Microsoft Windows organizes computer files by placing them into folders. Well what are folders your may ask? Folders are simply containers - thats it. Folders can contain 2 things, files, and other folders. Thats right, a folder can contain another folder - this hierarchical nature is the basis for most computer filing systems. Think of folders in Windows similarly to folders in your office filing cabinet - folders organize the documents in which they contain. The folder itself is not valuable. Hence if a folder is empty (contains no files), then it can be safely deleted and nothing of value is lost. However folders are not usually empty, since their main purpose is to organize and group different kinds of computer data. For example, we can create a folder called “Pictures” which will store all of our picture files. Similarly, we can create a folder called “Music” to contain all of our music files. More specifically, our Music folder can contain several other folders specifying genre - For example, the sub-folders could be called “Rock”, “Dance”, and “Rap”. This way, we could further organize the music into categories. Yet all the while, the Music folder would still contain everything. Got it?

Now that you have a basic understanding of files and folders, lets talk about how to manipulate them. If you want to move a file from one place on your computer to another, how is it done? Cut and Paste! Yupp, just like in Grade 2 - although, without the messy glue and safety scissors. Lets run a little hypothetical example. If we wanted to move the Christmas song “Silver Bells.mp3″ from the Desktop to the My Music folder, this is what we would do:

1) Right Click on Silver Bells.mp3
2) Choose “Cut” from the popup menu
2) Open the My Documents Folder
3) Open the My Music Folder
4) Click “Edit” at the top left corner
5) Click “Paste” from the drop down menu

Success! You have just moved a file on your computer! Now here is where we explain the difference between Cut and Copy. Cut will remove the file from the original location, and place it into the new location. In essence, cut means move. On the other hand, a copy will leave the file in the original location, and place a copy into the new location. Copy literally means make an exact copy.

Folders can be manipulated in the same way. But you must understand something very important. If you move a folder, you are also moving all of the files, folders, and sub-folders that are contained within that folder. Just a heads-up! So I could move the entire “My Music” folder containing all of my Music by simple right clicking on it, choosing cut, right clicking on my desktop, and choosing paste. Done!

TIP: Keyboard shortcuts are available for all 3 actions - cut, copy, and paste. Just make sure that you highlight the required file / folder first before performing the keyboard shortcut.

Cut = CTRL and “x” simultaneously
Copy = CTRL and “c” simultaneously
Paste = CTRL and “v” simultaneously

Do you have questions regarding the structure and organization of your computers filing system? Please feel free to ask anything, as there are no “dumb” questions. I’d be glad to help!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 11:28 am and is filed under Operating Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.