Creating new folders and shortcuts in Windows 95

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Clearly, Win 95's "Start" button is there to help novices get started in using efficiently their new computers. Relatively speaking, what could be easier than clicking on the "Start" button and then the program's name popping up immediately after?

When installing a Microsoft Office 95, the most popular office suite today, two items are automatically added to the first level of the "Start" menu list. They are the "New Office Document" and the "Open Office Document". These can simplify life tremendously. For example, for calculating the total cost of a new Pentium PC plus all its optional multimedia package. Clicking on the first menu item and then selecting the Excel icon with the "Blank Workbook" label would promptly bring in the calculation. Or, to edit a memo written last night: just click on the second menu item and then on the Word icon with the desired file. It is that simple.

Still, veteran Windows 3.x users may find all that too obscure. As they say, habits are not easy to change. The "Start" menu may make life easy for newcomers to the PC world, but seasoned Windows 3.x users may not like it as much. That is not the way they are used to launching programs and loading files. Many of them do not like going through the multilevel menu lists before finding the desired program. Because of their die-hard loyalty to Windows 3.x, they might wish for a Program Manager- like launching of programs that would not threaten their sense of control as they move to Win 95.

Fortunately, it is not difficult to add folders and shortcut icons to Win 95's desktop. In this way, those who belong to this group of Windows 3.x die-hards can immediately feel at home in the new environment.

Just Add Folders

Take a look at the desktop screen that I have captured from my own PC's display. There, the Program Group called "Folder" in Win 95 contains the icons for all important applications on my PC. I have named the folder "Everything you need is here!", and basically this is the only folder that I need to have on my desktop. Of course, once created, the folder can be named anything.

Here are the simple procedures to create such a folder. Place the mouse cursor anywhere on the desktop, and click the right mouse button. A menu list like the one seen on the left side of my desktop screen will pop up. Select "New" and click on it. From the next menu list that pops up, select "Folder".

Win 95 will then create an icon on the desktop. Name the new folder immediately, otherwise it will simply stay with a "New Folder" label. Double-click on the folder icon to open the folder window.

Just like when creating a new Program Groups in Windows 3.x, the folder comes empty. Now add the Program Items, which are called "Shortcuts" in Win 95. To add the shortcuts, use "File", "New", and "Shortcut" commands. When a "Create Shortcut" dialog box appears, click on the "Browse" button. As the Win 95's browser dialog box pops up, find at the directories shown by the browser the appropriate .EXE or .COM program that will launch the preferred program.

Once there, select the program and click the "Open" button in the browser box. The box closes back to the "Create Shortcut" box. The "Next" button is now highlighted. Press the ENTER key to accept the program file name and its path. The correct name for the label of the shortcut might need to be entered. The launch programs of both Word 7.0 and Excel 7.0 are smart enough and they produce their own correct labels, but in most cases the correct label should be typed in. Otherwise, the label HJPRO.EXE will remain on screen, which does not look as elegant.

Once the correct label has been typed in, click again on "Next", and the shortcut will be added to the folder. The icon picture will be the one that Win 95 selects from the program file, but it can be changed. To do this, click on the shortcut icon with the right mouse button, and then on the "Properties" menu item. When the "Properties" dialog box appears, click on the "Shortcut" tab. Then, click on the "Change Icon" button. This will open another dialog box with the collection of icons that the program file contains.

When creating the shortcut for a DOS program, for example, dBase III Plus, Win 95 will allow for selection of an icon from its collection. Even if none seems suitable, it can still be changed later. To do that, just choose any of the icons, and click on the "Next" button. Use the "Properties" dialog box again to change the icon picture later on.

Shortcut

For frequently used programs, shortcuts directly on the desktop can be created. On my desktop, I have among others a shortcut for Ami Pro 3.1, my favorite word processor, and a shortcut for Notify!, the software that I use to send messages to my wife's SkyTel pager.

Adding the shortcuts on the desktop is also very simple to do. Click the right mouse button anywhere on the desktop, then click on "New", and then on "Shortcut". A shortcut icon will immediately appear on the desktop. Then click on the "Browse" button and follow the procedure for creating program shortcuts in the folder.

As mentioned above, changing the icon picture is just as easy as clicking on the "Properties" menu item. However, installing a DOS-based program shortcut may need an extra step. Right after installation, my WordStar 4.0 program, for example, always left the DOS window open when I exited, I had to close the DOS window manually. To tell WordStar to clean up the screen after quitting, I clicked on its shortcut icon with the right mouse button. Then I selected "Properties" and clicked on the Program tab. I activated the "Close on Exit" option and that completed the operation. Now WordStar automatically closes the DOS window when closing itself.

While I was still on the "WordStar 4.0 Properties" dialog box, I clicked on the "Screen" tab, and selected "Full Screen". I preferred running WordStar 4.0 in full screen, so that I wouldn't squint when reading the text.

By the way, I still use WordStar 4.0, because most publications, including The Jakarta Post, still use it as a common denominator. Isn't it interesting that advancement in technology is implemented so slowly in reality?