File Management Made SIMPLE?

[Admiral Halsey]

Help!

Is there a reliable way to train a complete computer illiterate how to
use a directory tree, save, and move files?

My mother cannot comprehend how to use Windows Explorer. At all. I've
tried to explain it to her, I've written simple notes for her to use, and
she has four very EASY "Windows XP" books. But she still "loses" files she
saved onto the hard drive. She does "file management" infrequently, and
forgets the fine points.

For example, if she tries to save an image from a web page, she'll click
"Save As", and then she'll "Confirm" it immediately. This places the file
into whatever folder was last selected in "Save As". Even if it saved onto
the desktop, she'd still need to be able to navigate in the file browser, to
move the file from the desktop to an "image folder".

The root of the problem is -- she doesn't read the information in a
window. If there's an error message (for example), she'll close it, then
announce that "some error window popped up". There may be no work-around
for this issue, but I just thought I'd ask.

 

[Slippery_one]

Help!

Is there a reliable way to train a complete computer illiterate
how to use a directory tree, save, and move files?

Might be best to make all her programs save in "my documents" and tell
her to stay out of windows "explorer" and maybe even rename it. <g>

I use Xplorer2 lite http://netez.com/xplorer2/ (well I'm testing it
for my own use)

 

[Rodney Kelp]

Buy an Apple

 

[Slippery_one]

Buy an Apple

An apple proponent lurking in a Microsoft newsgroup. LOL

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

One of the things you might do if you have not already done so is give her a
real world analogy. A computer hard drive with its files, folders and
directory tree is really nothing more than a huge file cabinet. Perhaps if
she thought of it as such, she might better be able to grasp the concept of
saving to specific folders.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Hmm, buy an Apple? Was that meant to imply there's no file or directory
structure on a Mac If that is the case, you are wrong. Macs use a
multiroot hierarchical system, very similar to the file system commonly used
in Windows PCs. Given the description of the problem, she would have the
same problem in either setup.

 

[Guest]

Ahoy there shipmates.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can teach a parrot to speak!

Why don't you print our your directory / tree and keep it next to the PC.

If the dear lady forgets, she can see it next to her and follow the example:
if not help her out from time to time and sort everything back ito order.

 

[Slippery_one]

Ahoy there shipmates.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can teach a parrot to
speak!

Why don't you print our your directory / tree and keep it next to
the PC.

If the dear lady forgets, she can see it next to her and follow the
example:
if not help her out from time to time and sort everything back ito
order.

:

Don't know about you, but I'd need 50' of banner paper.

 

[Admiral Halsey]

Yarr! A map ye say?

These are all good ideas, except for the standard "then buy something else"
reply (not that there's anything wrong with that).
I'll print up a nice directory for her, at least the folders she would
normally use. And I do try to organize files when I visit -- like moving
her greeting card files out of the System folder. Stuff like that.

"BAR" wrote

 

[Tim_B]

Help!

Is there a reliable way to train a complete computer illiterate how to
use a directory tree, save, and move files?

My mother cannot comprehend how to use Windows Explorer. At all. I've
tried to explain it to her, I've written simple notes for her to use, and
she has four very EASY "Windows XP" books. But she still "loses" files
she
saved onto the hard drive. She does "file management" infrequently, and
forgets the fine points.

For example, if she tries to save an image from a web page, she'll click
"Save As", and then she'll "Confirm" it immediately. This places the file
into whatever folder was last selected in "Save As". Even if it saved
onto the desktop, she'd still need to be able to navigate in the file
browser, to move the file from the desktop to an "image folder".

The root of the problem is -- she doesn't read the information in a
window. If there's an error message (for example), she'll close it, then
announce that "some error window popped up". There may be no work-around
for this issue, but I just thought I'd ask.

Lock her down to specific folders
Fewer choices in this case is better.
Set up click and drag copied folders on the desktop.

 

[Admiral Halsey]

Tim,
That's a good idea. I think I've convinced my folks to maintain only a
few icons on the desktop. So a couple of folders would be no big deal.
What about the "Save As" problem? She downloads things from web sites
(midi files, images, etc.), right-clicks the item, selects "Save As", and
then clicks "Save" with no regard to where the file will go. She can't
click & drag a GIF on a web page, directly into a folder. However, I may
concoct a different way to download those things. These suggestions are
helpful!