Renaming and deleting files on your MacBook


Rename Files and Folders

Suppose you've created your new folder but accidentally clicked outside of the text box before naming it. Now you have a folder called Untitled Folder, which isn't very useful. Fortunately, you can easily change the name to anything you want, as many times as you want. All you need to do is click once on the icon, wait a second, and then click again so that the text box is activated. Type in a new name and then press e nt e r or click somewhere on your desktop to accept the change.

You can also edit the name after the text box is activated by using your mouse or arrow keys to place an insertion point and then making your change from there. You can also click the icon to select it and then press e nt e r to select the name. Although you can't use slashes when naming files or folders, you can use the underscore. You can use this to differentiate between similar versions of files.

For example, you could name two photos of the Empire State Building taken at different times of the day Empire_AM.jpg and Empire_PM.jpg. Using the underscore makes a long file name easier to read. You can also use a space instead of an underscore.

Delete Files and Folders

It can be tempting, especially when you get a new computer, to keep every file you create or receive. With the huge capacity of today's modern hard drives, it almost seems impossible that you could ever fill up your hard drive, but it does happen. If you save everything until that time comes, you could end up weeding through thousands and thousands of files! A better solution is to delete the things that you don't need or want as you come across them.

Deleting files on a MacBook is pretty easy. The most common way to do it is to click on the file or folder you want to delete and drag it to the Trash icon. When the Trash is empty, the icon looks like an empty trash bin. When your Trash contains files, it looks like it's holding crumpled paper. In fact, you'll notice a cool crumplingpaper noise when your MacBook empties Trash.

You can also delete an item by ctrl-clicking on the item and selecting Move to Trash from the shortcut menu or by selecting the item and pressing command-delete. Unlike your kitchen garbage can, your MacBook's Trash never overflows, but that doesn't mean you don't have to take out the trash. Even though you moved your files to the Trash, they aren't gone yet. You need to empty your Trash from time to time. To empty the Trash, ctrl-click on the Trash icon and select Empty Trash.

A dialog box will pop up asking if you are sure. Click OK to go ahead and empty the trash or click Cancel to go back without deleting the Trash files. Once you've emptied the Trash, the icon will return to the empty bin. You can still access the files you dropped in the Trash until it is emptied. Just click the Trash icon and a window will open to display the files inside. You can drag and drop them to wherever you want on your computer. Dragging and dropping a folder into the Trash includes all the files located in the folder. Make sure that you want to delete all those files before you drag that folder to the Trash!

Permanently Deleting Files from Your MacBook

Just because you deleted a file from your computer doesn't mean it's really gone. When you create files on your MacBook, it writes the information to the hard drive. When you delete something, your computer makes a note that whatever space that item was using is now free for something else. However, there's a lot of room on that drive, and until your computer gets around to using that particular space again, your information (or at least parts of it) still lingers on.

By analogy, think of what happens when you erase a word on a piece of paper. Even after you've erased it, you usually can still make out what the word was. If you write another word on top of what you erased, it's harder to read but it can sometimes still be done. If you write 20 words in that space, no one will be able to read the original word. It's the same with computers. Since you wouldn't want someone to be able to pull up private documents like medical or financial information even after you've deleted them, your MacBook comes with a way to permanently delete files.

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Note: This article was sent to us by: Andrew Deloney at 11012010

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