Drag & Drop ~ Cut, Copy &
Paste
I
used to be surprised when I'd go into an office and find virtually no one knew
what Windows EXPLORER even was, much less how to use it. Now, I'm surprised
when I do find someone who knows this valuable tool. So if you're one of the
ones who already knows, go have a cup of coffee or you may want to check out
what is touted to be the world's best file manager, PowerDesk 4 Pro
here. At only $19.95, it has viewers for over 200 different
file formats, conversion and viewing of over 30 graphic formats, a supercharged
file finder, a customizable Toolbar for one-click access to your favorite
files, drag-and-drop FTP downloading and uploading, and many more features and
improvements. For the rest of you, here's a brief overview of the Windows File
Manager, called EXPLORER, and how to use it.
You can open EXPLORER in a
number of ways:
- Right click on START and click on EXPLORER.
- Click on START, PROGRAMS, then WINDOWS EXPLORER.
Let's start by putting Windows EXPLORER on your desktop. Click
START, FIND. When the find window opens, in the box NAMED, type 'explorer.exe'
(without the quotes, of course) and press the ENTER key or click FIND NOW.
When it finds the program, right click on it and choose SEND TO and
then DESKTOP (create shortcut) done! So next time you need EXPLORER,
double-click on this icon and you're there. If your DESKTOP is too busy already
and you've got room on your TASKBAR (the bar which is usually at the bottom
that has the START button in it), put your mouse pointer on the EXPLORER icon,
right-click on it and drag it into an empty area of the TASKBAR and release the
click. Now simply click on MOVE HERE. This is DRAG & DROP and you can do it
with any program, file, drive letter or device.
Back inside EXPLORER,
let's CUT & PASTE a file from one folder to another. In the window on the
left side of your screen, navigate to the folder MY DOCUMENTS. Hopefully there
is at least one file there that you created. If not, navigate to a folder that
does have some files you saved there. Open the folder by clicking on it once in
the left window. Everything inside (unless there are hidden files) is now
visible on your right screen. Now, right-click on the file you are going to
move and choose CUT.
Now, using the slide bar in your left window,
navigate to the folder inside of Windows called TEMP (you may have to click the
'+' sign next to the Windows folder to expand it so you can find the TEMP
folder). When you find Windows\Temp, right-click on it and choose PASTE. If you
look back in the folder it came from, you find the file is gone. When you look
in the Windows\Temp folder, there it is! CUT and PASTE you've done it. Now, put
it back where it belongs but this time, let's DRAG and DROP.
With the
file you just moved still visible in your right EXPLORER window, use your mouse
and the slide bar in the left window (don't click inside the window, just grab
the slider button with your mouse pointer) to scroll up or down until you find
MY DOCUMENTS or the folder from which the file came (and don't tell me you
can't remember). Now, with the file visible in your right window, and the
destination folder visible in your left window, click and grab the file and
DRAG it to the left over to the MY DOCUMENTS folder until your mouse pointer is
right on top of the icon. Release your click (DROP) and the deed is done...back
where you got it.
Practice moving files around, but make sure you use
files which you created, not files associated with programs or the operating
system. If necessary, create some 'test' files that you can use for this
purpose.
You can move multiple files as well as folders themselves, but
be very careful not to move a folder from one place to another unless you're
sure it's safe and what you want to do. If you need quick access to a
particular folder, put it a SHORTCUT to it on your desktop. Don't move it
there.
To DRAG and DROP, or CUT, COPY or PASTE multiple files from one
place to another, select each file one at a time by holding down the SHIFT key
and clicking on each one you want to move until they're all selected
(highlighted). Now, place your mouse pointer in any one of the highlighted
files and either DRAG and DROP or CUT and PASTE (as I outlined above). If you
do something incorrectly and now can't find the file(s) you moved, use the FIND
command from the START menu or from the TOOLS drop down menu in EXPLORER. Since
you do have to know the names of the files in order to find them, then write
down their names before you make the move.
If all of the files you want
to move or copy are in order, one right after the other, you can select them
all at once by placing your pointer just to the left of the uppermost file in
the group you are going to move. Now, click and hold down the left button and
move the mouse pointer to the left until that file is highlighted. Without
releasing your click, drag the pointer down the list of files until the last
one you are moving is highlighted. Release the click. Now do the DRAG and DROP
or CUT, COPY and PASTE as described above.
Hopefully you've leaned
something new, but I suggest you practice a bit with test files until you get
comfortable. No sense messing anything up until you need to (just kidding)!
It's really quite easy and once you start using these features you'll wonder
how you ever got along without them.
On behalf of all of us here at
www.officehelper.com , we wish all of
you Mom's out there a very Happy Mother's Day on Sunday, the 14th. We love you!
Thanks for your attention and hopefully, your business
-
Rich Poremba
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