To open a file you have two methods. You can either double click on a file's icon, which will open the program associated with the file, or you can open a program first and then use that program to open a file. Method one is the most popular because it is the easiest.

Almost all files have Icons attached to them. An icon is simply an image that is designed to represent a program and/or what a file does. For example. An icon with a Printer image might be representing a program that prints documents. Whereas an icon with a Paint Brush or Photograph image might be representing a painting program and/or be telling you the file is a photograph.

When you double click on a file's icon the program (i.e. Paint program) associated with the file (i.e. Photograph file) opens. So if you double click on a file (i.e. Test.txt) that has a NotePad icon attached to it (so really, you are double clicking on the file's icon) the program NotePad will open and then display the text that is inside the file. If you opened a file (i.e. Test.jpg) that had a Paintbrush icon attached to it the program Paint would open and then display the picture/photo that is inside that file. Here are some common icons:

The traditional folder icon. When you create a new folder/sub-folder it will have this image attached to it. The image can be changed with Windows 7 though.

The Microsoft Word 2007 icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens the program called Microsoft Word 2007, which in turn opens the file and then displays its Text, Drawings and so on. The file's name will end with the .docx file extension. Microsoft Word 2007 is meant for the creation of a Document file - A file that can contain Text, Pictures, Drawings and so on.

The Microsoft Excel 2007 icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens the program called Microsoft Excel 2007, which in turn opens the file and then displays its Accounting Data. The file's name will end with the .xlsx file extension. Microsoft Excel 2007 is meant for the creation of an Accounts Data file, but it can contain other data as well.

The Microsoft Access 2007 icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens the program called Microsoft Access 2007, which in turn opens the file and then displays its Database Records. The file's name will end with the .accdb file extension. Microsoft Access 2007 is meant purely for the creation of a Database file.

The Internet Explorer icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens the program called Internet Explorer, which in turn opens the file and then displays its Internet Information contents. The file's name will end with either the .htm or .html file extension. HTM and HTML files are made by a programmer for use with The Internet/Internet Explorer.

The Notepad icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens the program called Notepad, which in turn opens the file and then displays its Text. The file's name will end with the .txt file extension. Notepad is a Text Editor that is meant primarily for the creation of a (smallish) Text file.

The Help Document icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens a Help Window, which in turn opens the help file and then displays its Help Index/Menus. The file's name will end with the .hlp file extension. Help Documents are made by Programmers/Special Programs.

The Picture icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens the default Paint program, which in turn opens the picture file and then displays the Picture/Drawing/Photo. The file's name will probably end with either the .jpg, .bmp, .tif, or .png file extension. Picture files are created with a Paint program, from a Scanner and so on.

A Media icon. Double Clicking on a file with this icon attached to it opens the default (normal) Media Player, which in turn opens the media file and then plays the Audio/Video. The file's name will probably end with either the .wmv, .avi, .mpg, .wma or .wav file extension. Audio/Video files are created with Hardware Devices and/or Software Emulators.

The above are just a few of the common Icon Types - There are plenty more out there. Just remember what was said in the Folder and Files section though, because at the end of the day each file will only belong to one File Type.

So now you know about opening a file with method one, by double clicking on a file's icon, let's look at method two. With method two you are going to execute (open/launch) the text editor (program) called Notepad, in order to then open a file, by using the following steps. Step one requires you to click on the START Menu button, using the left mouse button, to reveal the START Menu (Fig 1.1).

Fig 1.1  Click on the START Menu button, to reveal the START Menu.




Fig 1.2  The START Menu - Click on, or hover over, ALL PROGRAMS to display the Programs List.




Fig 1.3  The Programs List - Move the mouse pointer upwards until it is hovering over the ACCESSORIES folder

When the START Menu appears either click on, or hover over, ALL PROGRAMS (Fig 1.2 above) to clear the Pinned-To/Recently Used list of programs and display the Programs List instead (Fig 1.3 above). The programs list is made up of commonly installed/used folders and files (see the Start Menu section for more information).

With the Start Menu already showing the All Programs programs list (Fig 1.3 above), and the mouse pointer hovering over BACK, start moving the mouse pointer upwards until it reaches the folder (yellow icon) called ACCESSORIES (Fig 1.3 above). As you do this each folder in turn will become highlighted as the mouse pointer hovers over it, but only until you hover to the next folder and then finally reach the Accessories folder. When you reach the Accessories folder simply click on it to reveal what programs (files), and sub-folders if any, there are inside it (below).

Fig 1.4  Inside the ACCESSORIES folder - Click on the Notepad menu-item to continue

After clicking on the Accessories folder the programs, and any sub-folders, inside it are revealed (Fig 1.4 above). In this example the programs inside the Accessories folder go from Calculator down to Wordpad (the sixth program down is Notepad). And the sub-folders inside the Accessories folder go from Ease Of Access down to Tablet PC.

With the Accessories folder now open the next thing to do is move the mouse pointer, six items downwards, until it is hovering over Notepad (Fig 1.4 above). At this point keep the mouse pointer still, whilst over Notepad, and then click the left mouse button to execute (open/launch) the program (text editor) called Notepad (below).

Fig 1.5  The program (text editor) called Notepad has been launched (executed/run)

When the program called Notepad has been executed (opened/launched) as above it starts with an empty edit box (the main white area of its window) in which you can type something into it. Ideally, you type a Letter into it for example and then save that Letter as a file - See the How To Save A File section for more information.

