Chapter 7: Using Files and Folders

Making and Working with Files and Folders

The basic file and folder operations--creating, selecting, naming, and opening--are relatively unchanged from earlier versions of Windows.

Creating Files and Folders

New folders and files of certain types can be created on the desktop or in Windows Explorer. On the desktop, right-click any empty area and choose New on the shortcut menu. In Windows Explorer, click the folder in which you want to create the new object and then choose File | New (or right-click any empty spot in the working area and choose New on the shortcut menu). All of these actions produce a submenu that lists the new objects you can create: folders, shortcuts, and a variety of types of files. Select an element of this list, and Windows creates the appropriate object. You can also create shortcuts by using this method.

You can create files of types other than the types listed from within application programs.

Selecting Files and Folders

Files and folders are represented on the desktop and in Windows Explorer by icons, with the name of the file or folder printed underneath or beside its icon. A file icon is a rectangle that looks like a piece of paper. The rectangle bears the design of the default program that opens the file. A Word file icon, for example, looks like this:

A folder icon looks like a manila folder. A compressed folder icon looks like a folder icon with a zipper on it.

Under the default settings, you select a file or folder by clicking its icon, and you open it by double-clicking. If you don't like all this clicking (or you're afraid of getting repetitive stress syndrome), you can adjust Windows Explorer so resting the cursor on an icon selects the corresponding object, and single-clicking opens the object.

To select more than one object, select the first object, and then press the CTRL key while you select others. (If you don't press CTRL, selecting one object deselects all the others.)

If the objects you want to select are close together, move the cursor to an empty spot nearby, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the cursor. A rectangle forms, and any object inside the rectangle is selected. When you release the mouse button, the rectangle disappears, but the objects it contained continue to be selected. You can get the same effect by using the SHIFT key instead of dragging the mouse: Select an object, and then hold down the SHIFT key and select another object. All objects in an imaginary rectangle containing the two selected objects are also selected.

More complicated patterns of objects can be selected by combining the two methods:

1. Drag out a rectangle that contains most of the objects you want to select (and perhaps some others). That is, click in one corner of an imaginary rectangle, hold down the mouse button, and drag the mouse pointer to the opposite corner of the rectangle.
2. Release the mouse button and press CTRL.
3. While pressing CTRL, deselect unwanted objects (if any) by clicking them.
4. Keep pressing CTRL, and select any additional objects you want by clicking them.

To select all the items in a folder, open the folder and choose Edit | Select All from the Explorer window's menu bar or press CTRL-A on the keyboard. To select all but a few objects in a folder, choose Select All, and then hold down CTRL while you deselect those few objects.

You can also use the keyboard to select multiple files. To select consecutive files in a single list or column, select the first file, then hold down the SHIFT key while pressing the DOWN-ARROW key until you reach the last file. To select all the files in a rectangular grid, select the file in one corner of the rectangle, then hold down the SHIFT key while pressing arrow keys until you reach the opposite corner.

To select files that aren't listed together, select one file, hold down the CTRL key, press the arrow keys to move to the next file you want to select, and press SPACEBAR to select it. Continue holding down the CTRL key, moving, and pressing SPACEBAR until you select all the files you want.

If you want to select most of the files in a folder, select all the items you don't want to include. Then choose Edit | Invert Selection to deselect the selected items and to select the deselected ones.

Naming and Renaming Files and Folders

Newly created folders and files are given default names, such as New Folder and New Microsoft Word Document. To rename a file or folder, select its icon and choose the Rename This File (or Rename This Folder) option from the Task pane, or right-click the icon and choose Rename from the shortcut menu. In either case, a box appears around the current name, and the entire name is selected. Type the new name in the box and press ENTER.

You can also rename by selecting an object and then clicking the name next to the icon. Again, a box appears around the current name and you proceed as before. Be sure to pause slightly between selecting the object and selecting its name--otherwise, you open the object.

