Mouse Clix

By: Hobie Lunin

Get yourself organized!

This article is about organizing your work in your computer so that it is quick and convenient to find your work. First, two definitions: Anything you generate and save in the computer, be it text or graphics or photos or any combination, is called a File. Folders are what you keep your files in. Folders have no other function.

Visualize your computer as a File cabinet. The drawer is like a Hard Drive and there are folders in the drawer and then there can be files in each folder.

Any program or application that you use in your computer is really nothing more that a large batch of files. For example, my computer has just over 30,000 files in it. These are mostly associated with programs.

Those that you generate are the ones under discussion here. As an example, suppose you have created a letter that you want to save in the computer. When you are done typing, you can save it by exiting (click the X in the right upper corner of your screen). The computer asks whether you want to save it (to your hard drive, up to this point it has only been in the computer’s memory). You indicate Yes and it asks where you want to save it and what you want to call it. After you have given it a name and see that it wants to save it in My Documents, indicate OK. After a while My Documents has a long list of files and now there may be some problem finding the one you want.

The answer is to make a new folder (actually a sub folder, as My Documents is a folder). Do this after the Save As window comes up. Click on the icon at the top that looks like a yellow file folder and has a star on it. (Actually, it is trying to look shiny, like it is new.) There will now be a folder that says it is New Folder and it is set for you to type a name for the folder. Just start typing a name for your new folder in My Documents. After you have typed the new name, click in a blank area in the screen to let your computer know you are done. Then click on the folder and it will appear in the Save In window. Then click Save and you have saved your work to that new subfolder. When you look at the screen now it has a folder in it as well as a number of previously generated files.

Now let’s say you notice there are several other files that could go in that folder. Just click and drag them onto the folder name and then let go. The file is now in the folder. (This is referred to as “drag and drop.”) Now that you have looked around in My Documents, I bet you see some more sub-folders you can make, and to which you can drag some more files. This is “getting organized!” And if you click on any of these subfolders you have made and find that there are many files in some of them that can be further organized by making sub-sub folders. Go ahead. As you generate more files in My Document as be sure to save them to the appropriate folder by making sure that the folder name you want is in the Save In field at the top of the window.

Another way of getting organized is to get rid of (delete) those files you no longer need or want. I prefer to do this in Windows Explorer which can be found by clicking on Start, pointing to Programs and Windows Explorer is there (please don’t confuse it with Internet Explorer, which is your Browser). Click on Windows Explorer, then click on My Documents in the left column under the C Drive. See if your file is there. If not it is probably in a subfolder that will be listed there as well. Double click on the sub folder and the file will be visible. Click once on it to highlight, then click on File in the upper left corner of your screen and then click on Delete. The computer will request command verification. Next, continue to delete unnecessary files. If you think you may want to save some of them to floppy, put a floppy in the slot in your PC and “drag and drop” the file or folder onto the words “3-1/2” Floppy (A:). If the computer leaves a copy of the file behind in the C drive you can now delete it as you have saved a copy of it to the floppy disk.

Lastly, after you have organized your files into various folders and sub-folder and even sub-sub-folders, you can return to your desktop (the opening screen in your computer.) All the files that you have deleted are now in the Recycle Bin. Double click on that icon, which will look like a trash can with papers overflowing it. If you are sure that all the files are unnecessary, click on File and then click on Empty Recycle Bin. All of the files will be permanently deleted. If there are some that you want to hold there in the recycle bin to see if you really want them, then highlight any files individually, click on File and then click on Delete. If at some time you decide you really want to restore any of the files left in the recycle bin, click on it to highlight, click on File and click on Restore.

Now that you have your files organized and deleted files you no longer need, you will find that staying organized in your computer was a lot easier than you thought.

Next time in Mouse Clix: Typing E-mail off-line.

Hobie Lunin is a Computer Instructor and Consultant, and will answer questions at hlunin@email.com