Instituto Superior del Traductorado –

Information Search Techniques

DIEGEP 5649

Handout 11: Preliminar Search Management

Get to know the shortcut combination for File Explorer: Windows key+E. For opening a single
window, it’s only a few microseconds faster than clicking the taskbar icon, but it’s a huge time-saver
when you’re trying to open a second window.

Knowing that shortcut is especially handy when you plan to move or copy files between two folders.
To open the second window using the mouse, you have to Shift+click. Instead, press Windows key+E
twice to open two windows, which you can then snap left and right for easy dragging and dropping.

Customize the Quick Access list

Windows 10 revamped File Explorer with the Quick

Access list. You can pin your favourite folders to the
top of the list for quick, one-click access. Folders
you’ve used recently show up below the pinned
items, which is handy when you’re working with a
group of files as part of a short-term project.

Anything in the Quick Access list is a drop target,

which means you can move files to that location by
dragging them from the main window (or even
from another File Explorer window) and dropping
them on the pinned folder.

To pin the current folder, click the big Pin to Quick

Access button on the ribbon’s Home tab.

Change File Explorer’s opening folder

File Explorer opens with Quick Access selected.

Old-school Windows users might prefer to start
in This PC (previously known as My Computer),
which includes the six standard data folders in
your user profile as well as any local drives and
removable media such as USB drives.

No problem. On the ribbon, open the View tab,

click Options, Change folder, and search
options, and then choose one of these two
options.

www.traductorado.edu.ar Page 1 of 3
 Instituto Superior del Traductorado –
Information Search Techniques
DIEGEP 5649

Use the expanded Send To menu

Yes, you can right-click a file or folder (or

multiple items, for that matter) and use
the Send To menu to do a few interesting
things, like move or copy the selection to
your Documents folder, create a
compressed file (in .zip format), or send
the selection as an email attachment.

But the Send To menu gets much more

interesting if you hold down the Shift key
before you right-click. The menu you get
after doing that is just filled with
interesting stuff, including every folder in
your user profile.

Customize the Send To menu

Speaking of the Send To menu, you can

make it much more useful by adding and
removing the options on the default (short)
menu. They’re just shortcuts, but good luck
finding them, because they’re buried in a
folder hidden deep within your user
profile.

To get to that folder, open the Run box

(Windows key+R), type shell:sendto, and
then press Enter.

First order of business: delete the Fax

Recipient shortcut. After that, you can add
shortcuts to favourite folders (local and network). You can also add shortcuts to programs. Adding a
shortcut to Notepad or another text editor makes it much easier to quickly edit any file, for example.

Customize the Quick Access toolbar

Quick Access Toolbar, File Explorer’s companion, is equally noteworthy and arguably more useful. It
appears in the title bar, above the ribbon. Customize that toolbar with the commands you use most
often and you can bypass the ribbon
completely for many tasks.

Some obvious customization options are

available on the menu that appears when
you click the arrow to the right of the
toolbar. Not so obvious and much more
useful is the option to add any individual

www.traductorado.edu.ar Page 2 of 3
 Instituto Superior del Traductorado –
Information Search Techniques
DIEGEP 5649

command from any tab on the ribbon. Just right-click the command and then click Add to Quick
Access Toolbar.

Try it out

Customize your Sent To menu by creating a shortcut to C:\Translation Projects\Your-Surname

1. In C:\Translation Projects, create a folder with your surname.

2. Right-click on the newly created folder and then on ‘Create shortcut’.
3. Remove ‘- Shortcut’ from the newly created shortcut so that only your surname remains.
4. Drag and drop the shortcut into the SentTo folder.
5. Right-click on any file on your computer, then ‘Send to’.

Customized shortcut icon

1. In C:\Translation Projects, create a folder with your surname.

2. Right-click on the newly created folder and then on ‘Create shortcut’.
3. Right-click on the newly created shortcut, and then on ‘Properties’.
4. On the ‘Shortcut’ tab, click on ‘Change Icon’. When you are done, click on ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’.
5. Remove ‘- Shortcut’ from the newly created shortcut so that only your surname remains.
6. Drag and drop the shortcut into the SentTo folder.
7. Right-click on any file on your computer, then ‘Send to’.

www.traductorado.edu.ar Page 3 of 3