File directories

File Manager can be opened by clicking its icon in the Main program group. The view will have some resemblance to the illustration. If it is very similar, someone with my tastes set up Windows.

The left side of the view shows the directory tree. At the top e:\ is the drive designator and the root directory. Down the tree are sub-directories. Qbooksw has an open folder icon. The contents of Qbooksw are displayed on the right. Across the top is a well-filled menu bar. The boxy icons shown next below, labelled a:, b:, c:, and d:, are disk drives. (Icon for drive e: is not visible.)

Multiple directories can be displayed. Double click on the icon for the drive containing the second directory. It will be opened as another window. Control is in the Window menu, below.

View menu is dropped over the directory, with a rich list of choices. The more useful choices will be described ( I will decide what you need!)

Name and All File Details provide choices to determine what is shown. Name lists only name, but many more of them. In the view, All File Details is checked, and the directory listing shows all file details. More information is presented, and I find it useful. Partial File Details... (Note the ellipsis) leads to a check list, with options for what you want to see.

Sort by Name produces the list with the names alphabetized.

Sort by Date does that, but that label omits a material fact. The latest date goes to the top. Note that in the alphabetical display, qbw.ini is below qbw.exe. In a sort by date, it would be near the head of the list. It records those preference changes which apply to all of QuickBooks, and is updated if any of those preferences are changed. (Other preferences apply only to the current company, and are in the company file.)

By File Type is handy, but is a trap. You can define a file specifier like *.qbw and show only these files. Then you can forget this setup, open another directory, and wonder why it is empty! Of course, it is not empty , it just has no files of the specified type. The title bar has a clue, should you look up there. In this case it says [E:\QBOOKSW\.*]* because *.* means “all files,” and is the default. A specified file type would be listed in the title bar, but is useful only if one notices it.

File menu (pasted in on the left) has some usual choices, and some distinctive things.

Properties is described above.

Associate controls which program is associated with a data file type. For instance, a text file has the suffix .txt and is associated with the Notepad program. Double-click on a .txt file, and you will open Notepad, editing that text file. Installation of QuickBooks should associate it with .qbw files. If this does not happen, you can set it up in this easy dialog.

Window menu has several choices, including two that are useful if two or more directories are displayed.

Cascade produces overlapping, staggered windows.

Tile causes the windows to be good little windows and share the available space. This is really two commands, Shift-Tile for vertical division, and Ctrl-Tile for horizontal division.

Options menu contains some important choices.

Confirmation controls whether Windows asks you to confirm actions like deleting. Click to open this dialog. If any check boxes are open, click to put “ X’ s” in them. If you need to read this, all confirmation choices should be on.

Save Settings on Exit should not be checked. When you have a good thing going and want to save the setup, click File. Hold down the Shift key and click Exit. This command will save your settings.

non-indented

TIP

The last files changed XE "last files changed" can be identified by selecting View|Sort by Date, above, and provide hints as to which files to back up. XE "back up:file selection" QuickBooks, for example will automatically back up your company data file (in compressed form.) Preferences controlling all of QuickBooks are in qbw.ini and printer settings are in the wpr.dat file. These could well be included in an automatic, mass backup system.

Copying files within XE "copying files" the directory also starts by highlighting the file name. Click File|Copy. The dialog box will ask for the name to be given to the copy. (If you transition to Windows 95, you will have to open Chapter 23 and see the very different way of handling this task.)

TIP

If you remove the floppy XE "floppy disk:changing" from drive a: and insert another, click Control-A to read the directory on the new disk.

Copying or moving files between directories is done differently. This is most easily done if both the source and destination directories are displayed. Double-click on the icon for the drive containing the destination directory. Display both directories by clicking Window|Tile (described above.)

1. Highlight the file name.

2. Point at it with the mouse.

3. Drag the file to the new location, but hold down the mouse button.

4. To Copy the file, hold down the Control key and release the mouse button. This will leave the original file where it was, and make a new copy.

5. To Move the file, hold down the Shift key and release the mouse button. This deletes the file from its old location, and copies it to the new location.

Both of the last steps should be followed by a confirmation dialog box. If the move or copy happens without confirmation, go above to the Options menu. What is the default action, if neither Control nor Shift are pressed? Don’t look for a simple answer. Within the same drive (or logical partition) the default is to move the file. The file itself merely sits there, and the directory entry is changed, listing it as in another directory. To another drive, the default is to copy. Was this really worth reading?

Multiple file moves are not difficult. Rounding up a herd begins with clicking one file. Holding down the Shift key and clicking another file will select that file and all between. Holding down the Control key and clicking allows selection of non-contiguous file groups. Once the selection is set up, point at any of the files and move or copy as instructed above.