Win Drag and drop

Win Drag and drop

Drag and drop is used to move icons of files and folders on screen from one location to another. "Drag" means moving the mouse pointer over the icon you wish to select, pressing the left (or sometimes right) mouse button down to highlight it, and while not letting go of the button, move the mouse and watch the selected object move on screen.

Drop Means Let Go
"Drop" means letting go of the mouse button when you have reached your destination. As you drag the icons, outlines are displayed as guides to show you where you are on screen, and all valid destinations will automatically be highlighted as soon as you move near them. For example, as you drag a file icon in and around the icons of different folders, each folder "lights up" when you are closest to it, indicating that if you drop the file icon now, the file will go into that folder.

Watch the Highlighted Items
Look carefully at which folder is highlighted before you let go of the mouse button. Otherwise, you might drop a file into the wrong folder. If you do, you can always move it back, and if you clicked somewhere else, causing the destination folder to lose its highlight so you don't know where you put it, you can always have Windows search for the file (see Win Finding files).

The Destination Folder "Lights Up"

This shows three highlighted files being dragged to the WORK folder. The outline of the three icons guides you while moving, and you let go of the mouse button only when you see the desired folder "light up." To highlight multiple files as was done in this example, see Win Highlighting icons.

A Lot of Hype
Although highly touted, drag and drop can be the more cumbersome way to copy and move files, since you have to be somewhat adept at holding the button down and letting go at the right time. You can just as easily highlight an icon and click COPY or CUT from the Edit menu, then go to the destination folder, click it and make sure it's the correctly highlighted location and then select PASTE from the Edit menu. See Win Copy/move files/folders for all the methods.