Creating new folders
Searching folders
READ INSTRUCTIONS below the pictures in each block following the numbers at the top of each box.
On your START menu, click the Windows Explorer icon. (in the red box above) This is different from the Internet Explorer icon (the blue "e")
The result should look something like the picture at right. ===>
NOTE: My START menu is vertical. Yours is likely a horizontal bar across the bottom of your window.2
The left column of your resulting window could look like either of the views that the green arrows are pointing to.
The "Folders" button (where the green arrows originate) toggles back and forth from one view type to the other.
The blue box is called a wizard because it suggests what you might want to do from this view.
The list is the more conventional view of the hierarchy of files and folders on your computer.
Notice the small boxes with + signs inside them. Those means that the folder has more folders inside it. If there were only files inside it, no box will appear; like the Recycle Bin in the picture. Click on these + signs to see a list of the folders inside this one. When you do that, the + becomes a - .
The right column shows the folders in the view. If you could see all the way down the view (using the scroll bar at the right side of the view), any files in this folder are also displayed.
The button to the right of the "Folders" button (at the top) is a pulldown choice for how the right column will be displayed. This is useful if you want to display thumbnails of pictures or list files with their size and date stamps, etc.
Do you see the "My Pictures" folder in the right column view? (It has a red box around it.)
Let's go to the next picture to see how to move files into folders...using pictures as an example.
Left column - My Pictures is highlighted (blue) That means that the view at right is the contents of the My Pictures folder. There are folders and files inside it. The folders show in the left column as sub-folders of My Pictures. The files only show in the right column as contents of My Pictures. The blue arrows show how the left column shows the folders inside the My Pictures folder.
Notice that the path to the folder or file you have "selected" (highlighted) shows at the top of the window in the Address field.
If you want to move a file (or a folder, but we won't do that now) from the My Pictures folder to another folder, you drag it there.
Put your cursor over the file. (The thumbnail of a picture represents that graphical file.) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the picture til the folder where you want to drop it is highlighted. Then let go of the left mouse button.
So the picture (above) of Judy riding the tricycle is in the My Pictures folder. You want to move it into the AriannaBryant folder.
Drag and drop with the left mouse button makes a copy of the file and places it in the AriannaBryant folder while leaving a copy in the My Pictures folder.
If you want to MOVE the file from My Pictures to AriannaBryant, use the RIGHT mouse button when you drag the file over the receiving folder. When you let go of the mouse button, a dialog box appears asking if you want to Copy Here or Move Here.
Choose one by clicking it with your left mouse button or choose CANCEL to do nothing.
Next picture will discuss what to do if you want to move the file to a NEW FOLDER.
Select the folder that you want to contain the new folder.
With your cursor, select the File menu, choose New, follow the arrow out to select Folder.
Go to Step # 5
A new folder will appear in the right column view (where the folder contents show). The name of the folder will be selected. If you simply start typing a name for the new folder, it will be renamed after you click the Enter key.
If random mouse clicks get out of control and your new folder gets named New Folder or some incomplete name, you can rename it. Click on the new folder, holding down the RIGHT mouse button. From the resulting list, choose Rename and follow the steps above again.
Now the tricky part....
What happens when you want to move a file from the folder that is
selected to a folder that is also inside that folder?Notice that when you renamed the New Folder, that folder also appeared in the left column listing as a sub-folder of My Pictures.
Drag the file from the right column contents of the originating folder into the left column receiving folder. Sometimes this means that you must select the originating folder and then carefully only use the + and - boxes to open and close the left column folders, bringing the receiving folder into view for dragging the file into.
Here is another example where the originating folder is at the top end of my listing of folders and the receiving folder is near the bottom of the listing.
Since My Pictures has so many sub-folders, when it's sub-folders listing was open, I couldn't see the folder I wanted to move my file to.
Closing the My Pictures folder listing, and opening My Webpages folder listing (using only the + and - buttons) keeps the file to be moved showing in the right column. I can then drag that file to the receiving folder.
To rephrase that...
Once you select the name of another folder, the contents in the right column changes to show the contents of the newly selected folder. That is why you must be careful to use only the + and - buttons while finding the receiving folder.
Notice: When you mouse over a picture, detailed information shows as illustrated with the file being moved.
One more gotcha to discuss....
When you click the Search button in Windows Explorer, you get a blue box in the left column that asks you some questions...what do you know about the file you are looking for. This narrows down the search. Some selections you make change the contents of the blue box. In the illustration to the left, some of the questions were answered, thus changing the blue box AND the advanced search options have been selected.
The advanced search allows you to specify which folders to look in for the file, rather than waiting for it to search your whole computer. This selection is not necessary.
Note that I have asked the search to look for picture files whose name has "xavier" in it. I have not specified any words in the content of the file because this is a picture. If you were looking for a text file, this field is helpful.
I have asked that the search be narrowed to the My Pictures folder and all files and folders inside My Pictures.
Once the search begins, you can stop it once you see your file in the results box. As it searches, the files that meet your search criteria will be listed at right of the blue box.
Click on the resulting files and you will be taken to your file. The address window at top will always tell you where you are within your computer's files and folders.
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