Section 3.3. Optional Window Panes


3.3. Optional Window Panes

Most Explorer windows have some basic informational stuff across the top: the Address bar and the task toolbar, at the very least.

But that's just the beginning. As shown in Figure 3-4, the Organize menu on the task toolbar lets you hide or show as many as four other strips of information. Turning them all on at once may make your windows feel a bit claustrophobic, but at least you'll know absolutely everything there is to know about your files and folders.

Figure 3-4. Windows Vista has you surroundedor at least your Explorer windows. Use the Organize menu (top) to summon or dismiss each of the optional panes that can line a window. A subtle outline appears around the icon for each pane you've summoned. Choose the name of a pane once to make it appear, and a second time to hide it.


The trick is to choose a pane name from the Organize Layout command, as shown in Figure 3-4. Here are the options youll find there.


Tip: You can adjust the size of any pane by dragging the dividing line that separates it from the main window. (You'll know when you've got the right spot when your cursor turns into a double-headed arrow.)

3.3.1. Search Pane

As shown in Figure 3-1, the Search pane appears across the top of the window, just below the Address bar. Of course, the Search box already appears in every Explorer window, next to the Address barso why do you need a Search pane as well?

Because the pane gives you a lot more control. It lets you specify more elaborate search criteria, including where you want Windows to look. Details are on Section 4.3.1.

3.3.2. Details Pane

This strip appears at the bottom of the window, and it can be extremely useful. It reveals all kinds of information about whatever icon you've clicked in the main part of the window: its size, date, type, and so on. You can even edit some of this information, like the name, "tags" (keywords), and star rating. This is the sort of information that, in the old days, you could see only if you right-clicked and opened the Properties window.

3.3.3. Preview Pane

The Preview pane appears at the right side of the window. That's right: Microsoft has now invented information strips that wrap all four sides of a window.

Anyway, the Preview pane can be handy when you're examining pictures, text files, Office documents, PDF files, sounds, and movies. As you click each icon, you see a miniature version of what's actually in that document. As Figure 3-5 demonstrates , a controller lets you play sounds and movies right there in the Explorer window, without having to fire up Windows Media Player. (Cool.)

Figure 3-5. In many windows, the Preview pane can get in the way, because it shrinks the useful window space without giving you much useful information. But when you're browsing movies or sound files, it's awesome ; it lets you play the music or the movie right in place, right in the window, without having to open up a playback program.


3.3.4. Navigation Pane

The Navigation pane has two halves : Favorite Links (the top part) and Folders (the bottom part).

3.3.4.1. Favorite Links list

This area lists places to which you want quick access. For example, click the Pictures icon to view the contents of your Pictures folder in the main part of the window (Figure 3-6).

Figure 3-6. The Navigation pane makes navigation very quick, because you can jump back and forth between distant corners of your PC with a single click. Folder and disk icons here work just like normal ones. You can drag a document onto a folder icon to file it there, for example.


The beauty of this parking lot for containers is that it's so easy to set up with your favorite places. For example:

  • Remove an icon by dragging it out of the window entirely and onto the Recycle Bin icon; it vanishes from the list. (Of course, you haven't actually removed anything from your PC; you've just unhitched its alias from the Navigation pane.)

  • Rearrange the icons by dragging them up or down in the list. Release the mouse when the thick black horizontal line lies in the desired new location.


    Tip: You can also sort this list alphabetically . Right-click anywhere in the list; from the shortcut menu, choose Sort by Name.
  • Install a new disk or folder icon by dragging it off of your desktop (or out of a window) into any spot in the list.

  • Adjust the width of the pane by dragging the vertical divider bar right or left.

3.3.4.2. Folders list

The bottom of the Navigation pane, if you've chosen to view it (Figure 3-7), is a folder "tree" that shows the hierarchy of your entire computer. In essence, this view shows every folder on the machine at once. It lets you burrow very deeply into your hard drive's nest of folders without ever losing your bearings.

Figure 3-7. When you click a disk or folder in the Folders hierarchy, the main window displays its contents, including files and folders. Double-click to expand a disk or folder, opening a new, indented list of what's inside it; double-click again to collapse the folder list again. At deeper levels of indentation, you may not be able to read an icon's full name. Point to it without clicking to see an identifying tooltip.


This hierarchical displays only disks and folders; the main window displays the contents (folders and files) of whatever disk or folder you click.

When you double-click a folder or disk name (or single-click the flippy triangle next to it), you turn the list view into an outline; the contents of the folder appear in an indented list, as shown in Figure 3-7. Double-click again, or click the flippy triangle again, to collapse the folder listing.

By selectively expanding folders like this, you can, in effect, peer inside two or more folders simultaneously , all within the single Folders list. You can move files around by dragging them onto the tiny folder icons, too.

If you expand folders within folders to a sufficient level, the indentation may push the folder names so far to the right that you can't read them. You can remedy this problem either by making the pane wider (Figure 3-8), or by pointing to a folder whose name is being chopped off. Vista temporarily displays its entire name.

Figure 3-8. If you don't already see the Folders tree, open it by clicking the ^ button at the bottom of the Navigation pane. You can then adjust its height or width by dragging the top or right edges, as shown here.





Windows Vista for Starters
Windows Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596528264
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 175
Authors: David Pogue

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