On the other hand, you might want to open an existing file. Perhaps an half-written letter, an essay or whatever. In which case click on Notepad's FILE menu, to display its menu-items, and then select (click on) the OPEN menu-item (Fig 1.6). After doing this an Open file requester will appear (Fig 1.7).

Fig 1.6  Click on the FILE menu and then select the OPEN menu-item




Fig 1.7  The OPEN File Requester - Click directly on the DATA (D:) folder (link), or on its Folder Expansion triangle, to open that folder.

To open a file, in notepad's case a TEXT file, you first need to locate/know which folder or sub-folder the file is inside. Locating a folder or sub-folder is done in one of three ways. Via the Address Bar's edit box, via the Navigation Pane or by double clicking through each folder - All of these methods have been exampled in the How To Save A File and Path Names Explained sections combined.

In this example (Fig 1.7 above) I will use the Navigation Pane (on the left-side of the file requester) to open the Letter To Uncle text file that is inside the DATA (D:) hard drive partition, Important sub-folder. So to get inside the Important sub-folder I first need to click directly on the DATA (D:) main folder (shortcut link) or on the little Folder Expansion triangle to the left-side of it (Fig 1.7 above). Either way will expand the folder's view to reveal what sub-folders are inside the DATA (D:) main folder.

Fig 1.8  Click directly on the Important heading (folder link) to open that folder.

In this example the DATA (D:) main folder has a sub-folder called Important inside it as well as a sub-folder called PerfLogs, and other undisplayed sub-folders. Therefore I now need to click on the Important sub-folder (shortcut link) in order to then click on the text file called Letter To Uncle (above). From there. Clicking on the OPEN button, with the text file called Letter To Uncle now selected (clicked on), will open that text file called Letter To Uncle.

Fig 1.9  The text file called Letter To Uncle is now open and viewable/editable within Notepad

Regardless of how you open a folder or sub-folder, in order to view/edit the file you want to open, to actually open the file can be done in one of two ways. Either by double clicking on the file you want to open or by selecting (clicking on) the file you want to open and then clicking on the OPEN button (as I did above).

As you can see, to open a file using the file requester is very very easy - Once you have navigated the folder view (i.e. the navigation pane) to the folder or sub-folder where the file to open is, you then either select that file and OPEN it or simply double click on the file. The complex part for some people is locating the file's folder or sub-folder via the Open file requester. That is why it is important to know about Folders & Files and their hierarchy.

After clicking on the OPEN button notepad opens the Letter To Uncle (Letter To Uncle.txt) file, reads the text inside it and then displays that text (Fig 1.9 above). It reads the text first so it knows how to display it properly. If the data is not text data, but picture data for example, it will not know how to display it properly and therefore just displays it as rubbish text.

Fig 1.10  An example of notepad displaying Picture Data as Text Data from an opened picture file called john.jpg

Going back to the file requester, you can change some of the elements on it. For example the File name edit box. It allows you to either type in an existing file name (no point, you would just click on a file name instead) or use its drop-down menu to select an existing file name, which already has the path name attached to it - The path name and file name can be different from the current path name and file name. In Fig 1.11 below I am going to open the Ideas.txt text file which is in the Documents folder.

Fig 1.11  You can change the file to open by using the File Name drop-down menu

The other element you can change on the file requester is the Files of type, which is a drop-down menu. It has two menu-items to choose from. All Files and Text Documents (*.txt). All Files, when selected, will show you all the files in a given folder or sub-folder regardless if they are text files or not. From there you can open a file of any type, like a Picture file. But remember, a non-text file like a picture file will be displayed as rubbish text (Fig 1.10 above). So really, you should keep the File of type menu-item set to its default (normal) setting of Text Documents (*.txt) which only allows text files to be opened.

So what is the point of All Files? Well. Selecting All Files allows you to display (see) other text file types that have a different file extension - A text file with the file extension .INI for example, which is a text file for the system to read. Its text might contain system information like [XP] SP2=Installed, USERS 1. If you were using Wordpad instead of Notepad the default file extension would be .rtf (Rich Text Format), in which case you could change the file extension to .txt by selecting .txt from the drop-down menu. So a text editor can open other types of text file in other words.

Fig 1.12  Notepad - Display Text Files Only / Open as a Text file




Fig 1.13  Wordpad - Display Text Files Only / Open as a Text file




Fig 1.14  Microsoft Word 2007 - Display Text Files Only / Open as a Text file

Do not worry about the Encoding drop-down menu in Notepad (Fig 1.12). It should have ANSI selected, but if it does not (very unlikely) just click on its drop-down menu and then select the ANSI menu item.

So to recap, because a lot was explained above. Go to the FILE menu of an opened program (Paint program, Text Editor or what ever) and then select (click on) its OPEN menu-item. The Open file requester will then appear and you do as above to locate a file you want opening. Once you have located that file, using the Open file requester, either double click on the file or select it and then click on the OPEN button. Alternatively. If a file (i.e. john.jpg) is inside a folder/sub-folder, or on the desktop, for example simply double click on its (photograph) icon to open the program (i.e. Paint.exe) associated with that file.

One thing you should remember when opening files is that once one program is opened with one file, opening a second file might open a second window in that program - depending on the program. In other words. Notepad only opens one window to display one file's contents (text). You would need to open a second Notepad and File in order to display that second file's contents. Whereas, with a program like Microsoft Word 2007 it opens a separate window for each file it opens. So the more windows and files that are opened the more memory your computer is using.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.