11. More on Explorer in Vista and 7

We have covered Windows Explorer and file manipulation in previous posts but in this I am concentrating on Windows 7, file extensions, and viewing Explorer in Windows 7 in a proper manner.

A popular and most common use for this is in storing and moving pictures but the same procedures apply to moving and storing other types of file such as MP3s, AVIs, Kindle Books, Excel Files etc.

A file extension is the dot and letters at the end of a file name. For example, a picture you take on your camera phone will probably end in .JPG or .JPEG. The letters stand for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and tell Windows and other programmes that it is an image file. Other file extensions for images are GIF, PNG, and TIFF.

If you have file extensions switched off you won't be able to tell what sort of image you have. Not only that, somebody could send you an attachment to an email that looks like this:

picture_file.jpg

If you just saw the JPG ending, you might open the file, thinking it was an image. However, the real file ending could be this:

picture_file.jpg.exe

But you won't see the .exe at the end if you have file extensions switched off. The exe means it's an executable programme that will be installed onto your computer. If you opened the file, the programme would install automatically. And it certainly won't have your best interests at heart!

In the image below, we have four files showing, but no file extensions, so we could be vunerable to this sort of attack:

To switch on file extensions, start Windows Explorer by clicking its icon just to the right of the start button:

The default for Windows Explorer is to hide the menu bars. To view them, press the left ALT key on your keyboard (the one to the left of the space bar). You should see this at the top of Windows Explorer:

If you still can't see the menu bars click Organize > Layout > Menu Bar:


Now that you have a menu bar, click the Tools item. From the Tools menu, select Folder Options:
You should see the following dialogue box appear:

Click on the View tab at the top to see the following:

Have a look at the list of options and locate "Hide extensions for known file types":



As, you can see there is a check mark in the box next to this entry. If yours is the same, click the box to remove the check mark. Then click the Apply button at the bottom. Click OK to get rid of the dialogue box. You should now be able to see the extensions on the end of file names:

Our four images are now showing the JPG file extension.

Now that you can see file extensions, we'll make a start on working with images in Windows 7.

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PART TWO

In Part 2 of this tutorial, you will learn how to copy and paste pictures to a new folder. Once you've done that, you will learn how to add information to each image, so that they can be located and referenced more easily. Let's start by creating a new folder.

Remember that pictures are files like any other such as MP3s or AVIs so the same rules apply for moving and renaming or creating new folders.

Start the Windows 7 Explorer by clicking its icon to the right of the Start button:

When Windows Explorer starts, click on Pictures in the Libraries section of the Navigation pane (If you can't see the Navigation pane, click the Organize button at the top. Then select Layout > Navigation pane):

On the right, you'll see folders that are in this library. Windows 7 has some Sample Pictures in this library. But you can add your own, and create folders for them.

Create a folder by clicking the New Folder button at the top:

The new folder appears, with blue highlighted text:

The blue highlight means that you can go ahead and type a new name for that folder. In the image below, we've changed the name to York:

If you've clicked away from the new folder, click back on to it once with your left mouse button. Pause for a second or two and then click again with your left mouse button. It should turn blue again. If it doesn't, right click the new folder and select "Rename" from the menu that appears.

Now that you have a new folder, you need to add some images to it.

Use the Navigation pane on the left to navigate to a location on your computer where you have some image. In the image below, we've found some images on our Network drive. (If you have a images on a USB stick or data card, insert it and then click Computer. Your USB stick or data card should show up there as a drive.)

If you're not sure where you have any images, look inside of your Downloads folder, or your Documents folder:

Once you've found some images, select the ones you want to add to your new folder. To select one image, simply click it with your left mouse button. To select more than one image, hold down the left CTRL key on your keyboard. With the CTRL key held down, click each file you want to add. If you've made a mistake, click the file again to deselect it.

Once you have selected your images, right click on any of them. From the menu that appears select Copy:

Now navigate back to the new folder you've just created in the Pictures library. Double click the new folder to move inside of it. You should see a message on the right saying "this folder is empty". Right click anywhere inside of the big white area, and right-click again. From the menu, select Paste:

The images will be copied and pasted over to the new folder:

If your pictures are not showing as thumbnails like ours, click the icon and arrow circled in red below:

From the menu, select Tiles. (But click each one in turn to see what they do):

Now that you have some images in the folder, you can add some information to them. We'll do that in a future post.

