Creating, Renaming, and Deleting Folders and Files

With each program you use on your computer, you create files of a particular type. For example, with Microsoft Office Word 2007, you create documents (.docx files); with Microsoft Office Excel 2007, you create worksheets (.xlsx files); and with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, you create presentations (.pptx files). You can also create and edit simple text documents and graphics using the tools that come with Windows Vista.

As you create files, you will want to create folders in which to organize the files for easy retrieval. Often you will need to rename a folder or file to accurately reflect its content. And periodically you will want to delete folders and files you no longer need. For safety reasons, removing a file from your computer is a two-step process: You first delete the file, which moves it to the Recycle Bina holding area on your hard drive from which is it possible to restore an item if you realize you need it. Then you periodically empty the Recycle Bin, which permanently erases its contents.

When you buy a computer these days, it likely comes with a hard disk that will store several gigabytes (GB) of information. A gigabyte is 1 billion bytes, and a byte is a unit of information that is the equivalent of one character. Some of your files will be very small1 to 2 kilobytes (KB), or 1000 to 2000 charactersand others might be quite largeseveral megabytes (MB), or several million characters. The small ones are easy to copy and move around, but large files or large groups of files are easier to copy and move from one place to another, or to send by e-mail, if you compress them. You can compress files you created, program files, or even other folders into a compressed folder that is identified by a zipper on its folder icon.

In this exercise, you will create a new folder and two new files: a text document and a picture. After renaming one of the files, you will compress the two files and then delete all the files and folders you created in the exercise. There are no practice files for this exercise.

1.	Navigate to your Documents\MSP\SBS_WindowsVista\Chapter03 folder, and display its contents in Tiles view.
2.	On the Organize menu, click New Folder. A new folder appears in the Content pane, with the name New Folder selected so that you can change it. [View full size image]
3.	Press the key, type My followed by a space, and then press .
4.	Press again to open the empty folder.
5.	Right-click anywhere in the Content pane, point to New, and then click Text Document. A new text document is created, with the name New Text Document selected so that you can change it.
6.	Double-click New, type My followed by a space, and then press . The file name, date, type, and size are displayed to the right of the file's icon. Because the file is empty, the size is 0 KB. [View full size image]
7.	Press again to open the file. The text document opens in the Microsoft Notepad program, a text-editing program that comes with Windows Vista. Troubleshooting If the document opens in a different program, that program has been designated as your default text editor. You can follow the next two steps in that program.
8.	Type This is a text file.
9.	Click the Close button to close the file, and click Save when prompted to save your changes. Close The file size reported in the Content pane is 1 KB because the size is rounded up to the nearest whole kilobyte. However, the size reported in the Details pane is the actual size of 20 bytes. [View full size image]
10.	Right-click a blank area of the Content pane, point to New, and then click Bitmap Image. A new graphic file is created, with the name New Bitmap Image selected so that you can change it.
11.	Change the name of the file to My Bitmap Image, and then press . When you rename the file, it moves to the top of the file list to maintain the alphabetical sort order. Tip Bitmap images represent images as dots, or pixels, on the screen and are saved in the bitmap (.bmp) format.
12.	Right-click the graphic file, and then click Edit. The blank graphic file opens in the Microsoft Paint program, a simple graphics program that comes with Windows Vista. Troubleshooting If the file opens in a different program, that program has been designated as your default graphics editor. You can follow the next step in that program.
13.	Experiment with the Paint tools while creating a picture of any kind. (Click a tool, move the pointer over the blank canvas, and drag the pointer to use the tool.) When you're done, click the Close button to close the file, and click Save when prompted to save your changes. In the Content pane, the Size column reflects the size of the graphic. The Details pane displays a thumbnail of the graphic you created, and reports the file's dimensions as well as its size. If you want, you can switch to an icon view to see an image of the graphic.
14.	With My Bitmap Image selected, point to My Text Document, and then add it to the selection by selecting the check box that appears to its left. Troubleshooting If you don't see a check box when you point to a file or folder in the Content pane, display the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box, select the Use Check Boxes To Select Items check box in the Advanced Settings list, and then click OK. The Details pane indicates that two items are selected and reports the total size of the selection. Because the file sizes in the Content pane are rounded up, the total in the Details pane might be less than the sum of the individual file sizes.
15.	Right-click the selection, point to Send To, and then click Compressed (zipped) Folder. A compressed folder named for one of the selected files is created. The folder name is selected so that you can change it.
16.	Type My Compressed Folder, and then press .
17.	Double-click the compressed folder to open it. The Content pane now displays the files that have been compressed into the zipped folder. The Extract All Files button on the toolbar and the zipped folder icon in the Details pane indicate that you are viewing a compressed folder rather than a standard folder.
18.	Point to the right border of the Name column heading, and when the pointer changes to a bar with opposing arrows, double-click. Then double-click the right borders of the other column headings to see all the information available in Details view. [View full size image]
19.	In the upper-left corner of the window, click the Back button to redisplay the contents of the My New Folder folder. Back Because you created a graphic in this folder, it has been assigned the Pictures And Video type, with a default view of Large Icons.
20.	Click My Bitmap Image to select it, hold down the key, and click My Text Document to add it to the selection. Then press the key, and click Yes to confirm the deletion. Tip You can also delete a file or folder by selecting it and then clicking Delete on the Organize menu. You cannot delete a file by pressing the Backspace key.
21.	If the Navigation pane is not displayed, point to Layout on the Organize menu, and then click Navigation Pane. Scroll to the bottom of the Navigation pane, and then click Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin contains all the files you have deleted. The toolbar displays the Empty The Recycle Bin and Restore All Items buttons so that you can quickly perform those tasks. [View full size image]
22.	Right-click My Text Document, and then click Restore. The file is moved from the Recycle Bin back to the location from which it was deleted.
23.	Scroll up in the Navigation pane, and click the My New Folder subfolder of the Chapter03 folder to see the restored file.