Fig 1.1 Double click on the COMPUTER desktop icon
Fig 1.2 Click on the Start Menu's COMPUTER menu-item (shortcut icon)
| HOW TO PASTE A FOLDER |
To paste a folder you must first use either the COPY function or the CUT function to get the folder and its contents (sub-folders and files) into the
computer's memory. Once you have done this you then need to choose a place to paste (transfer) that folder, and its content, in to. Even though CUT does
not allow you to paste into the same place, and COPY does, it is normally the case you will be pasting into a different place anyway. If you use COPY
and then PASTE to copy into the same place, your copied folder will be named with the suffix - Copy. So if the folder's name is John, your copied
folder's name would be John - Copy.
In this example though, with the DOCUMENTS window already open and the New friends folder already copied, I am going
to open the Floppy Disk Drive (A:) so that I can paste New friends onto the Floppy Disk that is inside the Floppy Disk Drive (A:).
Click on the START Menu button and wait for the Start Menu to appear. When it does, click on the COMPUTER menu-item (shortcut icon). Alternatively. Double click on the desktop icon called COMPUTER, normally located in the top-left corner of the desktop.
When you click, or double-click, on the COMPUTER icon the Computer window opens and then displays the devices on your computer (Fig 1.3 below). What you need to look for is the heading Devices With Removable Storage - This just means the hardware device and/or its hardware media can be removed from your computer, such as a Floppy Disk or even a Floppy Disk Drive (i.e. USB). If you do not have headings in the window do not worry. Either way you are looking for the icon that says Floppy Disk Drive (A:). If your computer does not have a, working, Floppy Disk Drive (A:) just use a Removable Disk (i.e. Flash Drive/Memory Stick) or another Folder instead.
Assuming you do have a Floppy Disk Drive (A:) icon; Double click on it to open it, so that you can see the content of its media (Floppy Disk). A is the
letter assigned to the Floppy Disk Drive. Just as the letter C is assigned to the Hard Drive. Floppy Disk means the A Drive (Floppy Disk Drive) uses a
3½ Floppy Disk as its storage media. Just the same as a CD Drive might be called Audio CD (G:), meaning the CD Drive has been assigned the letter
G and uses an Audio CD as its storage media. A Flash Drive uses a Flash Memory chip as its storage media. Double clicking on the Floppy Disk Drive (A:)
icon opens the Floppy Disk Drive folder (window) and displays any data stored on the floppy disk. In this example the floppy disk is blank (has no data
stored on it).
As said. Do not worry if you have no floppy disk drive, just double click on a Flash Drive's icon or go into the PICTURES folder instead. It really does
not matter because this next example can be applied to anything you have COPYed (copied) or CUT.
If you try and PASTE some data (i.e. the New friends folder and its contents) into the floppy disk folder (window) when there is no floppy disk inside the floppy disk drive you will receive the following error message (Fig 1.6). If there is a floppy disk inside the floppy disk drive but the floppy disk is write-protected (locked) you will receive the error message in Fig 1.7. And if the floppy disk is unprotected (unlocked) and inside the floppy disk drive but does not have enough storage space left on it, for the PASTE process, for whatever reason(s) you will receive the error message in Fig 1.8.
With the Floppy Disk Drive (A:) folder (window) open, and active, and nothing on stored on the 3½ Floppy Disk yet it is time to PASTE the already copied New friends folder onto it. Begin the PASTE process by clicking on the EDIT menu of the Floppy Disk Drive (A:) window.
When the EDIT menu appears go up (or down) the menu-items with the mouse pointer until you reach the PASTE menu-item. As you do this each menu-item will become highlighted, temporarily, as you go past it. When you have reached PASTE and have it highlighted simply click the left mouse button to activate PASTE.
As you paste New friends and it contents, from the DOCUMENTS folder to the Floppy Disk inside the Floppy Disk Drive (A:), a copying... message requester appears informing you of what is currently being copied - In this example 2 Items, from DOCUMENTS to the Floppy Disk Drive (A:). The New friends folder now contains a Microsoft WORD 2007 file called Friends that I have since copied there, hence 2 Items. Fig 1.11 below shows that the New friends folder has already been copied (pasted) onto the floppy disk and that the file called Friends, which contains the names & addresses of new friends I must add to my phonebook later, is the current item being copied (pasted) onto the floppy disk. I know Friends is currently being copied because the copying process (green guage) will end very soon and the New friends folder has already been copied.
