Chapter 7: Using Files and Folders

Rearranging Files and Folders

The quest for the perfect system of file organization is endless--you frequently need to move or copy files and folders to somewhere other than where they were originally created. You can rearrange your files and folders by using the following:

• Options on the Task pane
• Commands from the menus
• Drag-and-drop techniques

The commands corresponding to the options on the Task pane are also on the menus, the only difference being how the commands are issued, not what they do. This section first examines the Task pane and menu commands, and then the drag-and-drop techniques.

Moving and Copying Files and Folders

When a file or folder is selected in an Explorer window, the Task pane contains the options Move This File (or Folder) and Copy This File (or Folder). When several items have been selected, the options change to Move The Selected Items and Copy The Selected Items. If the Task pane isn't displayed, you can use the Edit | Move To Folder and Edit | Copy To Folder commands instead.

Where Did My Buttons Go? Previous versions of Windows Explorer had Move To, Copy To, Copy, Cut, and Paste buttons on the Standard Buttons toolbar. If you miss these buttons, you can put them back on the toolbar. Meanwhile, you haven't lost any functionality--all these commands still appear on the Edit menu.

The Move To option is similar to cut-and-paste, and it has the effect of moving objects from a source folder to a target folder. The Copy To procedure resembles copy-and-paste, and it leaves separate copies of the objects in the source folder and the target folder.

Moving and Copying with One Explorer Window

To move (or copy) a file or folder, follow these steps:

1. Open the source folder.
2. Select the objects to be moved (or copied) from the working area of the Explorer window.
3. Click the Move (or Copy) option from the Task pane or select Edit | Move To Folder or Edit | Copy To Folder from the menu. A Move Items (or Copy Items) window opens, as shown in Figure 7-4.
4. Select the target folder in the Move Items (or Copy Items) window. This window and its plus boxes behave just like the Folders Explorer bar.
5. Click the OK button in the Move Items (or Copy Items) window.

Figure 7-4: The Move Items window

Moving and Copying with Two Explorer Windows

If both the source and target folders are already open in their own Explorer windows, you can move and copy files and folders more easily without using the Move or Copy commands. You can drag-and-drop objects from the source window to the target window, or you can do the following:

1. Select the objects to be moved (or copied) from the source folder's window.
2. Select Edit | Cut (or Edit | Copy). Ghostly images of the objects remain in their original places until the objects are pasted elsewhere. (An alternative method is to select the objects with the right mouse button and then choose Cut or Copy from the shortcut menu.)
3. Click the spot in the target folder's window where you want to place the objects.
4. Select Edit | Paste button, or right-click an empty spot in the Explorer window and choose Paste from the shortcut menu.

Moving and Copying with the Folders Explorer Bar

When you see the Folders Explorer bar, you can use the icons it displays as target folders for either the cut-and-paste techniques described in the previous section or the drag-and-drop techniques described in the next section. If you want to move or copy entire folders, you can cut or drag them from the Folders Explorer bar into the working area, into other folders on the Explorer bar, or into other Explorer windows.

Dragging and Dropping Files and Folders

Drag-and-drop is often the simplest way to move or copy objects from one drive or folder to another or between a folder and the desktop. You can also delete objects by dragging and dropping them onto the Recycle Bin icon.

To drag and drop files or folders:

1. Set up window(s) so you can see both the source and the target folders (remember, the desktop itself is a kind of "window"). Our preference is to have the source folder open in the working area of an Explorer window, and the target folder visible in the Folders Explorer bar, but you can also have the source and target folders open in two separate Explorer windows.
2. Select the icons of the objects you want to move or copy.
3. While holding down the left mouse button, drag the icons to the target. (You can also drag with the right mouse button. This is discussed in the following paragraphs.) If the target is an open window, drag the icons to an open space in the window. If the target is a folder icon in an open window, drag until the cursor rests over the icon. The target icon changes color when you have the cursor in the right place.
4. Drop by releasing the mouse button.

