Window’s Folder Templates Fix by W. Leonhard

I get a newsletter every week.  This good article came from it.  Can be very helpful!   🙂  Peg Folder templates fix Windows Explorer headaches   © & By Woody Leonhard I’ve spent most of this year — I’m tempted to say “wasted most of this year” — writing about Windows security holes, patches, patches of patches, threats, and vulnerabilities, both real and imagined. For my last column of the year, I want to make amends for my errant ways and write about something positive — a secret (or at least a well-hidden feature) that may come in handy over the festive Yule of Tide, er, Tide of Yule.

Exploring your files with Windows

By now, you’re accustomed to the Windows Explorer task pane — the blue strip on the left of the screen that appears when you click Start, My Documents, or Start, My Computer, or some such. The task pane contains a bunch of useful shortcuts that make it as easy as 1 or 2 clicks to copy files, jump to a different folder, or perform other chores that are appropriate for the kinds of files that are included in the current folder.

Therein lies the rub.

Windows Explorer makes a sporting guess at the types of files in the folder you’ve opened, and displays tasks in the task pane that pertain to that kind of file. For example, if you click Start, My Documents, then click on a file, the task pane gives you a wide variety of options that are appropriate for working with documents — copying, moving, sending as an e-mail attachment, and so on.

If you click Start, My Music, then click on a file, the list of tasks on offer make sense for music files — playing the song or copying to an audio CD, for example. (Microsoft also gives you the option of shopping online at a Microsoft-owned Web site for more CDs. Gawrsh, how thoughtful.)

When you click Start, My Pictures, you see an option to view all the pictures as a slide show, or to order prints online (through yet another overpriced Microsoft affiliate — gawrsh, another thoughtful touch).

Using folder templates to fix things

You might think Windows Explorer would look at the contents of a folder when it’s opened and decide on-the-fly what kind of folder it’s opening. It would then present you with task pane options that apply to the files in the folder.

For many reasons (including some very good ones), Explorer doesn’t work that way. Instead, Explorer makes a determination when you first create the folder about what kinds of files exist within the folder. That decision is permanent — unless you change it manually.

Most of the time, Explorer guesses very well. But sometimes things get screwed up.

Around this time of year, when I’m copying a lot of pictures to my PC, the mistake that bugs me the most arises when Explorer doesn’t identify a folder full of pictures as being, well, a folder full of pictures. Instead, Explorer sometimes marks the folder as containing documents. So when I open the folder, I don’t get the option to view my pictures as a slide show, or order pricey prints online. Instead, I only see the dull document tasks — copying, moving and the like.

Behind the scenes, Windows Explorer attaches a “folder template” to every folder on your computer. These folder templates aren’t anything like Word templates or Excel templates or PowerPoint templates. They aren’t really templates at all. Explorer merely identifies each new folder as containing files in one of six broad categories. Those categories have very strange names:

• Pictures (for folders with lots of picture files)
• Photo Album (for folders with, oh, up to several dozen picture files)
• Music Album (contains all the tracks from one album)
• Music Artist (contains all the albums and tracks from one artist)
• Music (when you don’t know the artist, or the track has many artists, or for playlists)
• Documents (which is really “all other”)

The distinction between the two types of picture folders and among the three types of music folders is tenuous at best. Don’t lose any sleep over it.

The “folder template” (actually, a folder type) dictates what appears in the task pane on the left when Windows Explorer opens the folder. It also controls what options appear under the View menu. For example, if you open a Picture folder, Explorer offers to show the files in the folder as a Filmstrip. There are other subtleties that vary depending on the folder type, but the tasks available in the task pane and the options on the View menu are the ones most likely to concern — and aggravate — you.

How you can change the templates

So what do you do if Windows Explorer mis-identifies a folder? Let’s say you transfer photos from your camera to a folder on your computer, then double-click on the folder. If Explorer doesn’t offer to let you view the pics as a slide show, what recourse do you have?

Ah, it’s easy if you know the trick.

Step 1. First, you have to be able to see the folder itself. That may be a little difficult. If you’re looking at a folder full of pictures, click the “Up” icon on Explorer’s icon bar — it’s the one immediately to the right of the Back and Forward arrows, in the upper left. That should bring you to the folder that contains the pictures.

Step 2. Right-click on the folder and choose Properties. You see the Properties dialog for that specific folder. Click on the tab marked Customize.

(Note: If you don’t see a tab called Customize, you’re looking at a folder that Windows reserves for its own nefarious purposes. For example, if you bring up the Properties dialog for the My Pictures folder, Windows Explorer won’t let you change the folder’s template, and you won’t see a Customize tab. If you can’t see the Customize tab, give up. Windows beat you. Again.)

Step 3. On the Customize tab, click the drop-down box marked Use this folder type as a template, then pick the folder type that seems most appropriate. Click OK, and the folder should now behave the way you want.

Happy holidays, everybody.

Outlook Express: Consider using Rules for organization and spam deletion!!

Hi Everyone,

I am a big fan of Lockernome and their newsletters. I’ve been getting them for at least three or four years now.  But, there is one point, that I consider major about this article totally  missed! Rules are great for getting rid of spam!  Make a rule using the following instructions, but messages that contain keywords in the “subject line” or “body of the message” can be marked for deletion by just using a rule.  You know… I don’t own a penis of my own, I didn’t even know I needed mine enlarged… so I just have the program look for the “P” word and toss it.  Other words I have learned to include are mortgage, viagra, babes!  I have a long list, and most of my 200 or so spams a day get tossed out this way.

And you don’t have to have large volumes of mail to use rules.  Sometimes, it just helps you stay orgainzed.  Every email I get from Rootsweb Forum (about 20 a day) goes into a Genealogy Folder.  Anything coming in about my son, goes to my Wesley Folder,  All my clients have their own folder, right down to Image 2000, SrugglingReaders.com, and HilaryFMarkcx.com.  Uncles, Aunts, and cousins, have their own folders. It’s just easier for me to find what I want when I want it that way. (You know, I wish the rest of my life were this organized!)

So, if you use Outlook Express, or the full version of Outlook, consider using Rules for organization and spam deletion !!  Love to you all, Peg

“Rules are very useful for managing high volumes of messages. For example, instead of having them all end up in your Inbox, you can create rules that will sort incoming messages and place them in different folders.

You can create rules in Outlook Express (included with Windows XP), using the steps outlined below.

1. Open Outlook Express.
2. Click the Tools menu option, point to Message Rules, and select Mail.
3. Select one or more conditions for the rule. For example, if you select Where the From Line Contains People, the mail message must be from the sender you specify in the rule before any processing occurs.
4. After you have specified the conditions, you must edit the value for each condition by selecting the hyperlink under Rule Description. For example, if you selected Where the To line contains people, you must then specify the particular senders.
5. Specify the actions for the rule. Outlook Express will take these actions if a mail message meets all the conditions. For example, you cam Move it to the specified folder.
6. Edit the values for the actions by selecting the hyperlink under Rule Description. For example, if you select the rule Move It to the Specified Folder, you then have to edit the value of the rule and tell Outlook Express which particular folder mail should be placed in.
7. Type a descriptive name for the rule.
8. Click OK.
9. Click Ok the close the Message Rule dialog box.”