File Management – Windows Vista
Author:
Phil Smith andLinda Clark
Version:
1.0,
August 2011© 2010 The University of Birmingham
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be photocopied, recorded or otherwise reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any electrical or mechanical means without permission of the copyright holder.
MS Word 2007: The Essentials Page i
Contents
File Management – Windows Vista ... ii
Contents ... i Windows Explorer ... 2 Folders ... 3 Rename a folder ... 4 Open a folder ... 4 Create a sub-folder ... 4
View the hierarchy ... 5
Navigate to a Folder ... 6 Files ... 7 Copy a file ... 7 Move a file ... 8 Delete a file ... 9 Delete a folder... 9
The Recycle Bin ... 9
Properties ... 10
File Properties ... 10
Folder Properties ... 11
Computer ... 12
Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer is where you can find information about the files, folders and devices that are on your PC.
To Start Windows Explorer
Click the Start button Select Programs Select Accessories Select Windows Explorer
You may see a number of different drives and folders. These will be dependent on which computer you are using and which networks you are connected to. We need to navigate to the Documents folder. The
Documents folder is specific to the particular PC. Any files saved here will only be accessible from this particular machine.
To Navigate to a Folder
In the Folders list on the left, click on Documents
If the Documents folder is not open, click onto it to open it from the Folders view on the left of the screen. You can easily see which folder is currently open by looking at the Address Bar (there may be some files and folders already in there).
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Folders
We use folders so that we can easily organise and find our files. Creating folders and naming them appropriately will help us locate our documents quicker.
To Create a New Folder
Click on the Organise button at the top left Click on New Folder
A new folder is created with the new name highlighted blue. Overtype with the name for your new folder, then press Enter. You will only be able to type the text directly in if the background is blue with a flashing cursor. Otherwise, you will need to use the Rename function described below
Rename a folder
It may be necessary to rename a folder, should the type of content change over time. Having relevant names for your folders will enable you to find your documents more easily.
To Rename a Folder
Use the mouse to right click on the folder you wish to rename Select Rename
Overtype with the new name of the folder
Open a folder
In order to view the contents of a folder, you will need to open it.
To Open a Folder
Double click directly on the name of the folder to view the contents
Create a sub-folder
Sub-folders are just normal folders that exist within other folders. For
example you may have a folder called “Lesson Plans” and within that you may have sub-folders such as “English”, “Maths”, etc..
To Create a Sub-Folder using Organise
Navigate to the folder in which you want to create a sub-folder and click on it to select it
Click on Organize Click on New Folder
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There is a second way to create a new folder.
To Create a New folder using Right Click
Navigate to the folder in which you want to create a sub-folder and click on it to select it
Right click anywhere on the blank area of the screen on the right hand side
Select New Select Folder
Type a name for the folder
View the hierarchy
The hierarchy, or „tree‟ is a way of viewing all of the drives and folders on your PC. This view allows you to easily see where each of your folders and sub-folders are located
To View the Hierarchy
If Folders View is not already open, click the Folders button at the bottom of the left hand column
You can widen this left hand column by dragging on the border between the left and right panes
Move your mouse over the Folders list to see the Expand () and Collapse () buttons next to the folder names. Click on these to view the contents of the drives and folders.
Navigate to a Folder
You can navigate to a different folder or drive in several ways.
To navigate to a Folder
Either Click on the folder or drive name in the Folders list on the left (click the Folders button at the bottom of the column if it is not visible) Or Double click on the folder name in the right pane
Or Double click on the folder name in the address bar at the top
Or Click on one of the arrows in the address bar to see a drop down list of the other folders or drives at the same level, then click on the folder or drive name in the list.
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Files
Copy a file
For this exercise, we need to use files and folders, so we will create three new Word documents.
To Create a New Document
Navigate to the MS Office Docs sub-folder Right click on the white space on the right side Click on New ... Microsoft Office Word Document
The document appears in the list with the name highlighted blue, overtype with the name “Trees”..
