Lesson 4: SAVING AND ORGANIZING FILES ON YOUR DRIVE

I have the Drag and Drop option on my machine which makes it so easy.Perhaps I can tell you the basics I use.

I have software for MasterCook which I purchased, and it is very good
for giving nutritional value, even for recipes you type in yourself.
However, I didn't need more recipes, and I installed it hoping it would
let me import and export recipes easily. I didn't find it to be very
useful in this respect. Later I'm going to type family favorites into
it, and print a cookbook for my family. I've set up my recipe file in
this way.

I made a new file called 'Recipes', and then made folders for each
recipe classification. For instance.

RECIPES

Appetizers & Snacks
Beverages
Breads
Casseroles
Desserts & Sweets--can be broken down to candy, cakes, cookies, etc
Diabetic--I am diabetic
Meats & Entrees
Misc.-- this to include craft recipes, camping recipes, and
anything that doesn't fit elsewhere
My Favorites--whatever they might be which can be broken down
into sub-folders, too
Salads & Dressings
Vegetables & Side Dishes

You acquire these folders by going up to 'File', clicking on it, and
then click on 'New' and then 'Folder' which will ask you to give it a
name. So give it a name like folders above--you can have as many as you
like if you want a more composit idea of what you have in these folders.
You can also have sub-folders from each of these, and giving them a
separate name, also.

Now for the easy part for me, and it might be harder for you, and I
don't know how to help you in that respect. As I said before, when you
download a file or recipe, and you save it to your 'C' drive, ALWAYS
give it a name you will recognize, so you will know how to access it,
and to be able to move it into one of your folders. I've saved a recipe
on to 'C' drive called Banana Split Cake. I go to 'Start' and click on
it with my right mouse button. Then I click on 'Explore' which should
show a record of everything I have stored in 'C' drive. This is where I
use the easy 'Drag & Drop'. I put my cursor on the recipe (Banana Split
Cake) which I want to move into my 'Sweets' folder, but I don't click
on it. Instead I hold on to it, and at the same time, drag it directly
above the folder I want it to go into (Sweets} and let up on the drag
and drop it into the proper folder. It is automatically alphabetized
when it is dropped there. From there, when I want to access a recipe, I
go to 'Start' and click on it with my right mouse button. Click on
'Explore' and click on the 'Recipes Folder' which will open to expose
all the recipes I have in that folder. I choose the recipe I want to use
at that time, and double click on it to open that specific recipe.. If I
want to prepare it right away, I usually print it out, using the back
side of some paper that I'm going to dispose of anyway. If I want to
'Cut & Paste' it so I can post it directly to a recipe board, I
highlight it, and 'Cut & Paste' it directly to that board. If, on the
other hand, I have more than one recipe I want to post, I do a 'Cut &
Paste' on to my 'Notepad', and do a 'Copy & Paste' from that on to the
recipe board, or e-mail if that is the way I'm sending it.

Now for moving a document or file to a floppy. First I put a preformated
floppy which I have labeled into the 'A' drive slot. I go to 'Start' and
click on it with my right mouse button, and then click on 'Explore'. I
open up 'C' drive by clicking on it. It should show everything I have
saved on there. Do the 'Drag & Drop' as above. Pick up the document or
file with your mouse, and drag it over on to 'A' drive. That transposes
it from 'C' drive to a floppy on 'A' drive. This method is so easy if
you have the "Drag & Drop' option. Floppys are fairly expensive, and if
you have labeled it with a particular recipe folder, like 'Sweets' keep
using the same one until it is filled up. You might want to mark the
date of each entry on your label if you have space. By all means, move
all recipe folders to a floppy fairly frequently. If your computer
crashes, you will have lost everything that hasn't already been moved to
a floppy.

Velma McMahan (macvel@nc5.infi.net)