(If you're using Windows XP, there's a version of this article specifically tailored to you.)

Windows is a remarkably flexible tool. It usually offers you two or three ways to accomplish the same task, leaving it up to you to choose the method that seems best.

Take a simple example such as renaming a file. You have your choice of three ways of doing this:

Method 1. Click the file once to highlight it, wait a second, then click it once more (it's important to pause between the two clicks or otherwise Windows will think you're double-clicking the file in order to open it). The name will be selected and you can type the new name directly over the old name or click with the mouse within the name to edit it. Once you've changed the name, press Enter.

Method 2. Right-click a file and choose Rename from the pop-up menu that appears, then edit the name as in method 1.

Method 3. Right-click a file to display the pop-up menu and press M, then edit the name as in method 1. (Are you wondering why this works? Take a look at the pop-up menu and you'll see that the 'm' in Rename is underlined. When you open any menu, you can quickly activate an option in the menu by pressing its underlined letter. This technique works equally well in your word processor or graphics program as it does in Windows itself.)

You'll find a similar choice of methods for almost anything you do in Windows. That's certainly the case when it comes to organising your files.

Three ways to organise files

Most beginners start off by organising files directly via the My Documents icon or via My Computer. The first provides quick access to documents you have saved within the My Documents folder on your hard disk; the second provides shortcuts to files and folders on all of your disks, including hard disks, floppies and CD-ROM. A third alternative is to use a program called Windows Explorer.

We'll explore all three methods eventually, but start with My Documents because it's the simplest.

What is My Documents?

The My Documents icon on the desktop is a shortcut to the My Documents folder on your hard disk. This folder is created automatically by Windows 98 and Windows Me as a convenient repository for any files you create. You're under no obligation to store your files in My Documents, but it makes sense to use it.

Why? Because storing your files in a central folder makes it easy to locate them and easy to back them up. As My Documents is already provided, why not use it? You can then create as many sub-folders as you like within the My Documents folder to organise your files further.

The automatic storage location

Another reason for using My Documents is that many Windows programs automatically assume you'll use My Documents as your central storage folder. Microsoft Word, for instance, automatically saves documents in the My Documents folder unless you specify another location.

With each new release of Windows, Microsoft has placed increasing emphasis on My Documents as a central file store, encouraging customers to use it. Its special desktop icon is an indication of this status and, in Windows Me, Microsoft has gone a step further by placing another special folder, My Pictures, within My Documents.

A digression on Windows versions

Before we examine My Documents in greater detail, let's talk about the various versions of Windows.

Most of what we've covered so far in this series, with some minor differences, applies to Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me. That's about to change. The special My Documents folder, for instance, doesn't exist in Windows 95. A lot of other very handy features are absent from Windows 95, too. This is just as you'd expect – Microsoft has had five years to improve on its original version of Windows 95, and Windows Me is the result. Windows 98 falls about halfway between the two, although it has more in common with Me than 95.

This means that if you're using Windows 95, you're using an outmoded operating system, one that's more cumbersome and more difficult to use than Windows Me. If at all possible, you should try to use Windows Me, or at least Windows 98. It'll make your computing life appreciably easier than struggling with Windows 95.

If you're stuck with old equipment or don't have the means or inclination to upgrade your copy of Windows 95, keep in mind that many of the shortcuts and methods described in this series won't work for you.

Exploring My Documents

Let's get back to My Documents. Take a look at Figure 1, which shows a typical My Documents folder window in Windows Me.

Figure 1. A typical My Documents folder in Windows Me.

If you're using Windows 98, your toolbar will look considerably different, as you can see in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Contrast Windows Me's My Documents' toolbar (above) with Windows 98's (below). Click the image to see a full-sized screenshot.

Double-click your My Documents folder to have a look at its contents.

