Gray's VP Notes: Moving & Copying

Info on this page applies to PC's under Windows 95. It may or may not be helpful to those using other machines or operating systems.

Gray's Notes for Virtual Places Newbies (and Others)

Moving and Copying Files on a PC

What and Why:

Copying and moving files on a PC are basic operations. Here as an example, suppose you have by mistake stored a VP Avatar file art23.gif in the folder C:\VPlaces rather than in C:\Vplaces\Exts\Gallery. The first step is to click on the file in question, so that it is highlighted, as at left below. after that, there are three easy ways to proceed. (Well, three that we'll go into.)

Move by Drag-and-Drop:

The simplest way to move a single file is to place the mouse on it after highlighting, and then hold the left button down while you move the mouse pointer to a blank area in the folder where you want it. Release the button and the file should appear in its new place and disappear from its original folder. (The position of the file in its new folder may not be where you dropped it, but that doesn't matter.)

Move or Copy by Cut-and-Paste:

You may also move a file just as you can move text, using your "clipboard". Having highlighted the file, press ctrl-x. The file is now "on your clipboard". Click your mouse on a blank part of the folder where you want the file, so that this is the active folder (dark blue top). Now press ctrl-v.. The file should appear in its new folder "home".

You can also copy a file in this way, by typing ctrl-c rather than ctrl-x. Just as when editing text, this leaves the file where it was, but places a copy on the clipboard.

Right Button Drag-and-Drop:

This is like the normal (left-button) version, except that if you drag holding the right mouse button down, you get the little menu at right when you drop, and can choose Copy or Move. You can also make a Shortcut if you know what that is. (Well, you can make one even if you don't know.)

Moving Several Files at Once:

Any of the methods above can be used to do multiple-flie moves. All that is needed is a way to highlight several files. In the case at left, first cuba.gif was marked. Then the shift key was held down and the down-arrow key pressed three times. These four files may now be dragged, or cut-and-pasted, all at once.

Multiple files can be marked using the other arrow keys, or by holding clicking on other files with the shift held, or by marking areas of the menu with the mouse, holding the button down. (Try it out.)