Drag-and-drop has one unfortunate aspect. If you experiment, you soon notice it doesn't do the same thing in all circumstances--sometimes it moves an object, sometimes it copies it, and sometimes it makes a shortcut. The reason for this behavior is that the programmers at Microsoft have gone a bit overboard in trying to be helpful. Windows does what it guesses you intend to do, based on the file type of the objects being dragged, the locations of the source and target folders, and a few other things we haven't figured out.

Here's what happens when you drag-and-drop

• Objects to the same disk If you drag objects (other than programs) from one folder to another folder on the same disk, the objects are moved. They disappear from the source folder and appear in the target folder. Windows reasons that you are probably just rearranging your files. (Remember, the desktop is a folder on the C drive. Anything else on the C drive is considered on the same disk as the desktop.)
• Objects to a different disk If you drag objects (other than programs) from one folder to another folder on a different disk, the objects are copied. Separate copies exist in both the source and target folders. The rationale is that you are probably making a backup copy on another disk or making a copy to give someone else.
• Programs If you drag a program, it may behave like any other object but, for some programs, Windows makes a shortcut in the target folder and leaves the program file where it was in the source folder. We haven't come up with a firm rule describing this, although, in general, the more complex the program, the more likely it is that dragging and dropping it will create a shortcut. So, for example, you'll get a shortcut if you drag-and-drop Windows Media Player, but not Calculator.

Windows at least tells you what it's going to do with the objects you drop. When the object icons are in a droppable position, a tiny + appears next to them if they're going to be copied, while a tiny curved arrow (the same arrow that appears on shortcut icons) appears if a shortcut is going to be created. If nothing appears, the files are going to be moved.

If you want to use drag-and-drop, but you neither want to memorize how it works nor trust Windows to guess your intentions, drag with the right mouse button rather than the left mouse button. When you drop in the target folder, select the action you intended from the shortcut menu.

You can also control drag-and-drop behavior by using the keyboard: If you left-drag with the SHIFT key pressed, the objects are moved when you drop them. Left-dragging with the CTRL key pressed copies the objects when you drop them. You can easily remember this by noting Copy and CTRL both begin with C, or you are "shifting" a file from one location to another.

Using the Send To Menu

Send To is a menu found on the File menu of Explorer windows and on the shortcut menu when you right-click a file or folder. The Send To menu enables you to copy files to preselected locations quickly and easily. To use Send To for this purpose

1. Open a folder that contains files you want to copy.
2. Select the file(s) and folder(s) to copy.
3. Choose File | Send To from the menu bar, or right-click the item(s) you selected and choose Send To from the shortcut menu. Either way, a menu of possible destinations appears. The Windows installation program creates a default Send To menu that varies according to the resources available to your computer. Here is a sample Send To menu:

4. Choose a destination from the Send To menu. The files are copied to the destination.

Send To is useful only if you want to move files to a destination that is on its menu. To add a new destination to the Send To menu, create a shortcut to that folder or disk in the folder C:\Documents And Settings username\SendTo (assuming that Windows XP is installed on C:).

To delete an item from the Send To menu, delete the corresponding shortcut from C:\Documents And Settings\username\SendTo.

By default, the SendTo folder is hidden. To access it you must display hidden files and folders.

Deleting Files and Folders

To delete a file, folder, or collection of files and folders in a single Explorer window:

1. Select the objects to be deleted.
2. Do any of the following four actions: Click the Throw Away This File option on the Task pane, choose File | Delete from the menu bar, right-click the object and select Delete from the shortcut menu, or press the DELETE key on the keyboard. A dialog box appears that asks whether you really want to send the objects to the Recycle Bin (if they are deleted from your computer's hard drive) or delete the objects (if they are on a removable disk).
3. Click Yes in the dialog box.

Under the default settings, objects deleted from your computer's hard drives go to the Recycle Bin, from which they can be recovered. You can reset your preferences so objects are deleted immediately and don't go to the Recycle Bin. Objects deleted from floppy drives or other removable disks don't go to the Recycle Bin. For this reason, be especially cautious when deleting objects from floppies or other removable disks.

You can delete files or folders directly, without sending them to the Recycle Bin, if you are certain you won't change your mind. To delete a file or folder irrevocably, select it, press SHIFT-DELETE, and then click Yes when the confirmation box appears.