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Newbie Guides 
New To PC's User Guide
The Filing Cabinet
At the bottom of each page is an arrow, linking to the next chapter, if
you prefer to step through the guide.
The Filing Cabinet & Family Tree
Like was mentioned in an earlier chapter, computing is all done through
the medium of FILES! Not paper files! but much tidier and less cumbersome
ELECTRONIC FILES! As was previously stated a good secretary does not remove
all of the file drawers from a cabinet and then toss files in at will
with no order until the cabinet is full and then simply shut the drawer
and go get a new cabinet! Well maybe some secretaries are like that! But
not the ones who want to keep their jobs for long.
Organising computer files is much like keeping a very neat and immaculately
tidy filing cabinet system, that might even resemble a family tree at
times. Let's pretend that you could build a gigantically tall filing cabinet
with as many different drawers as you want in it. One cabinet, many drawers
one on top of the other. Let's call the entire cabinet "C" just
for fun. Now the first thing a good secretary would do is to categorise
all of the information / data that will be placed in the drawers and pile
all of the related files into correlating piles. Then he/she would give
each pile a name, except the name could be no longer than 255 characters
(letters/symbols)! Also each file in the pile could also have only an
abbreviated name of 255 or less characters followed by three more characters
that would describe whether it was an active file or a passive file etc,
separated by a "." (period on the keyboard). Then she/he would
go about putting all of the files in the right drawers, under the right
categories. This is EXACTLY what is done in your HARD DISK or storage
tank built inside of the computer cabinet.
The drive itself (or the cabinet) is named "C" Drive/directory.
Each category of files has a separate drawer which is called a SUB-directory
of C: written with a "\" just for tidiness: so C:\GILT is a
subdirectory of C: called GILT and in that drawer or directory will be
found all files on the disk that have to do with the Galaxy Lite Word
Processing Program. And so it goes with all of the files in the piles
you have made. Each "goes into it's own drawer" or into its
own SUB-directory (having 255 or less characters for a name) eg.: C:\PCPLUS
for ProcommPlus Files C:\LOTUS for Lotus 1-2-3 C:\FE5 for File Express
5 C:\QUICKEN for Quicken C:\DOS for DOS C:\WINDOWS for Windows. Now a
lot of programs have an INSTALL program which automatically creates the
name of the directory for you and loads all of the related files into
them without you doing a thing: except telling it some information about
your system that it could not find out on its own (this is called "Configuring").
If you are not sure about how to answer configuring questions call someone
who may know the answer, even if it is a computer store or scotsmist on
01355 241771. Though all programs are different, a lot of the configuration
questions are similar.
Now doesn't all this in a way look like a family tree. There is one root
branch and that is why the C: directory itself is called the ROOT DIRECTORY
and then all of the directories that extend from it are called BRANCH
or sub-directories. So if I were to ask you the name of the root directory
most likely the answer would be C: the : is important to put in there,
it means that it does not stand alone and that there are in fact sub-directories
attached to it. A good program which shows you your tree is called Explorer,
a small shell program but with a lot of features! With Explorer you will
see your subdirectories lined up in a row from top to bottom. And if you
highlight and access any of the sub-directories you can see inside the
sub-directory all of the files that are stored in that drawer on the right!
It is even possible to view inside each of those files to see how they
are constructed. In that way you can view a .txt or text file just as
it is written. Got it! FILES and TREES!
Now each major drawer or directory or program has one file that makes
the program work and that is the .exe (or .com or .bat) file. As we said
before, the .exe is a list of instructions to give to the computer to
make it do what is necessary to run that particular program. So to RUN
or START UP the PROGRAM generally one has to be at the drawer or subdirectory
and then simply click quickly twice, on the name of the .exe file and
the program will start up right before your very eyes. Now to get from
file drawer to file drawer or subdirectory to subdirectory one can simply
clicks once in the newdirname drawer on the left, meaning: to go to a
new sub-dir newdirname.
It is a good idea to keep a list of your SUBDIRECTORIES handy and to keep
a list of the start up file names next to the corresponding directories.
e.g
QUICKEN Q.EXE
PUBLISH PUBLISH.exe
FE5 FE.EXE
To exit out of a program, there is usually a Exit command in the File
Menu or an X command to exit the program at the top right of the window
or sometimes it is just an ESC for escape from the program.
Should you want to create a new directory which is not yet in existence
simply select File from the menu then select new folder. A text box appears
for you to edit the new foldername.
Practice making folders/directories. Create two folders one called "temp"
and the other "work". You willl need these folders when unzipping
and zipping files for download. More about that later.
To delete a folder/direcory simply select the name in the left pane and
choose "File" from the menu then select delete from the drop
down options. Alternatively, select the foldername to be deleted by highlighting
it and simply press the delete key on your keyboard.
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