Working with files is a necessary part of working with a computer. I’ve written a lot about how you can understand what is going on with your files by changing folder options, showing file extensions, and so forth. (See the archives at www.LogicalTips.com if you’re curious.)
As someone who spends a lot of time working with a lot of files, I like to know as much as possible about a given file. So I set my Windows XP folder options to show details with the list of files. Within Explorer, choose View|Details, or click the Views drop-down button and change it to show the details for that folder.
The reason I like Details view is because when you look at your files this way, you can see the file name, the size, the type, and the date it was modified. You also can click the columns across the top to sort them in different ways. A little arrow following the column name indicates whether the files are listed in ascending or descending order. In my case, I do a lot of work with image files, so frequently, I’ll change the sort order to Type. Then I can see all my image files listed together in their folder.
I discovered recently that in XP you can show a lot of other details about a file other than just the standard four. Choose View|Choose Details and you’ll see that in addition to the information you are used to seeing, you can add 28 other details to the list. Of course, more than a couple is impractical, unless you have a really wide monitor. For example, many times I’ve wanted to know when a file was created (as opposed to modified). So to add that information, all I need to do is add a checkmark next to Date Created.