As you’ll know if you’ve needed to transfer files or store them on limited-capacity media, filecompression programs can save you a lot of time and trouble. There are two widely used forms of compressed files:

Zip files and cabinet files. Zip files have the ZIP extension. Cabinet files have the CAB extension and are mainly used by Microsoft for distributing files. Windows lets you create Zip folders but not cabinet files. Windows reads compressed files in both ZIP and CAB formats and displays both Zip files and cabinet files as folders that you can open and browse in Windows Explorer as you would any other and a cabinet folder appears as a filing cabinet with an open drawer busy consuming a document, as shown here. You can create compressed folders in the Zip format from one or more files or folders as follows:

•    To create a compressed folder containing one or more files or folders, right-click the file or folder in an Windows Explorer window, and then choose Send To   Compressed Zipped Folder from the context menu. Windows creates the file, gives it a default name based on its contents, and then selects the name. Type a new name if needed, and then press Enter to apply it.

•    To create a new compressed folder, right-click in empty space in an Windows Explorer window, and then choose New   Compressed Zipped Folder from the context menu. Windows creates a new compressed folder named New  Compressed  zipped  Folder  or New Compressed  zipped  Folder.ZIP, if you’ve displayed extensions and selects the name so that you can enter a new name. Type the new name, and then press the Enter key or click elsewhere in the window to apply it.

Once you’ve created a compressed folder, you can add files to it by dragging them to the folder and dropping them in or on it.

Creating and Organizing Shortcuts

A shortcut is a pointer to a file or folder. If you’re used to the Mac, a shortcut is like an alias. By placing shortcuts in convenient places, you can give yourself quick access to files and folders stored in remote locations. For example, you could create a shortcut on your Desktop to a WordPerfect document stored in the nethermost subfolder of a network drive. By double-clicking the shortcut from the comfort of your Desktop, you could open the document without browsing through the drives and folders to reach it. You can create as many shortcuts as you want for any file or folder. You can even create a short- cut to a shortcut to make an item really easy to reach. Each shortcut is typically less than 1KB in size, so you don’t need to worry about the amount of disk space they take up. Shortcuts have been around for many versions of Windows, but Microsoft has been improv- ing them along the way. In the old days, if you renamed or moved the target file or folder to which a shortcut referred, Windows would be unable to find the target file when you double- clicked the shortcut. Nowadays, Windows can almost always find the target file unless you move it to somewhere truly inaccessible or delete it. When you rename or move a file, Windows doesn’t immediately update any shortcuts that refer to the file to reflect the new name or new location. Instead, it updates a shortcut when you use it to access the file. You can tell a shortcut icon on the Desktop or in an Windows Explorer window by the small white box containing an upward-curling black arrow in its lower-left corner. When you let Windows name a shortcut, it creates a name consisting of the filename and Shortcut, but you can change the name to anything you want by using standard Windows renaming techniques. Renaming is discussed earlier in this article. It’s always safe to delete a shortcut, because deleting a shortcut never deletes the file that it’s associated with. And as you saw in Article 3, you can customize a shortcut so that it launches the associated program in Compatibility mode or in a window of a specified size.

Creating a Shortcut

You can create a shortcut in several easy ways. The setup routines of most programs install shortcuts automatically for you, so you should already be equipped with shortcuts to your programs. Most of these shortcuts will be on the Start menu. Some programs place shortcuts on the Desktop or in the notification area, despite Microsoft’s guidelines telling program designers not to do either. Better-designed programs are courteous enough to consult you before placing shortcuts like this. Other programs go right ahead and please themselves.

Creating a Shortcut the Quick Way

To create a shortcut the quick way, follow these steps:

1.  Right-click the file on your Desktop or in an Windows Explorer window and drag it holding down that right mouse button to where you want the shortcut to be.

2.  Release the mouse button, and then choose Create Shortcuts Here from the context menu. Windows creates a shortcut named with the name of the file and –  Shortcut. For example, the shortcut for Industry.xlsx is named Industry.xlsx  –  Shortcut.

3.  If you want to rename the shortcut, right-click it, and then choose Rename from the context menu. Type the new name in the resulting edit box, and then press the Enter key.