Jan's Files and Folders: Files

The application Notepad is a plain text editor. This means that you can create documents that contain only text - no graphics. It also means that you can't get fancy. No tables, frames, or other fancy features. So why bother??

What Notepad creates is just fine for writing simple memos, lists, or quick notes. Every word processor out there can read a plain text document, but they don't read all of each other's files well at all! Plain text is all that works for certain files that your computer uses, and that you might at some point need to edit by hand. So Notepad is well worth meeting.

Notepad opens with a new blank document ready for your typing. Many applications behave this way. Others offer you the option first of opening an existing document.

The cursor is the shape that shows where the text you type will go. Different programs use somewhat different shapes. A vertical bar of some type is the most common. Do you see the cursor in the images of Notepad?

If you have not worked with a typewriter or keyboard before:

Step-by-Step: Create & Save Text

What you will learn:

to open an application from Explorer
to create a new document
to save a document

Start with:

Start a Program from Explorer/Computer

To use this method to open an application, you need to know:
a. the file that starts the application
b. what folder the file is in

Right click on the My Computer or Computer icon on the Desktop and choose Explore from the popup menu. This will open an Explorer view.
Problem: No icon on Desktop for My Computer or Computer
Solution: Right click on the Start menu and select Explore. The window will open with the Start Menu folder selected. That's not where you want to be, but you can easily scroll the folder tree.
If necessary, expand drive C and scroll down to the folder Windows and expand it.
Select the folder Windows to show its contents in the right pane.
In the right pane, scroll until you see the file Notepad.exe.

Win98

WinXP

Windows Vista
Double-click on Notepad.exe to start the program. Notepad opens with a blank document ready for your typing.

Create a Document

Type the first line:
This is a sample document.
Press the ENTER key to get a new line.
Type the second line:
I wrote it in Notepad.
Press the ENTER key twice to get a blank line.
Type your name.
Press the ENTER key to get a new line.
Select from the menu bar Edit > Time\Date to insert the current time and date.
Press the ENTER key to get a new line.
Type the name of the course you are taking that these lessons are part of.

Save a Document

Win98 and WinXP use similar dialogs for opening and saving files. The only actual difference is that WinXP adds a bar of shortcuts at the left. Windows Vista's dialog shows the folder tree and Contents panes right away.

Insert the Class disk into the drive or USB port, if it is not already there.
Select from the menu bar File > Save .
Since this document has not been saved before, you will see the Save As dialog box. For most applications the Save In text box shows the folder last used to save something. Others programs have a default folder for saving files.
Inspect this window and its menus.
In Win98 and WinXP you can click on the Help button in the title bar of this dialog box and then click on each part of the window in turn to see what it is for.
Navigate to the folder you want to save in:
Win98/WinXP
1. Click on the down arrow for the text box Save in: to display a simplified folder tree.
  
  While in an Open or Save As dialog box, you can do most of the tasks that you learned to do in My Computer and Explorer, like rename, move, copy, delete. Popup menus are available, too. You can even create a new folder using the New Folder button on the toolbar.
  
  Some applications are not entirely happy with doing these things inside a dialog box. They may lock up or crash. So test your applications before you try to manage files within a dialog box. You wouldn't want crash the program before you actually saved your work!
2. Click on the icon for the drive for your removable media, in the drop list, for example Drive A: if you are using floppy disks. The dialog box changes to show the contents of the Class disk, including the folders that you created in the previous lessons.
  
  Problem: Flash drive did not show in drop list
  Sometimes the list does not show a removable drive until you have used it.
  Solution: Select My Computer in the drop list. The drives will show in the pane below. Double-click your flash drive from there to open it.
Windows Vista: The Save dialog opens with a folder tree and contents pane which show the last folder to which you saved a file.
1. If necessary, in the folder tree, scroll to see your Class disk and then click its icon. It's contents display at the right.
Double-click on the folder my docs and then on win project2.
At the bottom of the dialog, in the text box File name: type doc 1 . Yes, there is a space in this name!
Click on the down arrow in the textbox Save as type: to see what your choices are. There are not many for Notepad, but other programs may have a long list of file types to choose from.
Select the type Text Documents.
Click on the Save button.
The file is saved. The complete path looks like:
a:\my docs\win project2\doc 1.txt
The letter for your drive will not be a: unless you are using a floppy disk.
Remember - spaces are important in a path, too!

The title bar of Notepad changes to include the new name, with a txt extension automatically added. Most applications have a default extension to add to a filename if you don't type it in yourself.

To see what extensions an application uses, click on the down arrow in the 'Save as type' box. In an Open dialog box, on the other hand, this list will show what extensions the program can open. But it may not be able to save in those types. For example, Microsoft Word can open Lotus Word Pro documents (extension lwp) but cannot save in that format. It's a one-way translation.