Files, Folders and Back Up
Files are where you store information, pictures, etc. They also are programs, sound files, etc. But how do you organize them and protect them?
Think of your file system just as you would a file cabinet with file folders. Figure 1-8 shows a view of windows explorer. 
Note on the left side are two key folders, My Documents and My Computer. Think of the My Documents as your file storage room. Then think of each folder under My Documents as filing cabinets. For example, I have selected the Data filing cabinet in this example. The right hand pane shows the folders that are in the Data file cabinet. The folder names that you use should fit your way of thinking. However, be sure to keep them all under My Documents, i.e. in your file storage room. This will allow you to easily back up your important information (files).
To view files as shown in Figure 1-8, you need to open Windows Explorer. You can open it by going to start > All Programs and clicking on Windows Explorer (in some Windows installations, it may be in the Applications folder). However the view you get will not be identical to what is shown in Figure 1-8. Like everything in Windows, you can customize a number of parameters.
 To customize the view, go to Tools > Folder Options. You will get a three-tab box (Figure 1-9). Note on the General tab you can select the type of folders and how they open. For Tasks and Browse folders I recommend the top options as shown. If you like a single click to start things on your desktop, (like an Apple computer does) you can select this in the Click items as follows section.
 On the second tab, Figure 1-10, you set options as to what is displayed. I like to Show hidden files and folders if I need to fix something - you may not want to do this. I recommend you uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types. This will show the complete file name including the three letter extension that tells you what type of a file it is, i.e. exe - executable program, doc - Microsoft Word Document, jpg - Photo format, etc. If you want to see you operating and system files you have to remove the check mark next to the Hide protected operating system files.
 The third tab shows File Types. See Figure 1-11. This explains what type of a file is associated with the extension. It also shows what program will be used with a file type. This is where you can fix a common problem i.e., if you always open JPG files with Photo Shop and the next time you try to open a JPG file another program opens it, another program has hijacked control of JPG files. At the bottom of Figure 1-11, Details for 'JPG' extension there is where you can Change what opens a JPG file. Click on the Change and it will give you a list of programs that can be used to open the file. Select Photo Shop to reset the option.
Now that you understand more about files, how do you organize them so you can find them?
 Folders allow you to organize the files. For example, I organize my photos by year taken, then by subjects. To create a folder, go to Windows Explorer. In the left pane, select (single left click) where you want to create the folder. In Figure 1-8, the Data folder is selected. Then go to the right pane and do a right click and it will give you a list of actions. If you now move your pointer down to New, a fly out menu will appear with the option of Folder. See Figure 1-12. Left click on Folder and New Folder will be placed inside the folder you selected (In this example, in the Data folder.) The words New Folder should be highlighted and you should be able to type in a new name. If this is not possible, you can hover over the New Folder and do a right click to bring up action options, select Rename. You can then rename it.
You can create folders inside folders many layers deep. Just be sure they make sense to you and are not so deep you get tired trying to click down to find the file you want. If the folder organization makes sense to you, then you will be able to find the files you place in them.
Remember left mouse button causes an action and the right mouse button provides a menu of options.
Now you are ready to move files to where you want them. The "easy way is drag and drop." However, sometimes this will Copy to the new location, causing the creation of duplicates. Sometime this will Cut and Paste - the file is moved from the original folder to the new folder. Normally you want to do a Cut and Paste function. I recommend you use the Cut and Paste commands.
Before proceeding lets talk about how to select multiple files to move. If you left click the top file in a list that you want, hold down the shift key and move to the last file you want to move and then left click on it, all the files between will be selected. See Figure 1-13.
Now if you keep the mouse pointer above the list of selected files and right click, the options to Cut or Copy (along with others) will appear. Select the Cut function by left clicking on it. Now go to the folder where you want to paste the files and hover the mouse above it. Then right click to bring up the options menu and left click on Paste. If you don't like to right click to get the options menu, you can also go the File menu at the top left corner of the screen and left click on it. Then left click on Cut or Paste as appropriate.
If you want to move many files from one folder to another but not all of the files in a list, you can select multiple non-contiguous files by left clicking on the first one and then moving to the next file and left click on it while you depress the ctrl (control) key. Repeat this for all the additional files. The remainder of the operations is as above.
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