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Creating Folders
Folders act kind of like drawers on your hard drive to hold other folders
or files. They enable you organize your hard drive by putting common files
or subfolders together.
This is how you create new folders:
Navigate to the current drive or folder that contains the new folder.
Select File, New Folder—or click the Make a New Folder task in the File
and Folder Tasks panel of the activity center pane.
A new, empty folder appears, with the filename "New Folder" highlighted.
Type a name for your folder (which overwrites the "New Folder" name) and
press Enter.
One of Microsoft's most important "little" changes is the addition of the
"make new folder" command in so many places within each folder window.
Used to be you could only access this command from the File menu. Now you
can create a new file directly from the activity center pane, or by
right-clicking anywhere in the folder window.
Renaming Files and Folders
Naming your files and folders in a way that somehow describes their
contents is a good idea. Sometimes, however, you may need to change the
name of a file or folder. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to rename an
item.
CAUTION
Folder and filenames can include up to 255 characters—including many
special characters. Some special characters, however, are "illegal,"
meaning that you can't use them in folder or filenames. Illegal characters
include the following: \ / : * ? " < > |. (TRY TO KEEP THE NAME SHORT)
To rename a file or folder, just follow these steps:
Select the file or folder you want to rename.
Click Rename This File from the File Tasks list (or Rename This Folder
from the Folder Tasks list).
The filename is now highlighted. Type a new name for your folder (which
overwrites the current name) and press Enter.
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Deleting Files and Folders
Because disk space is a resource you don't want to waste, you should
delete files and folders you no longer need.
Select the file or folder you want to delete.
Click Delete This File from the File Tasks list (or Delete This Folder
from the Folder Tasks list).
TIP
You can also delete a file by dragging it from the folder window onto the
Recycle Bin icon on the desktop, or by highlighting it and pressing the
Del key.
Restoring Deleted Files
If you delete a file and later decide you made a mistake, you're in luck.
For a short period of time, Windows XP stores deleted files in a special
file called the Recycle Bin. If you've recently deleted a file, it should
still be in the Recycle Bin.
This is how you can restore a deleted file:
Open the Recycle Bin by clicking its icon on the desktop.
When the Recycle Bin opens (see Figure 3.17), select the file or folder
you want to restore.
Click Restore This Item from the Recycle Bin Tasks list.
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plain text file or a
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