Thursday, November 17, 2005

Windows Explorer Views

In the Windows Explorer you can display your files in one of several different views to help manage them more easily. Most people use the default 'icons' view, but there are several other views available for you to choose from (such as: Thumbnails, Tiles, List and Detail).

Below is a brief explanation of the different types of views that are available:
  • Filmstrip: Displays thumbnail previews of your images, documents and folders with a special viewer which enlarges selected images for easier previewing. (This option is only available with folders that contain viewable images.)
  • Thumbnails: Displays thumbnail previews of your images, documents and folders. (Generally documents and folders will display be displayed as large icons.)
  • Tiles: Puts the icons into columns. The number of columns of icons will increase, depending on the size of the window.
  • Icons: Displays one icon next to the other icon.
  • List: Displays all the icons in a top-down list.
  • Detail: Displays relevant file information (such as: name, size, date created/modified, etc.) for each file is a list format. (IMHO: My personal favorite.)
To change the view for your icons:
  • Open 'My Computer' under the Start menu.
  • From the View menu, select the view that you want to use (such as: Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List and Detail).
After you select the type of view that you want to use, if you want to further refine how the files are displayed you can use the 'Arranged By' option. From here you can arrange icons by Name, Size, Type, Modified, etc. This will sort the files in the view by which ever selection you choose.

Another great option is the 'Show in Groups', this will group items that are similar based on the 'Arrange By' option you selected. For example, if you selected to arrange icons by Type (such as: executables, text files, configuration files, etc...), then selected the option 'Show in Groups'. All the files of a specific type will all be grouped together.

Note: The 'Arrange By' and 'Show in Groups' options are available under the View menu in the Windows Explorer.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous9:06 PM

    Can anyone tell me how to turn off "Show In Groups?" I prefer to show item details then sort by date or name, but often Explorer automatically switches to "show in groups," which forces me to look through several lists instead of just one. It's a bother to have to open up the view menu and unclick it all the time.

    Please tell me how I can get windows to remember that my last setting for a certain folder had "show in groups" unchecked.

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