Tip O'Tex Computer Club
September 2006 Newsletter
Opening files in Windows Explorer
Using Explorer to open or look for your documents is a more efficient, accurate and safer way than using a program, such as Excel or Word. The reason why? Excel only looks (by default) for files that end in .xls. Word only looks for files that end in .doc etc. So if the file you are looking for is a Word document and you are looking thru Excel you won't find it.
Another good reason to use the Windows Explorer is that Windows usually knows what program to use to open up a document. If you have a file with a file extension you are not familiar with and you try to open it, one of two things will happen - either you will set up an incorrect file association or the file will not open at all. If you try to open the same file in Windows Explorer and it will not open, chances are really good you don't have the correct program on your computer.
To put a shortcut to Windows Explorer on your Desktop (and it's a handy little shortcut to have) do the following:
Hold the Windows key (that's the one that has the little 'flag' on it) and tap the "e" key
(This program opens in two windows .. on the left are the directories( folders) on the right are the files in each folder)
Click on the + next to your C: drive
Scroll down on the left side and click on the Folder named Windows (you'll probably get a scary warning, but click to show the files anyway)
Scroll down on the right side and locate a file called Explorer.exe (the one with the blue monitor for an icon). RIGHTclick on it, then Send to: Desktop (create
shortcut)
Close the Windows Explorer screen and check your Desktop for the icon you just placed there. RIGHTclick on it, click Properties, under the Shortcut tab,
click Change Icon - Choose the icon that looks like this:
If you want a copy of that shortcut in your QuickLaunch, just RIGHTclick on it and drag it down to the QuickLaunch, let go, and choose Copy here. Now its really handy!!!
When you open Windows Explorer from that shortcut, you'll be looking at My Documents, with all of the sub-folders showing - and that's a good thing.
You may see a lot of icons on the right side, as shown in the left picture below. If you want to change to the way the folders/files as shown on the right, that's easy to change, and it really makes folders and files easier to find.
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To change to the Detail view (shown on the right) click on the word View (on the toolbar) then click on Details.
To make sure the view stays that way every time you open Explorer, click on the word Tools (on the toolbar) then click on Options. Click on the View tab.
While you're there, look for "Hide extensions for known files" and remove the checkmark. Then click on the button for "Apply to all folders" - Click Apply
(lower right corner) - Click OK.
From now on, you'll have the view shown on the right, and you'll be able to see what the 'extension' of a file is (examples are .xls, .doc, .jpg, .bmp) because you've removed the "hide" feature. (They call it a feature, I call it a nuisance)
Now if you scroll down the left side to MY COMPUTER and click on the + next to that. That will show you all drives (floppy, CD, hard drive and mapped network drives. From there you can select the folder (the name used to be 'directory' but they changed it) you are looking for and double click it or click on the + next to the folder.
As you can see in the above example, in this directory there many different file types - Excel files (.xls); Word files (.doc); Adobe files (.PDF); text files (.txt) etc. If I had opened Excel and looked in this directory I would only see the file conversion.xls. If I had opened Access I would only see the file chris.mdb. BUT as you can see there are many other files and file types here. Only by using Windows Explorer do you see the entire picture. By default the system does not show you system files and known file extensions. This can be changed in file settings, but that's for later.
Also one additional note, files are not stored "In Excel" or "In Word" or "In IrfanView". Files are Excel files and Word files, BUT they are stored in folders (usually in My Documents) and folders can store files of any kind.
If you would like more information about Windows explorer please send me an e-mail at bobbie2836@comcast.net and I'll get back to you. Windows Explorer is about the most helpful tool on your computer, and you should know how to work with it.
