(Approx. 721 words + 8 screenshots [1 used twice] )
How to know what’s in a file or folder before you open it
by Linda Gonse, Editor, Nibbles & Bytes, Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group, California

Sometimes you just don’t know what’s in a file by the title alone. You may have created it so long ago, you’ve forgotten. Or, you received a file from someone who gave it a cryptic name. Most of the time, if you are like me, you bite the bullet and open the darned thing. This means waiting for an application to load before the file opens. If your attention doesn’t wander, you’ll spend exasperating seconds — maybe even a minute or more — drumming impatiently on the desk. Otherwise, you get distracted looking through papers or books in your To Read stack, and jerk to awareness 10 minutes after the file has opened.

Either way, you don’t get the information you need when you want it.

Call it secret, or just overlooked information, but there are ways to glimpse file information so you don’t have to open the files or folders to see what they contain.

FILES — Stay with me while I open my ORCOPUG folder in the Details view and click on a subfolder titled Ira Wilsker. There’s a list of files in the right window pane that I have saved Ira Wilsker’s emails. But, now I’m not sure what they contain. So, I go to View on the menu bar and check to be sure that Status Bar has a check next to it. Next, I click on the file titled “ATT00010.doc.”

To add the Status Bar to your folders, you have to select it under View.

Information about a file shows up in the Status Bar at the bottom of an open folder.

The author of the file, the actual title of the file, the date it was created and the size of the file all appear at the bottom of the pane in the status bar. 

Hover your cursor over a file for a popup box with the file information in it.

Or, I could just hover the mouse over the file name for a second or two and a popup will show me the file information. If you don’t see a popup when you hover your mouse over a file, in an open folder go to Tools > Folder Options > View. Then, scroll almost to the bottom of the list and check the box next to “Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items.”

The third option for checking on file innards is to right click on the file name, and go to Properties in the drop down list. Left click on Properties and go to the Summary tab. The author’s name and the title of the document will be there.

The Properties box defaults to author and title. Other information can be added to this file, also,  at the time the document is created or modified.

FOLDERS—You can make searching through folders easier (and even more fun) by using a custom picture to remind you of the contents. Or, you could assign a custom icon for the folder so it will stand out from the rest of the folders.

Go to the settings under the View menu in an open folder. First select Thumbnails. Then, go back into the list and click on Customize this Folder.

Click on the Customize tab and then the “Choose Picture” button. Find a picture in the folder (or in any other folder) that will remind you of what types of files are in this folder. For example, my folders are filled with articles for the newsletter from various writers. One folder contains articles by Ira Wilsker and images for his articles, so it makes sense to put Ira’s photo on the folder. I browse to his picture, select it, click Open, then click Apply and OK.

Take a look at the folder now (below) in Thumbnail view. There’s no way you can miss this folder, or forget what is inside of it!

In other views, such as Icon view, you won’t be able to see a picture on the folder. But, you can still make the folder stand out from the rest. Or, if you have a group of folders that are similar, you can change all the folder icons so they will stand out as a group and be easier to locate.

To change a folder’s icon, go back to View and Customize This Folder. At the botton of the dialog box, click on the Change Icon button, and select an icon. Click Apply and OK, and go take a look at the folders in icon view.

 It’s hard to miss the special icon, isn’t it? 

Try it yourself and discover how easy it can be to identify the folders you need, instantly and without guesswork.

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.