You will probably have seen this window before: It is the Windows Explorer window, and its purpose is to show you what files are on your computer. There are two displays here, the fairly thin bit along the left, and the main bit in the middle/right.

In these you will see yellow things called Folders, which you may know of as Directories. If you do not know about these, you can imagine them as boxes inside your computer, which can contain smaller boxes and other objects. These other objects are called Files, and can have just about any symbol beside them.

Explorer shows you all the files that are on your hard disk, and any floppy disks, CD's, etc. that you have inserted. Most of the files on your hard disk you will not need to worry about, especially those in the Windows folder. What Explorer is useful for is moving work from your hard disk to a floppy disk, or the other way round. To copy your work to a disk:

1. Put the disk in the disk drive.
2. Run Explorer, it can usually be found under the Start menu.
3. Remember where the file is. It might be in "My Documents", if not you'll have to find it yourself. It is always a good idea to know which folder your work is in, so you can find it if necessary.
4. Double click on the folder which contains your work. The contents of this folder will be displayed in the main area.
5. Use the scroll bar to scroll to the top of the left area, where you should see the disk. Do not click on it. It will probably look something like this:
6. Find the files you want in the area on the right. If it is just one, click on it. If it is several, click on one then press Ctrl while you click on the others. Make sure all the files you want to copy have been coloured blue, and no others.
7. Drag the files to the floppy disk.

A similar process is used for copying files from a floppy disk to your hard disk.

You can copy files from one folder to another in the same why, except you have to press Ctrl to copy (otherwise it just moves the file).

Go back to Explorer index page