File Management

When using network services it is important to make sure that you save your work in the correct place. No work should be saved locally (on the hard disk of the PC you are using) you should always save your work on network drives for two reasons: Your administrators are only responsible for backing up work on your network drives. If you store important work locally and it is lost, for whatever reason, then your department probably may not be able to recover the files. Network drives are backed up every night usually so files lost on failing servers or files that you accidentally delete can be recovered. Of course you need to be careful with your files, as it is not a straightforward task for the backup team to recover your files from the nightly backups.   Your work will always be available to you no matter which PC or site you are using. Your network drives are always available as long as the server and connections to it are working.

Using the My Computer Window

Double click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop. This will take you to the 'My Computer' dialogue screen.
You can change your View for this window from View on the menu bar, use Large Icons, Small Icons, List or Details to set your preferred view.

Going to tools on the menu bar and selecting folder options will allow you to further customise your view of folders if you wish.

Network drives are also called shares, as an administrator has to configure that part of the server’s hard disk for sharing.

From the My Computer window you can perform the required file management housekeeping duties.

It is very important to organise your files and folders on any network drive you have access to. Basic housekeeping duties include:

1. Creating folders/subfolders
2. Copying files/folders
3. Moving files/folders
4. Deleting unwanted files/folders
5. Renaming files/folders

Icons

There are a number of different icons which are displayed in the window:

Folder	Folders are used to store files and enable you to keep certain types of documents together. For example you may store all your reports in a folder called Reports. Folders may also contain other folders (called subfolders).
File	A file is any document you use or create and it is represented by a particular icon, for example:
	Represents an Excel spreadsheet
	Represents a Word document

To view files and folders on a particular drive, e.g. C: drive, double click the relevant icon.

This will display the files and folders within the drive. To drill down further, double click on the relevant folder to view the contents of that folder.

If files (documents) are displayed, double clicking on the icon will open the relevant application and the actual document.

To go back up a level, click on the Up One Level button  

Alternatively, you can press the BACKSPACE key to see the previous folder.

Creating Folders

1. Firstly you need to select the root folder; e.g. if you wish to create a folder on the C: drive or a network then this drive must be selected.

2. Click on the File menu

3. Point to New then click on Folder

4. A new folder named New Folder will appear. Without clicking away from it type in the name of your new folder. You can use up to 255 characters for your folder name, including spaces. However, it cannot contain any of the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > |

5. Press the ENTER key.
    

Creating sub-folders:

1. Select the main folder that you want to create the subfolder in.

2. Follow the same steps as above.

How do I save a document to a folder I’ve created?

Having clicked on the Save button within an application (e.g. MS Word/Excel), the following dialogue box will appear:



In the Save in box select the relevant drive/folder from the drop down list

If necessary drill down by double clicking on folder icons until you find the folder you created

Enter a filename in the File name box, and then click save.

The document will be saved in the folder you have specified.

Copying Files/Folders

Select the file/folder you wish to copy
Click on the Copy To button

In the Browse for Folder box, find and select the folder you wish to copy the file/folder to by clicking on the plus signs (+) to open up each level:

Click OK.

Moving Files/Folders

Select the file/folder you wish to move

Click on the Move To button
In the Browse for Folder box, find and select the folder you wish to move the file/folder to by clicking on the plus signs (+) to open up each level.

Click OK.

Alternatively:

Right click on the file to be copied or moved and select Copy or Cut from the menu.
Go to the destination folder using the methods described above then right click within the window and
select Paste from the menu.

Deleting unwanted Files/Folders

To delete a file or folder:

Select it then either press the Del key on the keyboard OR
Click on the Delete icon on the Toolbar

A confirmation message will appear:

“Are you sure you want to send the file to the Recycle Bin?”

To confirm, click on Yes, otherwise click on No and the file will remain where it is.

NB: Files deleted from a floppy disk or network drive do not get sent to the Recycle Bin: this is purely for files deleted from the C: drive.