You may of noticed that sometimes a window's Address Bar is filled with text separated by right-arrows    The combined text is known as the PATH NAME because it is the path (road or address) used to locate a folder or file. The Edit Box surrounding the Path Name is part of the Address Bar and it allows the editing and displaying of an Internet Address (i.e. www.google.com) and a Path Name (i.e. D:\Important). So a path name is similar to someone giving directions to your House Address, but they are giving directions to your Folder or File instead.

Fig 1.0  The path name for both the Expenses file and the Wedding Plans file is Computer    Local Disk (D:)    Important

With the above example, if you wanted to find/use the text file (Microsoft WORD 2007 Document) called Wedding Plans you would begin by going into the COMPUTER (root) folder, by either double clicking on its desktop icon or by clicking on its START Menu menu-item (shortcut icon).

Fig 1.1  Double Click on the COMPUTER desktop icon

Fig 1.2  Click on the COMPUTER Start Menu menu-item (icon)

The COMPUTER folder is the root folder that displays Removable Devices such as a Floppy Disk Drive, a Flash Drive, a Digital Camera as well as any Hard Drive Partitions. When you click, or double-click, on the COMPUTER icon it opens the COMPUTER folder which then displays the kind of Removable Devices just mentioned in its display area.

Fig 1.3  Inside the COMPUTER folder - It is displaying 2 Hard Drive Partitions, 1 Floppy Disk Drive and 1 DVD RW Drive.

If you look at the Computer folder's Address Bar you will notice its edit box is displaying the current Path Name, which is    Computer  .    Clicking on the first    means you can then select a different main folder (i.e. the Recycle Bin or Network) from the main folder called Computer (Fig 1.4) and clicking on the second    means you can select a, removable, device (Fig 1.5). In this example I can either click on the DATA (D:) menu-item from the Address Bar (Fig 1.5) or double click on the DATA (D:) icon inside the Computer folder (Fig 1.3 above). Both methods will take me inside the DATA (D:) folder, which is the Hard Drive Partition (main folder) where the Important sub-folder has been created.

Fig 1.4  Click on the    and then select a main folder

Fig 1.5  Click on the    and then select a, removable, device

Once I am inside the DATA (D:) folder the Path Name (Address Bar's edit box) will change to acknowledge that I am indeed inside the DATA (D:), main, folder.

Fig 1.6  Inside the DATA (D:), main, folder (Hard Drive Partition) where the IMPORTANT sub-folder is stored.

The last thing to do is locate the IMPORTANT sub-folder, which is now right in front of me. So from here I can either double click on its yellow-folder icon inside the DATA (D:) main folder (Fig 1.7) or I can click on its IMPORTANT menu-item from the Address Bar (Fig 1.8). Either way will get me inside the IMPORTANT sub-folder where I can then see the text file (Microsoft WORD 2007 Document) called Wedding Plans (as shown in Fig 1.0 above).

Fig 1.7  Double click on the IMPORTANT yellow-folder icon




Fig 1.8  Click on the    and then select the IMPORTANT menu-item

It is good to know about Path Names because, with the address bar having an edit box, it means you can type in your own path names or use the address bar's drop-down menu to select a different path name.....from its history of path names, if created/available. It can take time for the system to build up a history of your past/used path names.

Fig 1.9  Choose a different Path Name by clicking on the address bar's drop-down menu

In Fig 1.9 above I clicked on the menu-item named D:\Important which then opened the Important sub-folder (Fig 1.10 below) and changed the path name to Computer    DATA (D:). D is the letter assigned to my second hard drive partition (the one with Windows 7 installed on it) - Drives always have a colon : attached to their letter and the backslash \ in the menu-item is the written form of a path name, as opposed to the clickable form of using a path name. It means a sub-folder name can be typed after the backslash \ (see Fig 1.11 below).

Fig 1.10  The Path Name is now set to  Computer    DATA (D:)    Important.

So to clarify. In this section the IMPORTANT folder can be opened in one of three ways. The first way is to double click on the DATA (D:) hard drive partition and then double click on the IMPORTANT sub-folder (Fig 1.7 above). The second way is to select it from the Address Bar (Fig 1.8 above). And the third way is to type its path name directly into the address bar edit box.

Fig 1.11  You can type a path name into the Address Bar edit box

In the above example I am currently inside the DOCUMENTS folder and have used the Address Bar edit box to enter the path name of the THE WEDDING sub-folder (A:\The Wedding) which is stored inside the Floppy Disk Drive (A:) main folder. After typing A:\The Wedding into the address bar edit box I then clicked on the blue arrowed GO button, which then opened the THE WEDDING sub-folder (below). From there I double clicked on the Wedding Plans file to open it (not shown here).

Fig 1.12  Double click on a Microsoft Word 2007 file to open/view it

In Fig 1.11 the written form of a path name is used - A:\The Wedding. With written form you separate each folder, main or sub, with a backslash \. So if you see this clickable form of a path name COMPUTER    LOCAL DISK (C:)    Users    Public for example and want to write it down you should write it down as C:\Users\Public. You do not normally write COMPUTER in the written form but you can if you want to, as Computer\C:\Users\Public. Both forms means the same thing - You are using the Public sub-folder which is inside the Users sub-folder. In turn, the Users sub-folder is inside the C (Hard Drive) folder. You know C is a Drive because it is followed by a colon :  The first backslash \ means the folder after C: is a sub-folder. In this example the Users sub-folder. Likewise, the second backslash \ means you are inside a second generation of sub-folder. So in this example Public is a sub-sub-folder. Remember. Each sub-folder is a folder in its own right but it also has its level in the folder hierarchy.

To get out of a sub-folder you can either click on the backwards button or from the Address Bar click on a previous folder's name.

Apart from Path Names, you may sometimes hear people tell you FILE, Open. FILE, Save. And so on. In Books, Magazines and Internet Web Pages you may see written FILE>>Open. FILE>>Save. And so on. These are all telling you the same thing - Click on the FILE menu and then select the Open (or Save and so on) menu-item. It is a kind of shorthand. As you use the computer more and read more computer books, magazines and web pages you will (if you like it or not!) pick up the shorthand jargon. Just the same as mobile phones - You might start texting your friends with "Hello. How are you?", but sooner or later you will be texting "Hi. How R U?".

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