The item disappears from My Documents. If you switch to Shared Documents by clicking that option
under Other Places, you’ll see that the item is now in that folder.
Tip As you’ll learn in Chapter 4, you can add to your My Documents folder shortcuts to
anything you’ve moved into Shared Documents. That way, those items will still be
just one click away whenever you’re in your My Documents folder.
The same basic technique works the other way around. Be aware, however, that once you move
something from Shared Documents to My Documents, the item is no longer shared (which might irritate
your fellow computer users). If you’re sure you want to do this, however, open Shared Documents and
drag the item you want to move to the My Documents option under Other Places. If you then click My
Documents, you’ll see that the item now exists in your My Documents folder.
Summary
The concepts and basic skills you have learned in this chapter are important, and most of them you’ll
use in your day-to-day interaction with your computer. Of course, they won’t become second nature to
you until you’ve had some hands-on practice. Still, it’s important to know what can be done, and how to
do it. Here’s a quick recap of the topics discussed in this chapter:
• An icon is a small picture that opens into a full window.
• To close an open window, reducing it once again to an icon, click the Close (X) button in
the upper-right corner of that window.
• Dialog boxes present controls that enable you to choose among various options a particular
program or device offers.
• Windows Explorer is a good program to know, because it enables you to explore and access
the various disk drives, folders, and files in your computer.
• The Search Companion offered by Explorer helps you find lost folders and files.
• The My Computer location within Explorer gives you access to all your computer’s disk
drives.
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• The My Documents folder gives each user his own place on the hard disk in which to store
his own, unshared documents.
• The Shared Documents folder holds folders and files that all users of your computer can
access.