After you have placed a disc in the A drive, double click the "My computer" icon. A menu appears on the screen. Select 3 1/2 floppy with one click of the mouse button. (A double click will open the disc; an open disc cannot be formatted). Select the file menu at the top of the screen. On the drop-down menu, select the format option. The computer screen will display the amount of available RAM and the size of the disc in inches.

The Computer then asks for the type of formatting desired. The available options are quick (erase), full, and ‘copy system files only’. Other options include label, no label, 'display summary when finished', and 'copy system files'. Click the start button. This begins the formatting process.

Formatting a disc will remove any information that was on the disc. A disc with files on it cannot be formatted. To format a compressed disc you need to use compression software. When the formatting process was complete, the screen displayed the following information:

- 1457664 bytes total disc space

- 0 bytes used by system files

- 0 bytes in bad sectors

- 1457664 bytes available on disc

- 512 bytes available in each allocation unit

-2847 total allocation units on disc

To find files on a disc open the application (i.e. Microsoft WORD). Select open. A window appears at the top of the screen. The first pane in the window says, "Look in." The default setting is the C drive: "My documents." Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the window. The available drives are listed. These include C (the hard drive), A (the floppy disc), G (the CD-ROM drive), network neighborhood, system shortcuts, "My briefcase", AV Suite, Internet locations, etc. Select the 3 1/2 floppy with one mouse click. A list of file names available on the disc appears on the screen.

You can also find files from the Microsoft home page. Click the start button. When the pop-menu appears, select "find." A second window appears that has spaces for name of the file and the drives to be searched. Enter the drive you want to search. Another option is to use a program called "FindFast." FindFast can be installed with the Microsoft Office program. Find Fast indexes the computers disc drives for all Microsoft Office documents. FindFast does not index removable or read-only drives. The index is automatically updated when new files are created. FindFast lists the drive, share and folder location of indexed documents.

A third method for finding documents uses "saved search criteria." To use this you select open from the main menu. When the dialog box comes up select "advanced." Select "saved search" Type the name of the file you want to find in the "name for this search" box. Select "find now" A window appears with all the files in the drive that include the file you are searching for.

You can also use file properties to locate a file. Select "open" from the file menu. Enter the drive you want to search in the "Look in" box. Double-click the folder that may contain the file you want. Enter words that appear in the file title or text in the "text or property" box. You can search by phrase if the phrase is placed in quotation marks. To search subfolders and display the folder that contains the desired file select "commands and settings" then select "search subfolders." To search for files by non-text properties an advanced search is required. Advanced searches allow you to define specific search criteria and uses Boolean logic. It is also possible to search for files by file type extension (i.e. txt).

Select "open" at the top of the Microsoft screen. In the "Look in " box enter the name of the folder that contains the file you want. Usually this is the A drive or the C drive. Double-click the folder you want to open. A list of files in the folder is displayed on the screen. Right-click the file you want to copy. Select "copy" from the shortcut menu. Enter the destination drive in the "look-in" box. Double-click potential destination folders until you find the folder where you want the file copied. Right-click the destination folder. Select paste from the shortcut menu.

Another way to copy a file to a different drive is to enter and save the document in the A drive. Open the file a second time. When you save the document this time, save it to the C drive. A file may be copied from one drive to another using windows explorer. Explorer displays a split screen. On the left side of the screen, there is a list of folders. When you select one of the folders, the files contained in the folder display on the right half of the screen. Use the right mouse button to drag the file to a different folder. A pop-up menu appears giving you the option to either copy or move the file.

I had difficulty copying files this week. When I tried the files did not copy. However, I have inadvertently copied files many times in the past. Obviously, I need more practice!

In the "My Computer" window click "copy disc". A window appears with 2 panes. One is marked "copy from", the other "copy to." Press the start button. After the computer reads the source disc a window with the message "Insert the disc you want to copy to." Appears. This is the destination disc. Click "OK". The computer copies the files to the second disc. When this process is finished, the message in the window will read "Copy completed successfully." Close the disk copy window. Close the "My computer" window.

When copying from one disc to another both discs must be the same size. (i.e. both 3 ½ floppies). Any previously recorded information on the destination disc will be erased.

One way to rename a file is to open the file. When you are ready to save the file, go to the file menu. Select 'Save As'. Enter the new name in the 'Save As' window. Delete the old file. I’ve used this method many times. Then I discovered a more effective method, which is the correct way to rename a file: using Windows Explorer.

When you open Explorer, the screen display is split. On the left-hand side of the screen there is a list of computer folders. When you select one of the drives, its contents is displayed on the right hand pane of the screen. When you double-click one of the files that appears on the right-hand side of the screen the contents of that file is displayed on the left-hand side of the screen.

To change the name of a file, select the drive that contains it. Go to the file menu and select 'rename'. Type in a new file name, including a file extension if necessary. Press 'enter'.

You can also rename a file in the following manner. Open Microsoft Word. In the "Look in " box select the drive that contains the file you want to rename. Within the folder, select the desired file. Right-click the file. Select "rename " from the shortcut menu. Enter a new name in the space provided. Press 'enter'.

If a file is small you can select the entire text then press the delete key on the keyboard. Another method for deleting files is to highlight the text. Then go to the edit menu and select "clear" from the menu options. For larger files, select open from the file menu. Select the drive that contains the file. Right-click the file you wish to delete. Select delete on the drop-down menu.

Another way to delete a file is to simply not save it when you have finished entering it. If you exit without saving your work, Microsoft WORD will ask if you want to save the file. If you select "no" the file will not be saved.

A locked document is one that cannot be modified. According to the on-line help, only subdocuments are locked. The master document is not locked. To lock a document, go to the edit menu. In the source file box, select 'linked objects'. Select the 'locked' check box. The notation "read-only" in the title bar indicates that the document is locked. To unlock a document, display the master document in "master document view." Expand the subdocuments. Click in the subdocument you want to unlock. Select "lock document" on the master document toolbar.

A disc may be verified using a program called Windows Explorer. Open the list of programs from the start menu. Select Windows Explorer. The Explorer window has 2 panes. On the right hand side you will see a list of possible drives (A, C, G, System Shortcuts, etc.)When you select the drive to be explored the files in that drive will display on the right-hand pane of the window screen. You can open individual files by selecting them on the right.

Subdirectories are also called folders. Folders can be created from within the Microsoft application in use (i.e.: Microsoft WORD). When you are ready to save your document, select "Save As" from the file menu. The 'save as' dialog box lists folders for saving documents. Select a folder to put the new folder into. Select "Up one level." Click the arrow next to the "Save In" box. Select "Create new folder" in the "Save as" dialog box. Click the "New folder" icon in the "Save as" dialog box. A "new folder" dialog box comes up. Type the name for the folder in the space provided in the dialog box. Select "OK" to return the "Save as" dialog box.

To open the folder, double click it. The names of files in the folder will display on the screen. To work on a file, select it and press "OK."

I am using a 3 1/2-inch double-sided high-density disc. It has 1.44 Megabytes of storage space.