14 - Multiple Files and Folders Dragging and dropping File name collisions revisited

Transcription

1 14 - Multiple Files and Folders In the last lesson, we saw how to use the context menu or the ribbon to copy and move files on our hard drive. In this lesson, we will review and build on those skills as we work with multiple files Dragging and dropping This is a somewhat difficult concept to explain with just words and pictures. You can move, or drag an icon by clicking on it with your left mouse button, then, keeping your mouse button held down, move your mouse. The file or folder will now follow your mouse cursor. It s then just a matter of dragging the file or folder to wherever you want it and then letting go of the mouse button. Figure 14.1 shows an example of a folder being dragged into another folder. Figure 14.1 Dragging a folder into another folder will move it 14.2 File name collisions revisited We already learned that we can t have two files or folders with the same name in the same folder. If there is a file name collision when copying or moving a file, you will see the window shown in figure Figure 14.2 Windows needs your permission to replace this file

2 The choice is pretty easy here, click on Replace the file to overwrite the conflicting file or Skip this file to leave the files as they are. If you click on Compare info for both files you can check things like date stamps to help you decide which file to keep. If there is a file name collision during a folder merge, you will then see the window shown in figure Figure 14.3 A file collision when merging a folder You now have the option to Let me decide for each file. Figure 14.4 shows what happens if you choose this option. Figure 14.4 Resolving file conflicts manually

3 Files in the source directory are shown on the left, while files in the destination directory are shown on the right. Windows gives us information about when the file was last modified, you can use this information to determine which is the most recent copy of a document. Tick or check the files you want to keep. If you choose to keep both conflicting files, then the file in the source directory will have a number automatically appended to its file name. This renaming by numbering enables you to keep both versions of a file if you are unsure which is the correct one Desktop Snap and multiple File Explorer windows It is possible to drag and drop files between File Explorer windows. A neat way of setting this up is to use Snap. When working, copying and moving files between two folders, you can use Snap to size their File Explorer windows to exactly half the screen width. To do this, first make sure you have two File Explorer windows open. If you need to open a new File Explorer window, right click on the folder you want to work with and choose Open in new window. Figure 14.5 shows this. Figure 14.5 Right click on a folder and choose Open in new window to open up a whole new File Explorer window Now, drag one of the Explorer windows to the edge of the screen until a transparent frame appears (remember, to drag a window you click and hold on its title bar as you move your mouse). See figure 14.6 for an example.

4 Figure 14.6 Using Snap to resize a File Explorer window, wait for the transparent box to appear before letting go of the mouse button Once you have snapped one window to one side of the screen, Windows 10 will open a list of windows in the other half of the screen. Simply select the second File Explorer window that you want to work with. The window will then appear on the other half of the screen. Figure 14.7 shows a screen shot of a desktop configured like this.

5 Figure 14.7 Two File Explorer windows Snapped to the sides of the screen With your windows configured like this, it is easy to drag and drop files between them (of course, the windows could be sized or positioned however you like, but this configuration is particularly convenient for working with two folders at once). To move files between the two folders, all you need to do is drag the file across from one window to the other. Files can be moved back in exactly the same way. Remember when using this technique that dragging a file from one window to another can either move or copy the file, depending on the storage device you are working with. Files are moved if you drag them between two folders on the same storage device. If you drag a file or folder from one storage device to another, the files are copied instead. To demonstrate this, consider an external USB stick/thumb drive. USB stick drives (also known as thumb drives or pen drives) are portable storage devices which can be attached to the common USB connectors on most modern computers. They are very useful for transporting files to and from work, school or college, for example. When we drag a file from our computers hard drive onto a device like this, it is copied, rather than moved. Why is this? It is not usually worth making lots of copies of a file over the same drive since it just wastes space.

6 When you are working with a removable drive on the other hand, perhaps for backup or transporting files, it would not be a good idea to remove the originals from your computer, especially considering how easy it is to lose a USB stick drive! 14.4 Working with multiple files at once So far we have been working with individual files and folders, but what if we wanted to copy or move dozens of files at once? Fortunately for us, we do not have to do them one at a time. There are several ways we can select more than one file or folder at once. One of the easiest ways is to lasso them. To do this, click in an empty space in the File Explorer window and hold down your mouse button, just like you do when you drag an icon or window. You will see a square start to appear, Figure 14.8 illustrates this. Figure 14.8 Creating a lasso rectangle by dragging the mouse Drag the lasso rectangle over the files you want to select and then let go. Now all of the files that were within the boundary of the lasso will be selected Keyboard short cuts and other ways of working with multiple files There are also some handy keyboard short cuts for selecting multiple files. The Shift keys (sometimes represented as a small up pointing arrow) are located at the far right and far left of the second row of keys from the bottom on a standard keyboard. Using Shift, you can select a range of files from a list. For example, to select File1, File2 and File3 in figure 14.8, first click on File1, then hold down shift and click on File3.

7 The Control or Ctrl keys are located at the far right and far left of the bottom row of keys on a standard keyboard. This key can be used to select and deselect individual files. Simply hold down Control while you click on files and folders to individually select and deselect them. Any files you click while holding down Control will stay selected once you let go of the key. You can also use the Home tab on the ribbon to select multiple files and folders. The file selection tools are on the far right of the Home tab. Figure 14.9 shows the options that are available. Figure 14.9 File and folder selection tools on the ribbon By turning on the Item check boxes option on the View tab of the ribbon (see lesson 12.5) you can also select multiple files and folders simply by ticking or checking them. In figure 14.8 you can see the item check boxes are turned on, notice in the top left hand corner of File1 and File2 there is a check or tick mark. This check box may appear to the left of the file in other viewing modes. When you have multiple files selected, you can work with them just like you do with an individual file. That means you can use the context menu or the ribbon to Cut, Copy or Send to, or you can drag and drop them. When working with a large number of files, selecting several at once is a huge time-saver, so be sure to practise and master this technique.