Setting viewing options

Before we go any further, we're going to adjust some options to ensure your windows are displayed in the same manner as we describe. If you're using Windows Me:

  1. From the Tools Menu choose Folder Options.

  2. In the Folder Options dialog box, click the General tab and select the options Use Windows Classic Desktop; Use Windows Classic Folders; Open Each Folder In The Same Window, and Double-click To Open An Item. Click OK to close the dialog.

  3. Click the View Menu, select Toolbars and make sure there are ticks (checkmarks) beside Standard Buttons and Address Bar. If there aren't, click each of those options in turn to activate them.

  4. On the View Menu, make sure there's a tick beside Status Bar.

  5. Select List from the View Menu. This displays the contents of the folder as an alphabeticised list with small icons. Try the other options (large icons, small icons, and so on) if you like, then return to List view to work along with this tutorial.

  6. Once more from the View Menu, select Toolbars and then Customize. This opens a dialog box which lets you change the appearance of icons on the toolbar. In the Text Options drop-down box, choose Show Text Labels. In the Icon Options drop-down box choose Small Icons. Then click Close.

If you're using Windows 98:

  1. From the View Menu choose Folder Options.

  2. On the General tab click Custom, Based On Settings You Choose and click the Settings button.

  3. In the Custom Settings screen, select the options: Use Windows Classic Desktop, Open Each Folder In The Same Window, Only For Folders Where I Select 'As Web Page', and Double-click To Open An Item. Click OK and then Close to close the dialogs.

  4. From the View Menu, select Toolbars and make sure there are ticks beside Standard Buttons, Address Bar and Text Labels. If there aren't, click each of those options in turn to activate them.

  5. On the View Menu, make sure there's a tick beside Status Bar.

  6. Select List from the View Menu.

Organising with sub-folders

Once you have all the settings adjusted, take another look at Figure 1. You'll see that the folder contains over a dozen sub-folders plus a bunch of loose files – clearly the work of a semi-organised being.

You can create any sub-folders you like within the My Documents folder. If you share your computer with others, for example, you may wish to create a sub-folder for each person who uses the computer. Each user, in turn, can create their own sub-folders within their named folder.

Alternatively, you might like to organise your folders according to the type of file each contains or the function they perform.

Working with folders

Try this yourself. To create a new folder, either:

or

To create a sub-folder within the folder you've just created, double-click the folder to open it and then repeat the step above. You can do this to your heart's desire, creating sub-folder within sub-folder. To navigate between the folders, simply double-click to open a folder, then click the Up icon on the toolbar to move back up to the parent folder.

The folder tree

By creating folders within folders, you build a folder hierarchy, or tree. This is much easier to understand if you click the Folders button on the toolbar (available in Windows Me only). When you do so, the window is divided into two panes, with a hierarchical list of folders in the left pane and the contents of the currently selected folder displayed in the right, as in Figure 3. Click through the folders on the left and watch the contents change in the right-hand pane.

Figure 3. In Windows Me, clicking the Folders button on the toolbar gives you a hierarchical, two-paned view of your files. This is akin to using Windows Explorer in Windows 98 and Windows 95. Click the image to see a full-sized screenshot.

Emulating the folder tree in Windows 98

You can get a similar view of your folder hierarchy in Windows 98 by using the Windows Explorer program. To do so, click Start, Programs, Windows Explorer. Scroll through the folder list on the left until you find My Documents and then click that folder to display its contents on the right.

A plus (+) sign beside a folder icon indicates the folder contains sub-folders (click the + to display the hidden sub-folders); a minus sign indicates that a folder has been expanded to show its sub-folders.

Two-paned drag-and-drop

This two-paned view is, in fact, the easiest way to work with files and folders, because it lets you move files by drag and drop.

For instance, to move the file Belshazzar's Feast from its current location in the My Documents folder (see Figure 2) into the My Music sub-folder, all you have to do is drag the file onto the My Music icon on the left – the icon will be highlighted when you have the file in the correct position – and then release the mouse button. If you make a mistake, right-click in a vacant space in the right-hand pane and choose Undo Move from the pop-up menu.

© 2002,  Rose Vines

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