Unit 4.  WindowsXP Explorer (II)

The Windows Explorer's views

Windows explorer allows us to see the folder's information in different ways or views to facilitate specific searching.

Go to the folder you wish to see:

If you click on the arrow of the button a menu with the following options will appear:

Tiles. The files and folders are shown with large images with the name, file type and size in KB; if it is a picture file the size is shown in pixels. The elements are organized one next to the other from left to right.

With this view, it is easier to see the name of the elements, and to select them. This view is often used when we have few objects in a certain drive or folder.

Icons. The files are represented with an icon smaller than a tile. The only information shown is the name of the file. This type of icon is used when the selected folder has an average quantity of elements.

On this view, as well as on the tiles, we can change the folder's objects positon by dragging them to the desired location, and the elements remain on that position; they do not reorganize if we add or delete elements.

List. Shows small icons, one below the other, so it's easier to search by name. On this view, only the name of the file or folder appears.

Details. Icons are shown one below the other, with some of their properties. This type of display is used when we want to find an element with certain characteristics, such as size, file type, date of modification, etc.

With this type of view we can organize the elements by size, modification date, name, etc.

For example, to organize by the modification date it is enough to click on the box Date Modified, and it will arrange the files by date from greater to lesser. If we click on it again it will arrange it from lesser to greater. The older dates are considered lesser.

On the views List or Details the elements appear one below the other and in the case of deleting or adding, the elements will reorganize themselves.

Thumbnails . A small representation of the content will appear with the format of the image, such as jpg., jpeg., bmp., gif., etc.

Those that have another format or those that are folders will appear with the corresponding icon to their content in larger size.

This view is usually used when we deal with a few images because it allows us to easily identify the content of each file and thus facilitate the search of any given image.

Filmstrip. This view is only available for images. On the bottom part a strip will appear with the images in thumbnail format and on the top we will see a larger representation of the image selected on the bottom.

With the blue arrows we can move forward and back. With the green buttons we can rotate the image.

When there are many images a scroll bar will appear so that we can quickly move from image to image.

This type of view is used when dealing with many images.