Windows 7 / Getting Started

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File, Folder, and Library Management

Files contain all the precious data that you create with those sophisticated Windows-based programs. Files occupy a certain amount of space rated either in kilobytes (KB, or thousands of bytes) or megabytes (MB, or millions of bytes) on a particular disk, be it your hard drive, a CD-ROM, a DVD, or even, in very rare cases, a removable floppy disk.

Folders are the data containers in Windows 7. They can contain files, other folders, or a combination of files and folders. Like files, folders occupy a certain amount of space (rated in KB or MB) on the particular drive.

Libraries are the larger containers that enable you to group all the folders and files of a particular type. When you begin using Windows 7, you have four libraries that you can use: Documents (for all text documents), Music (for your tunes), Pictures (for all photos and other graphic files), and Videos (for your movies). You can then create other libraries as you need them as well as add files and folders to each of these predefined libraries.

As you open folders and subfolders to get to the file you want to use in one of the Explorer windows, Windows keeps track of the path in the address bar at the top of the window. This path starts with the disk or folder icon followed by the names of drives, folders, and subfolders in succession separated by a triangle pointing to the right (indicating a new sublevel).

For example, the address bar at the top of the Computer window shows you the path for finding an Excel worksheet file named Marketing 105. The file is stored in a Receipt subfolder within an Marketing folder on my computer's local hard drive (C:).

If you click the drop-down button at the right end of the address bar (or anywhere inside the address bar but outside of the path itself), Windows 7 converts the path in the address bar into the more traditional form of a pathname separated by backslashes that's used exclusively in the previous versions of Windows. For example, after clicking the address bar's drop-down button in the Computer window, its path immediately changed to
C:\Marketing\Receipt\

This more traditional pathname format is what you see when you open a dropdown menu in an address bar in an Explorer window or the Address toolbar on the taskbar. When specifying the pathname for a file by using this format, you simply append the filename to the path, as in

C:\Marketing\Receipt\Marketing 105

Assigning filenames

Each filename in Windows 7 consists of two parts: a main filename and a file extension. The file extension, which identifies the type of file and what program created it, is traditionally three characters, although extensions for newer apps such as Microsoft Office Word 2007 (.docx) and Excel 2007 (.xlsx), as well as .html for Web pages, are four characters. File extensions are automatically assigned by the creating agent or program, and Windows 7 doesn't normally display extensions as part of filenames that appear in Windows Explorer.

Whereas the creating program normally assigns the file extension, Windows 7 enables you to call the main part of the filename whatever the heck you want, up to a maximum of 255 characters (including spaces!). Keep in mind, however, that all pre-Windows 95 programs, and even some that run on Windows 98, don't support long filenames. These programs allow a maximum of only eight characters, with no spaces.

In Windows 7, files are assigned distinctive file icons indicating the type of file along with the filenames. These icons help you quickly identify the type of file when you're browsing the files in your folders with Windows Explorer. An icon also enables you to launch the appropriate program while at the same time opening the file by simply double-clicking its file icon.

You can change what program opens a particular file. Right-click its file icon and then choose Properties to open its Properties dialog box. Then click the Change button that appears to the immediate right of the program that currently opens the file. Select the new program in the Open With dialog box. Note that if you can't locate the program you want to assign to the file in the Open With list box, click the Browse button and use the Navigation pane to open the Program Files folder and locate the application there.