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There are different situations where you will encounter a Browse Window. This window allows you to navigate through your computer to choose a location or access a file.
In Soda PDF, any action that requires opening or saving files will prompt one. This guide will help you familiarize yourself with getting around your computer.
File Directories
Your computer has several Drives. Each drive is a pocket of available space for your computer to operate. All your files will be saved on at least one of your drives, including external hard drives and cloud spaces.
Within each drive will be your files and folders. Your computer keeps track of file locations by creating paths. The first part of the path will be the drive where the information is stored. You may recognize the familiar C:\ as the start of a lot of file paths. This tells the computer that the file or folder you are selecting is inside the “C” drive.
Each word after that backslash is the name of the next folder a user must access to get to the file.
Here is an example:
C:\Users\Persona\Dropbox\KB 7
To get to this location you would need to select the C drive. Then you would go into the Users folder. Inside that folder will be Persona. You would continue accessing the folders in sequence until you reach your destination.
The Browse Window
The Browse Window allows you to go through your files and folders to get to the right spot on your computer quickly. Now that you understand how a computer is mapped out, you will be an expert on using a Browse Window in no time. Below we have outlined each section of the window for you.
This section is for the file’s name. When saving a file, you should type the name here. When opening a file, you can search for a file quickly by typing its name into this bar.
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You can filter between available file types with the dropdown menu to the right of the File Name section.
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On the left-hand side of the window, you will see common folders and drives on your system. You can navigate directly to each of these places by clicking on them.
![](https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-37.png)
This section displays all files and folders available within the active folder. You can browse them here. Double-click on a file to open/save it. If you choose a folder instead, you will open it to display all the files held inside.
![](https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-38.png)
Right-clicking on a file or folder will let you interact with it:
![](https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-39-947x1024.png)
Right-clicking on an empty space in this window will unlock a different menu. Here you can create new folders:
![](https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-40.png)
You can use this search tool to browse files. It will look for file names containing the keyword you enter.
![](https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-41.png)
This section will let you manually enter a file directory. You can always Paste here to avoid any error.
![](https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-42.png)
Here you will find the “action” option. You can also choose to cancel instead, doing so will simply close this window.
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