Follow-Up to Previous Newsletter About Arranging Icons

This is just a quick follow-up to the newsletter I posted over the
weekend where I answered Linda's question about arranging the icons on
her computer's desktop.

My friend visiting from the mainland was nice enough to offer to spend
the night with some mutual friends here on the island yesterday so I
could get a little caught up with my work, so I'm writing this before
heading up north on the island a little later this afternoon to meet up with
her and our friends so we can go out on her last night here on the island.

I'm writing this follow-up because I was recording a video lesson last night
for my Gold Club members, demonstrating the same steps I outlined in
the last email (after all, it's *much* easier to learn from seeing it done,
rather than just reading about it!). While recording the steps, I realized I'd
left out something important.

On Macs, in addition to the steps I outlined in the last email, there is one
additional setting that decides whether the icons can be moved freely, or
if they're kept always arranged in a specific order (like alphabetical order).

This can be found by clicking once on the desktop to make sure you're in
the Finder (again, you can confirm this by looking at the menu right next
to the Apple menu -- it should say Finder). Then go to the View menu,
and click "Show View Options".

This will open a new window with several settings in it. The one you want
to either keep the icons on the desktop always arranged in a certain
order, or to let them move freely is the menu at the bottom of the
window.

Click the menu and chose "None" if you want the icons to move freely,
or click one of the six options at the bottom of that menu to arrange by
that category (i.e. by name (alphabetically), by size, etc.).

Just wanted to post this quick follow-up since I accidentally left that info
out.

I'm going to be sending out a second regular newsletter today too, so
don't be surprised by me sending out two emails in one day. And I haven't
forgotten the other questions I was sent recently; I'll be answering them
soon.

until then, take care, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. If you're not a easy computer lessons Gold Club member and want to
get in on this month's set of CDs, I'm still prepping the 2nd of the two
disks to send off to the duplicator service over on Oahu, and will be
finishing them Tuesday night after my friend leaves for the mainland. So
any new signups before then will get a copy of this month's CDs.

You can find out how by visiting the following link to learn more about my easy
video lessons.

Answering Computer Question About Arranging Icons on Your Desktop

In this newsletter I'm going to answer the next of the questions I have
waiting in my inbox from the ones that were sent in after my latest
monthly computer question and answer live event that I held last
Sunday.

I'll be answering more of these in future newsletter issues in the coming days,
so keep an eye out for them.

This question comes from one of my consulting clients here on the
island, Linda Tellington-Jones, who writes:

"Hi Worth, brilliant idea. I'll join in. I do have a question. A
friend organized my desktop with the folders in nice neat rows.
However, they are not alphabetical, AND I cannot move them
around. I need my old disorganized desktop back so I can edit and
move them in the order I need them. Help!!!!
Linda"

Linda has one of Apple's Macs, and there's an easy fix to her
problem. I'll cover the steps for a Mac first, then follow with the
steps for Windows PCs.

----------------------------------------------------
Wish you could actually *see and hear* step-by-step instructions
like the ones in this article, instead of just read them?
Take a look at my easy, Plain English video computer lessons
available for either Apple Mac or Windows PC.
----------------------------------------------------


On a Mac what you want to do is click once on the desktop to
switch you to the Finder (that's the part of Mac OS X that shows the
desktop and its icons, and lets you browse through files and
folders). You can make sure you're in the Finder by glancing up to
the menu next to the Apple Menu in the upper left corner of your
screen and make sure it says "Finder" -- that menu next to the
Apple Menu is very handy because it always says the name of
whatever program you are in.

Once you're in the Finder, you can go to the View menu at the top
of the screen (3 over from the Apple Menu) and in that menu you
will find a menu option titled "Arrange By" and when you put your
mouse over "Arrange By" a side menu will pop out.

Chances are, you'll see that one of the options in this side menu has
a check mark next to it. You can either click on that line that has
the check mark (which will uncheck it) and this will free up your
icons to move around as you please, OR you can click one of the
other options to arrange them by name (alphabetically), by the
kind of file, etc.

On a Windows PC, you can do pretty much the same thing:

Click on the desktop, then RIGHT-click (use the right mouse
button to click) anywhere on an empty spot on the desktop, and
you'll get a menu with several options in it.

In Windows XP the option you're looking for is "Sort By" and in
Windows Vista, it's called "Arrange By" (two ways to say the same
thing in other words) and when you put your mouse pointer over
that option, a side menu will pop out with four main options
including "name", "size" and "modified" (when it was last saved in
other words).

Just click any of these options and it will reshuffle all of your icons
into that order.

Windows XP users will have another item in this side menu that's
worth mentioning: "auto arrange". If this has a check mark next to
it, it keeps you from manually dragging and dropping icons on your
desktop; if it's unchecked, you can move them freely.

Each time you click that particular menu option it will "toggle"
between checked and unchecked -- toggle just means it works like
a light switch, so you can turn it on or off (toggle it on or off).

I usually try to stick to concepts, general advice & tips, etc. in these
emails, since it is *so* much easier to see step-by-step instructions
rather than read them (which is exactly why I created my easy video
lesson CDs in the first place), but hopefully that all makes sense.

That's it for this installment of my newsletter. As I mentioned
above, I'll be getting to the other questions waiting for me in future
newsletters.

Right now though, I'd better get back to being a good host because
my friend from the mainland is giving me dirty looks because I'm
on the computer instead of spending time with her. But I wanted to
get another newsletter "out the door" so I could keep helping you
guys get better at your computers.

until next time, enjoy,

Worth Godwin