Section 6 - Navigation
Navigating in the Windows OS has been simplified
with the Explore tool (this is not the same as Windows Internet
Explorer). To access the Explore tool, right click on Start
menu and select Explore from the menu.
To see the hierarchy of folders on a disk drive or folder, click on the plus sign (+) in Windows XP or the side arrow ( )
in Windows Vista in front of the disk drive or folder. Folders with plus signs/side arrows and folders with no plus signs/side arrows will be displayed. Folders with a plus sign or side arrow indicate there is another folder inside. Folders without plus signs or side arrows mean there are only files in the folder.
To help with any confusion an example is provided.
You want to open the file Report1.doc. You know this file is in
the folder called American Literature. American Literature is
in a folder called Book Reports on C drive. So to get to the report
you would need to:
- Click on the plus sign in front of C Drive.
- Click on the plus sign in front of BookReports folder.
- Double-click on the folder named American Literature.
- Double-click on the file Report1.doc in the right-hand window.
The string of names of folders you just opened
to get to the file Report1.doc make up a pathname. A pathname
is a sequence of the names of the folders where a file resides.
The path name for the Report1.doc file is:
C:\BookReports\ American Literature\Report1
It is important to understand pathnames so you know where to locate
a file. When the results of a find are returned it gives you a
pathname of where to look for files. Now you know
pathnames start with the drive letter and the names of the folders
are separated by backslashes. The last folder in the sequence is the folder in which the file is located. With the pathname
at your disposal, you can launch the Explore tool and then quickly
open the folders you need to find your file.
|
