document is saved, it appears in the right hand side of the screen shown below

If you amend or extend a document that has been saved previously, the amended

document can be saved by left clicking on the button, without having to locate the folder. A quick alternative keyboard command is to hold the control (Ctrl) key down and press the ‘S’ key. This is one of a range of keyboard instructions which were used before ‘Windows icon instructions were available’ and is still available.

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More information will be added to this document as required. Alan Paul December 2012