Files & Folders:
Create & Arrange Folders

Step-by-Step: Create & Arrange

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What you will learn:

to create a folder using the File menu to create a folder using the context menu to arrange folders

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Start with:

Making WinXP look like the illustrations

Before you start:

• Some illustrations will show the contents of a floppy drive and some the contents of a USB drive. Don't let that confuse you. It does not matter which type you are using.
• Some illustrations show a window without many of the usual parts. That was standard for the early versions of Windows. Some people still like to hide the parts that they don't use often, which actually makes sense in some situations! It certainly saves space and download time for this page.

Open a Drive

1. If necessary, insert the Class disk (the disk you are saving your lesson documents on) into its drive or port.
    
2. Open a My Computer or Computer window to show the drives on the computer. (Hint: Double-click the icon on the Desktop for My Computer or Computer or use the Start menu to open My Computer or Computer.)

   

    
3. Double-click on the icon in the My Computer or Computer window for the removable drive that you are using to save files onto, for example,   for a 3½" Floppy (A:) icon or for a USB drive. The display changes or a new window opens, depending on the settings for this computer.

   You will see no icons in the window unless you have already put files on the removable media. It does not matter for these lessons if there are already folders and files on the disk.

   
    

Windows Vista: To get a plain window similar to a My Computer window in earlier versions requires turning off some parts of a normal Vista window -

• Click the Organize button and select Layout. Then click on Navigation pane to hide that pane. Repeat to select Details pane to hide that pane also.
• Click the Views button on the toolbar and select Medium Icons view.

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Create & Name a Folder: File Menu

To keep the images small, the illustrations below show a window without some of the usual bars. The folders are shown in Icons style (Win98/WinXP) or Medium Icons style (Vista).

1. Choose  File  >  New  >  Folder  (by clicking on the  File  menu, then the item  New  and then the item  Folder  )
   
   Problem: In Windows Vista, the Menu bar is not showing.
   That is the default choice of layout for Vista.
   Solution: Press the ALT key on the keyboard. The Menu bar appears.
   Once you have selected something from the menu, the menu will vanish again. You can make it stay in view all the time by clicking the Organize  button and then  Layout > Menu bar.
   

   A new folder appears with the name New Folder, which is highlighted. How logical! But it's not a very useful name!

   An arrow following a menu item like means that another menu will cascade from it. Three dots following a menu item like means that a dialog box will open, containing choices for you to make.
    

2. While the folder label is still highlighted, type  class  as the new name for this folder and press the ENTER key.
   The folder is renamed.

   Problem: You lost the highlighting before typing.
   You must have clicked somewhere else.
   Solution: Right click on the icon and choose  Rename  to get the highlighting back. Then you can type to replace the name.
    

3. If necessary, right click in a blank area and select View and then Icons (Win98/WinXP) or Medium Icons (Vista) so that your window is ready for the next steps about arranging icons in a window.

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Create and Name a Folder: Context Menu

1. Right click in a blank spot in the window to see the context menu (i.e. the menu that pops up). This will also automatically deselect the label you were just typing.
    
2. Select the menu item  New  and then click on  Folder .

   

    
3. While the folder label is still highlighted, type the name my docs as the name for this new folder and then click in a blank spot in the window.

   Now you have 2 folders: class and my docs

   

4. Double-click the folder my docs to open it in a new window. It's empty so far.
    
   Problem: You did not get a separate window automatically.
   You will have to open a second window yourself. A choice in Folder Options - General tab controls whether a new window automatically opens. The default is different for different versions of Windows.
   Solution: Right click on the folder and select Open. If you still don't get a new window, use the Back button to return to the previous window. Then right click on the folder and select Explore. You may need to switch from Details view to the Icons or Medium Icons view.
    
   
5. Using the methods you just learned,  in the my docs folder create three new folders, named  word docs ,  excel docs , and  paint docs .

   The icons for the new folders may be scattered around the window if you used the right click menu. It depends on where you clicked.

   Don't worry. Making things neat is the next topic.

   

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Arrange Icons

First a couple of definitions:

AutoArrange arranges icons into neat rows and columns, starting from the top left.

Align to Grid or Line up Icons arranges icons to the closest lines in an invisible grid.

Neither of these change the order of the icons. They just straighten up the lines of icons.

1. Drag a folder icon out of line and drop it elsewhere inside the window. Did it pop right back in place? Your computer has been set to AutoArrange icons.
    
2. If this is true, select from the menu View or the right click menu  Arrange Icons > AutoArrange to turn this feature off for now. AutoArrange puts the icons in rows and columns.
    
3. Drag the folder icons around so that they are not in order and are not lined up, as in the illustrations above.
    
4. Right click in a blank area of the window and from the popup menu choose  Line up Icons  or  Align to Grid . Your icons may still not be in rows and columns but they are lined up to the invisible grid lines.

   If your icons still aren't neatly in rows or if they extend past the window edge, drag one or more of them closer to where you think they should go and Line up Icons/Align to Grid again
    

5. To do it the easy way, select from the menu View > Arrange Icons  > AutoArrange
   OR
   Open the context menu by right clicking in a blank area of the Content pane and select  Arrange Icons  > AutoArrange.
   Your folder icons should now be in neat rows. Try dragging the icons around. There seem to be rubber bands attached to the icons!
    
6. Drag the folder excel docs to the far right of the window. With AutoArrange on, the folder is lined up neatly at the end of the row and the other two folders are moved to the left. This shows that AutoArrange does not alphabetize. It just lines up the rows and columns neatly.
    
7. Right click in a blank spot in the window and choose  Arrange Icons  from the context menu. Then choose  by Name , even if it is already selected. Did any folders switch? The folder excel docs should now be back on the left in alphabetical order across the window.
    
8. Experiment with the different choices on the Arrange Icons menu. But let the last choice be by Name.

   Remembering Folder View Choices:
   The arrangements you choose are remembered only for a time. There is no way to set Windows to remember them permanently. As you work with more folders, older folder settings are wiped out.

   Windows Vista is supposed to remember your choices for 5000 folder views. There are 5 templates in Vista for views of folders with specific types of files, such as music, images, and videos. 

   (June 2007) There are wide-spread reports of Vista applying a random folder view and not remembering user choices. Some of this is caused by Vista's attempts to detect what kind of items are in the folder and apply one of the templates, but this does not explain all of the random changes.