Repeat the above to create two further documents, called Calligraphy and Altinkum Temperatures. Also create two new sub-folders in the Documents folder, called Word and Excel.
use a different drive completely, such as a USB device, in case of a corruption of one of the drives.
We will now copy the Trees document to the Word folder.
To Copy a File
Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder Click on Trees to highlight it
Click the Organize menu Select Copy
Double click on the Word folder on the right to open it Click the Organize menu
Select Paste
Move a file
Moving files is very similar to copying, except for using the „Cut‟ option instead of „Copy‟. Moving the file will physically take it from one location to another, without leaving a copy in the original location.
To Move a File
Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder Select the file Calligraphy
Click on the Organize menu Select Cut
Double click on the Word folder on the right Click on the Organize menu
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Delete a file
Deleting files can create extra disk space, which may make your PC run more efficiently. However, it is important to realise the implications of deleting files from certain locations. Files deleted from a Local Hard Disk (typically the C: Drive), will firstly go to the Recycle Bin, where, if necessary, they can be restored if deleted in error. However, files deleted from other drives, such as USB devices, will be permanently deleted, with no option of restoring.
To Delete a File
Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder
Use the Folders button if necessary to view the hierarchical tree Locate the file Calligraphy and select it (it‟s in the sub-folder called Word)
Click on the Organize menu Select Delete
Click Yes in the dialogue box to confirm and send the file to the Recycle Bin
Delete a folder
Deleting folders is similar to, and has the same consequences as, deleting files. It is vital to remember though, that any folder that you delete will also delete any files or sub-folders that may be contained in that folder.
To Delete a Folder
Navigate to the MS Office Docs folder Select the Excel sub-folder
From the Organize menu select Delete
Click Yes to confirm the deletion of the folder and all of its contents
To copy, move and delete, you can alternatively right click on the name of the file or folder on the right and from the menu select Cut, Copy, Paste or Delete. To delete a file or folder, you can also select it and then press the Delete button on the keyboard.
The Recycle Bin
deleted from a floppy disk or a network drive are permanently deleted and are not sent to the Recycle Bin.
To View the Recycle Bin contents
Click on the Recycle Bin button towards the bottom of the Folder list on the left
Or double click on the icon on the desktop
Items in the Recycle Bin remain there until you decide to permanently delete them from your computer. These items still take up hard disk space and can be undeleted or restored back to their original location. When it fills up, Windows automatically cleans out enough space in the Recycle Bin to accommodate the most recently deleted files and folders. You can also choose to manually empty the recycle bin.
To Empty the Recycle Bin
Right click anywhere in the blank area of the screen on the right side Click on Empty Recycle Bin
Or to empty without viewing the content, just right click directly on the Recycle Bin in the Folder list and select Empty Recycle Bin
Once deleted from the Recycle bin, a file is permanently deleted and cannot be restored.
Properties
File Properties
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To View File Properties
Navigate to the file whose properties you want to view Select the file
Click on the Organize menu Select Properties
Or right click on the file and select Properties
Folder Properties
Folder Properties are similar to File Properties, except that the Size element will show the total file size of all files contained in the folder.
To view Folder Properties
Click on the folder whose properties you want to view in the Folder List Click on the Organize menu
Select Properties
Computer
Use Computer in the Folder list to see how much free space remains on any of the drives on your PC. This will show the Hard Drives, such as the C: Drive which is specific to an individual PC, as well as any „Removable Storage Devices‟ (such as a USB stick), and also any shared network drives.
To View Computer Drives
Click on Computer in the Folder list on the left (usually towards the top)
Safely eject a USB memory device
Most of us use some kind of USB device to carry our files around and to be able to use them on several different machines. To avoid corrupting the data on the device, you need to „eject‟ the device from the PC before physically removing it.
To safely eject a USB memory device
Double click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the taskbar (in the bottom right hand corner, near the clock)
