HOW TO USE
FILES AND FOLDERS
Windows 7
CONTENTS
Understanding Drives, Files and Folders ..................................................................................... 3
How your Computer stores information ....................................................................................... 3
Where to store your information ................................................................................................... 4
Which disk or drive do I use? ........................................................................................................ 4
Windows 7 Tips ............................................................................................................................... 5
How to create a Link to show the recent files you have worked on. .......................................... 5
How to Search for Files and Folders ............................................................................................. 6
Sorting Files and Folders ............................................................................................................... 7
Selecting a File or Folder ............................................................................................................... 8
Opening Files and Folders ............................................................................................................. 8
Adding Folders ............................................................................................................................... 8
Removing Folders and Files .......................................................................................................... 9
Move, Copy files and folders ....................................................................................................... 10
Find and right click to highlight appropriate folder ................................................................... 10
Renaming a file or folder .............................................................................................................. 11
Checking the properties:.............................................................................................................. 11
File Compression .......................................................................................................................... 11
Extracting compressed files ........................................................................................................ 12
Deleting Files and Folders ........................................................................................................... 12
Saving an Email into a Folder ...................................................................................................... 13
Jon Woodward
2|Page
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Understanding Drives, Files and Folders
How your Computer stores information
Drives
Folders
Folders
Fracture
Clinic
CLINICS
SPREAD
SHEETS
Files
Clinic
Letters
Emails
Orthopaedic
Clinic
Outpatient
Stats
Milea
Stats
Orthopaedic
Stats
DNA
Statistics
Care Plans
PRESENTATIONS
Replacement
Hips
You can think of your computer as being like a filing cabinet; each drawer representing a different drive
(the different drives being identified with different letters). Each drive stores information in folders, and in
each folder, sub folders and files can be grouped
Jon Woodward
3|Page
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Where to store your information
Which disk or drive do I use?
When storing information on your computer you must first decide which disk or drawer to use.
You should never store your information or files here. Your desktop is part
of your profile so any files stored here will be downloaded when you log on
using up valuable memory and increasing the time it takes to log on.
Information stored here will be lost if your profile becomes corrupt. You can
create shortcuts on your desktop to take you straight to your files
The main filing cabinet for your home computer. Do not use for storing
information at work.
You can only store information on a DVD/CD if you have a CDRW drive not
commonly available in the Trust
Network Drive (indicated
by the cable underneath
the drive to show how its
networked
The Trust’s computers are linked together in a Network so you can store
information on a remote or network drive. You should always store your
information on the Network because:
 Your information is backed up every night by the Computer Centre and
these backups are kept for approx. 14 days, so you can get back lost or
accidentally deleted files – just phone the IT helpdesk on ext 2808.
(You must know the exact location of your file.)
 You can use any networked computer in the Trust. Just log on with
your User Name and Password and you will have access to your
network drives and all your saved work
 If the computer you usually use breaks down or is stolen you do not
lose your work
You should normally have access to two Network Drives:
You will have a Personal Drive for storing personal
information. Your computer should default to save files in a
folder called My Documents on your personal drive.
Your Personal
Network Drive
You may also have a Shared Departmental Drive for storing
information you may want to share with the rest of your
department.
Cable to
show it’s
networked
Your Department’s
name shows it’s the
shared departmental
drive
Windows 7 Tips
When turning on your PC this screen will appear, this is the equivalent of the old My Documents screen.
Your ‘P’ drive is your
personal drive
You can also have a
dept drive
To get quick access to your most frequently or recently used
files (Jump List).
Click on the Windows Start Icon and this box will appear.
Look for the programme with an arrow next to it.
Move your mouse over the programme with the arrow. A screen
with recent document will appear.
Move your mouse over the relevant document and left click to
open it.
How to create a Link to show the
recent files you have worked on.
Right Click on the Windows Start Icon
Properties
Under the Start Menu
Click on Customize
Tick Recent Items
Click Ok
Click Apply
Click OK
Jon Woodward
5|Page
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Recent documents can now be viewed by clicking on the
Windows icon and click on the Recent Items. A screen
will appear showing all your recent files, hover over the
file and left click on your mouse to open the file.