If the new name is only a minor change from the old one, edit the old name instead of typing the new one. Click inside the name box at the place where you want to begin typing or deleting.

Changing a File's Extension

Changing a file's extension changes its file type. Don't do this unless you know what you're doing. If you assign the file a type that Windows doesn't recognize, it won't know how to open the file. If you assign the file a type Windows does recognize, whenever you open the file, Windows uses the application associated with that file type. Unless you prepare the file in such a way that is appropriate for that application, the opening fails. (Consider, for example, the Paint program trying to open an audio file--it doesn't work.)

Before you rename a file, check whether Windows Explorer is displaying the file extensions. (Just look at some files and see whether their names end with a period and three or four letters.) If file extensions are hidden, you can't change them when you rename a file. If they are displayed, you can change them. When you rename a file whose extension is displayed, you must include the extension in your renaming or else the file type is lost. Conversely, if you type in a file extension when the extension is hidden, you wind up with a double extension, like report.doc.doc. (It's perfectly legal to name a file report.doc.doc, but you could confuse yourself.)

Windows always displays file extensions that it doesn't recognize. You can tell that Windows doesn't recognize a file's extension if the file has a generic icon like this:

If you change a file's extension (and, thus, its file type), Windows gives you a warning that the file may become unusable and asks you to confirm your decision. This feature, although annoying, may save you from making an occasional mistake.

Opening Files and Folders

You can open a folder by double-clicking its icon. The folder contents are displayed in an Explorer window.

Double-clicking a file icon opens the file using the default application for that file type. You can open a file in some other compatible application by right-clicking the file icon and selecting an application from the Open With menu, by dragging-and-dropping the icon onto an application's icon, or by using the File | Open command from the application's menu.

You can change the settings of Windows Explorer so only a single-click is required to open a file or folder.

Opening a File with the Default Application

If a file has a file type that Windows recognizes, double-clicking the file icon in an Explorer window opens the file with the application associated with that file type.

If you open a file in an Explorer window and Windows doesn't recognize its file type, or if that file type has no associated application, an Open With box appears, asking you to identify an application to use in opening the file.

Some file types may have more than one application associated with them. To check, right-click the file icon and see if a command like Edit appears under Open in the shortcut menu. For example, in the default configuration image files open with Image Preview but are edited with Paint.

Opening a File from the Open With Menu

At times, you might want to open a file with an application other than the one associated with its file type. For example, Windows by default associates HTML files (with extension .htm or .html) with Internet Explorer; but, if you want to open an HTML file with Netscape Navigator instead, you can right-click the file's icon in an Explorer window (or the desktop) and select an application from the Open With menu. The Open With menu lists the applications that Windows knows can open the selected type of file. Initially, these are probably only Microsoft applications like WordPad or Paint. But if you don't see the application you want, select Open With | Choose Program to see an Open With dialog box and a larger list of applications. If you still don't see the application you want, click the Browse button in the Open With dialog box. A Browse window appears, allowing you to find the icon of the application you want.

When you have found and selected the application you want to use to open the file, click the Open button in the Browse window. You return to the Open With dialog box, and the application you found is now listed and selected. If you want this application to become the new default application for this file type, check the Always Use The Selected Program To Open This Kind Of File check box. Whether you have checked this box or not, click OK to make the Open With dialog box disappear and open the file.

This may seem like an arduous process just to open a file, but fortunately you only have to do it once. Now that you have used the Open With menu to open a file of this type with this application, the application should appear on the Open With menu for any file of this type. In addition, the application appears in the Open With dialog box for files of any type.

Opening a File by Dragging and Dropping

If both the file icon and the application icon (or shortcuts to either) are visible on your screen, drag-and-drop the file icon onto the application icon. If you do this frequently with a particular application, put its icon on the Links bar. Or, you can also create a shortcut to the application on the desktop.

Opening a File from Within an Application

If an application is open, choose File | Open from its menu bar. The Open window appears and enables you to indicate which file to open.