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10. More on Windows Explorer in XP

Windows XP: The Windows Explorer

In this post, we'll create a new folder on the hard drive, but we'll use Windows Explorer to do it. To bring up the Windows Explorer, do the following:

• From your Desktop, Click the Start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen
• Click the "All Programs" button
• From the Sub menu that pops up, click on Accessories
• The following sub menu appears. Click on Windows Explorer at the bottom:

The Windows Explorer is a great tool for finding your way around your hard drive. You can quickly locate files and folders, or browse for something in particular. Another quick way to bring up the Windows explorer is to do the following:

• Press the Windows key on your keyboard (The Windows key is located in the bottom left hand corner of your keyboard, in between the Ctrl key and the Alt key. If there is a gap between these two keys then you have an older keyboard, and the shortcut won't work. Sorry!)
• Once you've located the Windows key, keep it held down
• With the Windows key held down, press the letter "e" on your keyboard
• The Windows Explorer will appear, and should look something like the one below

If your screen is not split in two like the one above, do this:

• On the menu bar across the top that says File, Edit, View, Go, etc, select the View option by clicking on the word "View" with your Left mouse button
• A menu will drop down
• Move your mouse pointer down to "Explorer Bar"
• From the sub menu that pops up, click the word "Folders" once with your Left mouse button
• Your screen should split in two like the one above

The left hand side of the Windows Explorer screen shows different areas of your computer. In the previous image, the left part of Windows Explorer starts with Desktop. Next we have My Documents, My Computer, 3 ½ floppy, the C drive, the CD Rom Drive, Control Panel and so on right down to Recycle bin as the last option.

Click on the first option, Desktop, once with your Left mouse button. This will show you all the shortcuts you have on your Desktop, including the "My Documents" shortcut we placed there earlier. But the list of shortcuts will appear on the right hand side. And that is the main idea behind the Windows Explorer - Clicking something on the left hand side will bring up a list on the right hand side.

Click on the letter C in the left hand side of your Windows Explorer. A list of all the files and folders on your hard drive will appear on the right hand side. Like the one below, but with different folder names on your computer.

When we create a new folder, it will appear on the right hand side. But because we clicked the letter C on the left hand side, the new folder will be created in the root folder of the C drive.

The Root folder? What's that when it's at home? Well, the rectangular yellow icons on the right hand side are all folders. You can put one folder inside another. All of those folders on the right hand side, and all the single files, are inside the C Folder. The main folder on a hard drive is known as the Root Folder. This is the symbolic notation for the Root Folder on the C Drive

C:\

You can see that notation in the Windows Explorer address bar. (If you can't see an address bar, on the menu bar across the top that has File, Edit, View, Go, click the View option. On the menu that drops down, move your mouse pointer to Toolbars. From the sub menu that pops up, Click the words "Address bar" once with your left mouse button.)

The Windows Explorer address bar looks like this:

Notice how the address bar says C:\. This is the root folder of your C Drive, the folder in which all of your other files and folders are placed. Watch what happens when the folder on the right hand side called "Program Files" is double clicked with the left hand mouse button. We get this:

The address bar now says C:\Program Files. This means that there is a folder called Program Files, and this folder is on the C Drive. On the right hand side is a list of all the folders and files in the "Program Files" folder.

Now that you know how the Windows Explorer works, we'll now create our new folder.

• Click once with your Left mouse button on the letter C in the left hand pane of the Windows Explorer
• On the menu bar across the top that has File, Edit, View, Go, Click the File option once with your Left mouse button
• From the menu that drops down, move your mouse pointer to New
• A sub menu appears
• Click the word "Folder" once with your left Mouse button

A New folder will be created on your C Drive. The new folder will appear right at the bottom of all of your other folders and files, under the last one. So you might have to scroll across to see it. You can tell it's your new folder because it says, quite helpfully, "New Folder".

When you clicked "Folder", a new folder was created. But it appears right at the end of your list folders and files, in the right-hand pane of Windows Explorer. That's why you might need to scroll down or across in order to see it. But it will look like the one in the picture below:

The words "New Folder" will be highlighted. It's highlighted so that you can rename it. After all, "New Folder" is not very descriptive. So go ahead and type in a new name for your folder. Type "wpProjects". As in the image below:

If nothing happens when you try to type a new name for your folder, do the following:

• Click on your new folder, but click on the folder with your right hand mouse button
• A menu appears

• From the menu, click once with your Left mouse button on the word Rename
• Type a new name for your folder

You have now created a new folder in the root folder of your C Drive. You can use this same technique to create a new folder inside any of the folders on your C Drive. If you make a mistake and decide you don't want this new folder, you can always choose the Delete options from the menu above, instead of Rename.

But one more thing to notice about the Windows Explorer. In the left hand side, you see a lot of plus signs in a square box.

Clicking one of these plus signs will expand your selection. The image on the left below show a plus sign before it is clicked, and on the right afterwards.

The plus sign turns into a minus sign. But the plus sign indicates that there are more folders inside the one that has the plus sign. When you click the plus sign, it will expand to show you all the folders inside a main folder. You can click on any of these folders to see what is inside it.

As for the files inside the folders - try double clicking on one and see what happens. Don't worry: you won't do any harm!

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