Windows Explorer Guide

A guide for users of the Jaws screen reader, written by Chorlton Workshop for hsbp. More guides are available on the Jaws Guides page of the VIP Software Guides website.

Introduction

This is a guide to Windows Explorer on Windows XP, and there are also a separate guides to Windows Explorer on Vista, and Windows Explorer on Windows 7. Windows Explorer is used for browsing the contents of disks and folders, and for housekeeping — deleting folders and files, copying and moving them around, and creating new folders. To start Windows Explorer, press WINDOWS KEY + E.

The remaining sections of the guide are as follows:

• The Explorer Window. An overview of the Windows Explorer window.
• Tree View.
• Folder View.
• Tasks. How to delete, copy, move, and rename files and folders etc.
• Configuration. The recommended settings for Windows Explorer.

The Explorer Window

Main components

• Title bar. This contains the name of the folder which is selected in the Tree view. To read the title bar, press INSERT + T.
• Menu bar.
• Address bar. This contains the full path of the folder which is selected in the Tree view. To read the address bar, press INSERT + A.
• Tree View. This is a view of all the disks and folders on the computer, and is described in detail in the Tree View section. One folder is always selected, and the contents of the folder are shown in the folder view.
• Folder View. This is a list of the folders and files in the folder which is selected in the Tree view, and shown in the address bar. It is described in detail in the Folder View section.

Moving around the window

• As in any window, to move to the menu bar, press ALT, and to leave it, press ESC.
• Pressing TAB moves you around the following components: Tree view, Folder view, Address bar, button to close the Tree view, Tree view, etc. Pressing SHIFT + TAB moves in the opposite direction.

Variations in the Window Layout

The above description of the window assumes that you've opened Windows Explorer using WINDOWS KEY + E. There are other ways of opening it, and the initial window varies slightly with the method used:

• Choose My Documents on the Start menu. The Tree View is closed, the folder in the address bar is My Documents, and the Folder View lists the folders and files in My Documents.
• Choose My Computer on the Start menu. The Tree View is closed, the folder in the address bar is My Computer, and the Folder View lists the folders in My Computer.

Tree View

The Tree view is a view of all the drives and folders on the computer. For each folder which itself contains folders, there is the option as to whether to display these child folders. If such a folder is closed, then the children are not displayed, if opened, then the children are listed immediately below their parent.

The folders in the Tree View include:

• Desktop, which is the top of the tree. Its child folders include My Documents, and My Computer.
• My Documents.
• My Computer, whose children include all the drives on the computer, eg the floppy drive and your hard drive.

Navigating the tree

• As for any list, you can use these keys: UP and DOWN ARROW, HOME and END, and the first letter of the folder or drive you want to find.
• LEFT ARROW has two uses: if you're focussed on an open folder, it closes it; else it moves you up the list to the parent folder.
• RIGHT ARROW also has two uses: if you're focussed on a closed folder, it opens it; else if you you're focussed on an open folder, it moves you down to the first child folder.

Folder View

This is a list of the folders and files contained in the folder which is selected in the Tree view, and shown in the Address bar and Title bar. When you move to the Folder view, the focus is the first folder or file in the list, and it is unselected. If you need to select this, press SPACEBAR. To deselect a file or folder, press CTRL + SPACEBAR.

View of the Folder view

The Folder view can have the following views( formats ): Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List and Details. Only the the List and Details view are suitable for working with Jaws. The List view is a list of the names of the folders and files.

The details view is more flexible, and is a list of one or more of the details of the folders and files. By default, these details are the name, size, type and date modified, but which details are displayed can be easily changed in the Choose Details dialog. For example you might have only the name and type details displayed. Then when you ask Jaws to read the current line, it is easy to spot whether the item is a folder or a file.

To change the view:

• On the View menu, choose either List or Details.
• If you are using the Details view, you can set which details are displayed by opening the Choose Details dialog which is on the View menu. In this dialog, there is a list of check boxes to indicate which details are displayed. So check the details you want, then press ENTER.
• Once you have set the view for one folder you can apply this to all the folders. Open the Folder Options dialog, which is on the Tools menu. On the View page, the first control is the Apply to All Folders button. Press this button. ( In Window 98, Folder Options are on the View menu, and the Apply to All Folders button is called the Like Current Folder button. )

Navigating the Folder View

• As for any list, you can use these keys: UP and DOWN ARROW, HOME and END, and the first letter of the folder or file you want to find.
• To move down a level, to a folder in the list, select the folder and press ENTER.
• To move up a level, to the parent of the current folder, press BACKSPACE.

Selecting more than one item

In the following descriptions, an item is either a folder or a file. After you have selected the items, you can check which items you have selected by pressing SHIFT + INSERT + DOWN ARROW.

To select all the items

Press CTRL + A.

To select items which are next to each other:

1. Select the first item.
2. Start holding down the SHIFT key.
3. Using UP ARROW, or DOWN ARROW, or HOME, or END, extend the selection.
4. Let go of the shift key.

To select items which are not next to each other:

1. Select the first item.
2. Start holding down the CTRL key.
3. Move up or down the list using UP ARROW, or DOWN ARROW, or HOME or END. To add another item to the selection, press SPACEBAR.
4. Let go of the CTRL key.

Tasks

In the descriptions that follow, an item is a folder or a file, and items can be either a single item or a number of items.

Delete items

Select the items you want to delete, then press DELETE.

Rename an item

1. Select the item.
2. Either press F2, or choose Rename from the item's shorcut menu.
3. Type the new name, and press ENTER.

Copy items using Copy and Paste

1. Select the items you want to copy.
2. Press CTRL + C.
3. Change the folder selected in the Tree View and shown in the address bar to the destination folder. You can do this either by moving up and down levels in the Folder View, or by navigating in the Tree View.
4. Press CTRL + V to paste the items.

Move items using Cut and Paste

1. Select the items you want to move.
2. Press CTRL + X.
3. Change the folder selected in the Tree View and shown in the address bar to the destination folder. You can do this either by moving up and down levels in the Folder View, or by navigating in the Tree View.
4. Press CTRL + V to paste the items.

Copy items using Send To

1. Select the items you want to copy.
2. With the focus still on one of the selected items, press the APPLICATION KEY to open the shortcut menu. On this menu, move to the Send To sub-menu, and choose the destination folder or drive.

Creating a new folder

When you create a new folder, the folder is created as a child of the folder selected in the Tree view and shown in the address bar. To create a new folder:

1. Open the File menu, and choose New Folder from the New sub-menu.
2. Type a name for the folder, and press ENTER.

Configuration

These are the recommended settings for Windows Explorer.

Folder options

To open the Folder Options dialog, select Folder Options from the Tools menu ( in Window 98 it's on the View menu ). The dialog is a multi-page dialog:

• General page

  This only applies to Windows XP. The first control is a set of two radio buttons for controlling whether common tasks are shown in the folder. Set the Use Windows classic folders radio button, so that the tasks aren't visible.

• View page

  The third control on this page is a list of options. Set the following options:

  • Hide extensions for known file types — set to unchecked. This makes it easier know whether an item is a folder or a file in a list of folders and files.
  • Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items — set to unchecked. These pop-ups make moving around a list of folders and files very noisy.