To set up a printer: Click on Devices and Printers
Click on add printer at the top of the screen
Click Add Network, wireless or Bluetooth printer
Click The printer I wanted wasn’t on the list
In Select printer by name, enter your printer details
Click Next (Do not select Browse)
Click Next
Click Finish
How to Search for Files and Folders
Click on the Windows start button, and enter the file or folder you are searching for into the Search
programs and files box
Even as you begin typing, Windows 7 starts returning results. The more you type, the more accurate
results you get. To make it even easier, your search results are divided into
categories - Programs, Folders and Files. If you can see what you're
searching for, just click on it.
Jon Woodward
6|Page
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
If you want to narrow down your search, click “See more results”. Your results are then listed in the
Search Results window, with the phrase you searched for “highlighted” in yellow to help you quickly
figure out how relevant the result is.
Windows 7 not only searches file names for your match, but also searches inside files. So if you can't
remember the name of a document, but you can remember a sentence or phrase that was written inside it,
you can search for that.
Sorting Files and Folders
To arrange Files and Folders by name, type, size or date
1. Click on the View menu
2. Click on Sort by
3. Click on the option you require
Jon Woodward
7|Page
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Selecting a File or Folder
You need to select files or folders if you want to delete, move or
copy them…
Click on a file or folder to select it and the folder name will
turn blue
Opening Files and Folders
Double left click on the required file or folder
Or
1. Right click on the required file
or folder
2. Click on Open
Or
1. Click on the required file or folder to highlight it
2. Click on File in the menu bar
3. Click on Open
Adding Folders
1. Click on File
2. Point to New
3. Click on Folder
Jon Woodward
8|Page
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Removing Folders and Files
1. Right click on the Folder (or file) you want to delete
2. Click on Delete
Or
1. Click on the folder (or file) you want to
remove
2. Press the Delete key
3. Click Yes in the pop up box to confirm
Or
1.
Click on the folder (or file) you want to remove
2.
Select Delete from the File menu
3.
Once again Click Yes in the pop up box to confirm
Jon Woodward
9|Page
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Move, Copy files and folders
Moving a file or folder
Right click on the file(s) or folder(s) you want to move
1.
Click Cut or Copy from the drop down box (depending whether
you want to leave a copy in the original folder)
2. Select the appropriate drive
3 Find and right click to highlight appropriate folder
4 Select Paste from the pop up box
Jon Woodward
10 | P a g e
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Renaming a file or folder
1. Right click the file
2. Click on Rename
3. Type a new name for the file
4. Press Enter
Checking the properties:
To find out when a file or folder was created, its size, etc…
1. Right click on the file/folder to select it
2. Click on Properties
3. Ensure the General tab is selected
When you have finished looking…
Click OK to close the box
File Compression
File compression is a way of saving large files so that they take up less room. It’s good for files which
need to travel across the internet or to reduce files because many file formats are not very spaceconscious. Especially documents created by word processors like Microsoft Word are notorious for
wasting hard disk space.
1.
Right–click the file or folder & point to Send To
2.
Select Compressed (zipped) folder
A compressed folder will be identified as a zipper icon, and is
displayed with the same name as the file you compressed:
Jon Woodward
11 | P a g e
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Extracting compressed files
To extract a single file or folder, double-click the compressed folder to open it. Then, drag the file
or folder from the compressed folder to a new location.
To extract the entire contents of the compressed folder, right-click the folder and click Extract All,
Deleting Files and Folders
1.
Select the file or folder you wish to delete
2.
Press Delete on the keyboard
Or
1.
In the File menu click on Delete
3.
Click on Yes to confirm the deletion on the File or Folder
Jon Woodward
12 | P a g e
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
Saving an Email into a Folder
1.
Select My Computer icon
2.
Select the Drive the email and attachment are going to be saved too
3.
Open the folder the email and
attachment are being saved too
4.
Minimise the folder to the task bar
Jon Woodward
13 | P a g e
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176
5.
Open Outlook and left click and hold down the left mouse on the required email
6.
Still holding down the left mouse, drag the email down over the
folder on your task bar. The folder will open and you can drop the
email and its attachment into the folder
Jon Woodward
14 | P a g e
Lifelong Learning Dept
Tel: 0300 422 5176