TO SEARCH FOR A FILE OR FOLDER (Windows XP):

1) Click on Start, then on Search.

2) If you don’t see a box that says, “All or part of the file name,” click on All files and folders on the left.

3) Click on More advanced options, then click to put a check mark next to ü Search hidden files or folders, if you want to be sure you don’t miss anything.

4) Type the file or folder name, such as Letter to Sterlington Fortescue, in the All or part of the file name: box. Use the more unique parts of the file or folder name, such as Sterlington Fortescue, if possible, and try to limit the number of words you type in.  (So, just use the single word:  Fortescue.)

Tip: If you don’t know the file name, you can click in the A word or phrase in the file: box instead, then type a (unique) word that you know is in the file. It will take much longer to find the file, because it has to search the text within each file, but this may work if you can’t remember the file name.

Tip 2: Type the first few (unique) letters of the search term if you aren’t sure of the correct spelling, such as  Forte.

5) Click on the Down Arrow next to the Look in: box and then click on the correct folder that contains the, for example,  Letter to Sterlington Fortescue file, if you know which folder it is in, such as the My Documents folder. Otherwise, click on Local Hard Drive (C:) or Local Hard Drives (C:, D:) if you want to search the entire hard drive(s).

6) Click on the Search button.

7) You will then see a file and/or folder, or a list of files and/or folders, on the right-hand side of the Search window with the search term(s) (e.g., Forte) in their file or folder names. If you scroll to the right, you should see their locations. You can double-click with the horizontal black double-headed arrow cursor     on the short vertical line between the Name and In Folder headings to expand the location column if you cannot see the entire “path”  to the file. Be sure to write down or remember the location (i.e., the folder name) or path to the file if you want to open its actual location, or find the file in the future.

Remember:

A folder is like a physical manila folder that you may have on your real desktop. That’s why it has an icon that looks like a manila folder:  Ì . A folder can contain many documents and files inside. It can also contain sub-folders inside.

A file is one such document, such as a letter, fax, e-mail message, tax return, picture, a piece of music, a video clip, or a piece of a program, such as for America Online or Microsoft Windows. A file usually has an icon of a piece of paper with a dog-ear in the upper right-hand corner: 2 .

8) If you want to open and view the file in question, just double-click on its icon on the right-hand side of the Search window. This will automatically start the right program (for example, Microsoft Word) and open the document, if you have the right program on your computer.  If you don't have the correct program to open that type of file, you will see a window pop up on the screen asking you to select the correct program on your computer or search on the Internet for a web page where you can download the correct program.