October 2006: Files and Folders

Files and Folders:
The question I most often receive is, "Where is my file? It is the most basic question there is. Computers store files in folders just like you did when you saved paper documents in File Cabinets. Like file cabinets there were drawers and folders in the drawers. There could be folders in folders to further simplify find documents. Each drawer was labeled, each folder was labeled. See File Cabinet
It is the same with computers, only instead of printing and gluing labels on folders and drawers. You type the names in when you "Save As". See Files and Hard Drives. For example "Save As" C:/My Documents/Business Letters/John means that The cabinet is "C", the drawer is "My Documents", the folder is "Business Letters" and the inner folder is "John".In reality "C" is a hard drive in your computer. Instead of paper it stores the information digitally. "My Documents" is a portion of the hard drive as are the other sub folders. The computer creates a list of all the folders you create and remembers where it stored them. In addition to saving folders in folders you can save documents is each folder. For example if I wrote a letter to 3M company about masking tape I could "Save As", C:/My Documents/Business Letters/John/3m tape 6/20/06.doc. See Folders. I would use the title of the document to name the Company, subject and date so I could find it.
The ".doc" refers to the type of file it is, in this case a "Word" Microsoft document. This is so the computer knows to open it with Microsoft Word. It is called an extension.
Each program on your computer has extensions that refer to a specific type program. Some are very common and can be opened by several programs and others are very specific and can only be opened by specific programs. For example "jpg" is a standard image format and can be opened by most photo editing, photo cataloging and printing programs. But "psd" is a specific PhotoShop extension that can only be opened by the Photo Shop program. Normally the program will offer you the potion to save as the standard format for the program or as a more general format that could be used by other programs. For example "MS Word" lets you save with the extension "doc" its normal extension, "txt" a general Windows text document extension or as a "rtf"(rich text format) another text format.
Many programs set aside a particular folder to save their documents. For example "MS Works" creates a folder in its program folder called "My Documents". To find "Works" document they are stored in C:/programs/Works/My Documents by default.
Important Rules: When your start to create a new document go to "File" in the "Function Bar" at the top of the screen. Clink on it and choose "Save As". That will allow you to name the file and put it where you can find it later. Once it is "Saved As" you can then use the "Save" function for future saving of the file. When you do this you can see the name of the file in the Blue bar at the top of the screen.
Find Your Work: You wrote a letter a while ago to XYZ company and want to find a copy. If you used "Word" open Word and click on "File". All your recent documents(about 5) will be listed at the bottom. If it isn't there click on "Open" and a screen opens showing where your documents are normally stored. It should be there. If you were being tricky and put it in a special place, you still and find it. Close "Word" and left click on the "Start" icon on the bottom left. Click on "Search" and a screen asking what to search for appears. Choose "Files and Folders" and type "*.doc" in the search box. Because you know it was a "doc" file the computer will search for all files with the extension "doc". The "*" is a wild card symbol that means list all "doc" files. The computer will search all file and folders on you computer looking for "doc". and a list will appear at the right. Once you find the one you are looking for double click on it and "Word" will open it on the screen.
If you don't know what type of file it is but, remember the name you used to save it or even part of the file name, use search to find it. In my example above I could search for "3M Tape".
Can I Create a Folder?
Yes, you can and here is how to do it. The first step is to determine where you want to create the folder. For this example, we will create a folder in the C drive called "My Very Own Files". Right click on the "Start" button on the bottom left of the screen. Left click on the "Explore" choice. A new screen will open showing all the files and folders on the computer. You will be in the Folders called "Start Menu".Move the slider bar on the right up until you see "C:" to the left. Click on it and it will turn blue. (Only click once). Now move the cursor to the top of the screen to the "File" option and click once select "New" by left clicking and then "Folder" and left click. Now the tricky part, move the cursor to the far right of the screen and move down until you see a a folder "New Folder" in blue. Type in the name of the folder in this case "My Very Own Files" and enter. The name will change and the folder will sort itself into alphabetical order. You now have a new folder called "My Very Own Files" that you can use to store your work. There is only one important rule, the name can have only 32 characters. It can not have certain characters like ".,?" and most non letter or number symbols, so avoid them. The name is so you can find, it not to make it read like prose.

SEPTEMBER - CUT CLUTTER TO IMPROVE WINDOWS FUNCTION

Has your computer slowed to a crawl? A big reason why Window slows down is the accumulation of programs that run in the background on your computer. None of this is spyware, adware, wormware, or viruses. Many programs installed from disk, programs downloaded from the Web, printer software and Microsoft applications contain computer code that inserts the programs into the startup menu. This is done so that the program icon will appear in the System Tray (right side of taskbar near time display), an inexpensive method of promoting the program. Non-essential programs in the startup menu gobble up system resources.

You can check what programs are running on your computer by looking in the Task List. You can bring up the Task List by:

In Windows 95/98/ME: press Ctrl+Alt+Del

In Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003: right-click on the Task Bar and choose "Task Manager"

If you see something you don't recognize, check out the online Process Library at
www.processlibrary.com
a site that lets users type in a listing and get an explanation. Or go to www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
for an alphabetical listing with a full explanation of the process.

If you can't find any information at either of these sites, type the full listing into Google and search for more information on this process.

The simplest way to stop a program from running automatically is to disable this in the software program itself. Look for an option in the program (usually found in Preferences or Settings) such as Start (name of program) when I start my computer or similar option. If the option is found and is checked, simply remove the check.

Unfortunately, most software programs don't make it this easy. Fortunately, Windows has a method to select which programs you want to run at Startup called the Windows Configuration Utility or Msconfig.

Simply right-click on START, on the bottom left corner of your screen. Then click RUN, type msconfig in the box and press enter.

This will bring up a screen with numerous options. Go to the far right tab labeled STARTUP and click on it.

This brings up a list of all the programs your computer starts when loading windows. Go through them, and uncheck programs that do not need to be started with Windows. When you have made all your changes, click APPLY at the bottom, and then click OK. Now it will ask you to choose whether to restart your computer or to exit without a restart.

Click on "Restart". Upon restart, a message box will appear. You can accept the Msconfig changes by checking "Don't show this message," or click OK to launch System Configuration Utility and re-enter Msconfig to make further changes.