Sorting and Searching in Windows Explorer. Page 3.
By Matt Western.

The image below displays the folders sorted in reverse alphabetical order.

As you can see from the image above, the folders are sorted in reverse alphabetical order. In this case there are no folders that start with Z. The closest letter is W.

As I mentioned earlier, you can sort any column.

Some columns show you when a file was last accessed. Sorting these columns can be very useful when you are looking for a file that was copied, modified or created.

For example, let's say you altered or edited (made changes to) a file. You can't remember the name of the file, but you know the file resided in a particular folder.

The easiest way to locate the file is to sort the contents of the folder via the 'Date Modified' column.

When you do this, you will be able to easily locate the file, as all the files within the folder will be sorted by date. All you have to do is look for a file that has a date close to when you edited or altered the file.

Once again, to change the sort order from most recent to least recent, simply click on the column title.

The following image displays a list of files sorted by the most recently modified date:

As you can see from the image above, the top file was modified on 16 June 2004; the next was modified on 14 May 2004 and so on. The files in this folder are listed from the most recently modified file to the least recently modified.

You can also sort by the 'Type' column.

As I briefly mentioned earlier, the Type column displays the different types of files that reside on your computer.

Different types of files include:

Word documents - .doc
Text files - .txt
Initialization files - .ini
Configuration files - .cfg

And many other types of files.

Sorting by Type can be very useful. As an example, let's say you are looking for a Word document.

You can't remember it's name, you can't remember when you last modified (edited) it, but you do know it's a Word document.

So you know the file you are looking for will have an extension of .doc.

You can use Windows Explorer and sort via the Type column to look for all files that end in .doc.

Here's an example image of a folder sorted by the Type column:

As you can see on the right hand side, the files have been sorted by Type (column 3 in the right hand pane).

At the top of the column there are several files listed as text documents. These files end with a .txt file extension.

Then there are a few system files, files that end with a .sys extension and so on.

You can also sort by size. You can list files from the smallest to the largest and vice versa.

In summing up

That pretty much shows you how, with just a few well placed clicks, you can search for what you're looking for with a lot more ease by simply sorting the columns in which you are looking.

I have used Windows Explorer in this article to show you how to sort and search for things, but you can use these methods in many Windows programs that place things into columns.

To find out if you can sort what you're looking at into columns, simply look and see if you can select the 'Detail' view as I mentioned at the start of this article.

If you can select the Details view, then you will be able to sort and search easily.

Sorting and Searching in Windows Explorer.
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Article © Matt Western - deTechnify.com

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Matt Western has been working in the electronics and IT areas since 1983. These days he heads up deTechnify.com a web site aimed at clearing away the technical haze surrounding computers computing and the internet.
You can contact Matt via http://www.detechnify.com