As you can see Windows 7 calls everything Copy, whereas it should sometimes be saying Paste. This is similar to what I was saying about Folders and
Sub-Folders. For example. When you first copy a file it is copied into memory for later use. So the word Copy is correct because something (a file) has
been copied to somewhere (into memory in this case). However. When you later want to move that copy of something (i.e. a file) you paste it (move it)
somewhere else, which means you want to copy it from memory to a Floppy Disk for example, therefore the word Paste should be used.
It is because Windows
7 sees pasting as "copy from one place to another" that it uses the word Copying instead of Pasting. To understand Copy and Paste better just think of
Copy as making a photocopy of something and Paste as pasting (glueing) that photocopy into something (i.e a scrapbook). So you would say Copy & Paste
or Copy & Glue, but not Copy & Copy!
Anyway! When the copying (pasting) has finished the Floppy Disk Drive (A:) shows that the Floppy Disk now contains a copy of the New friends folder
(and its contents) (Fig 1.11 above). If you double click on the New friends folder, to go inside it, you will see the file Friends (below).
That is it! So to recap, because quite a lot had to be explained about the Floppy Disk and the Floppy Disk Drive, here is a quick reminder of how to Copy and Paste or Cut and Paste:
Remember. The destination does not have to be the Floppy Disk Drive (A:). It could be another Folder, a Flash Drive (Memory Stick), a ZIP Drive Cartridge or what ever can have data pasted onto it.
Going back to Pasting. Instead of using PASTE from the Edit menu on a destination folder's window you can use PASTE from the right-click, Options, menu. With the above example you would simply click, with the right mouse button, any where inside the white area of the Floppy Disk Drive (A:) window to show the EDIT menu-items. From there you would select (left click on) the PASTE menu-item.
COPY and PASTE and CUT and PASTE are not just limited to folders. You can copy Files, Text and Pictures also. And you can also copy a mixture of folders
and files, files only or folders only. This next example shows how to select multiple folders and files. COPYing, or CUTting, them and then PASTEing them
would be the same as above.
To select multiple folders and/or files simply hold down the CTRL (Control) keyboard key and then, with CTRL still held down, select (left click on) each
folder and/or file you want to COPY, CUT or even DELETE. If you select a folder or file by mistake simply left click on it again, with CTRL still held
down, to deselect it. Once you have made your selection you can use the EDIT menu-items as above.
Sometimes you may need many folders and files selecting, perhaps because you are putting them onto a CD. In this case you can use the elastic band effect
to select a group of folders and/or files - Therefore containing them within that elastic band (rectangle).
Starting from the right-hand-side of your proposed selection, either from the top or middle right-hand-side of it (top-right or top-middle position),
click the left mouse button. So in this next example the first click I do to create my elastic band (rectangle/selection) starts from mid-way down the
right-hand-side of the UK file. This is therefore the starting point.
The next step is to keep that first click held down whilst you then drag (move) the
mouse pointer leftwards, over all the folders/files you want selecting, until you reach the last folder/file in your selection. So in this next example I
am moving the mouse pointer leftwards, over four files, with the left mouse button still held down until I reach the NOTES files. From there I then move
the mouse pointer downwards slightly, with the left mouse button still held down, just to define my elastic band (rectangle) and to make sure all the
files in my selection are covered (but not totally covered, as it is not neccessary). Once you are happy that your elastic band (rectangle) has selected
all the folders/files you want in your selection, perhaps to COPY or DELETE, release the left mouse button.
Even when you have selected items (folders and/or files) with the elastic band effect you can still use the CTRL keyboard key method to select or deselect more items. So you might want to select 100 items with the elastic band and then deselect 1 item using the CTRL method, as opposed to clicking on 99 items with the CTRL keyboard key held down. Remember to keep the CTRL keyboard key, or left mouse button, held down where applicable; otherwise you may end up deselecting items by mistake.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
