This command offers a submenu of toolbars you can add to the window. For details on these toolbars and their functions, see page 70.

Makes the status bar appear or disappear at the bottom of the window. The status bar displays information about the contents of the current window, or the selection you've made inside of it. (It may say, for example, "3 object(s) selected" or "Type: Microsoft Word Document.")

Splits the window, creating a new left-side pane that shows the kind of extra information you choose using the View→Explorer Bar submenu. The choices are:

These commands let you view the files in a window as icons (which you move by dragging freely), as a neat list view that's automatically sorted, or as thumbnails (large buttons that reveal what's in graphics files). Page Section 3.6.1.1 offers a complete description of these views and their relative advantages.

These commands are useful for tidying a window filled with randomly spaced icons.

If you choose View→Line Up Icons, all icons in the window jump to the closest positions on the invisible underlying grid. This is a temporary status, however—as soon as you drag icons around, or add more icons to the window, the newly moved icons wind up just as sloppily positioned as before you used the command.

If you choose View→Arrange Icons, on the other hand, all icons in the window snap to the invisible grid and sort themselves according to your choice from the submenu (by size, name, date, and so on). Use this method to place the icons as close as possible to each other within the window, rounding up any strays. (In a list view, these commands simply sort the list according to the criterion you specify in the submenu.)

If grayed out: Line Up Icons is available only when the window is in Large Icons or Small Icons view.

In a list view, Windows 2000 shows the details of each file in Name, Size, Type, and Modified columns. But using this command, you can choose from an enormous list of additional columns that you'd like displayed (in the frontmost window): Company Name, Product Version, Sender Name, and so on. You can also specify how wide you'd like each column to be, and (using the Move Up and Move Down buttons) where you'd like it to appear in the left-to-right order.

This command launches a wizard that walks you through the process of changing the folder window's background (such as the identifying text and graphics that appear on the left side of the window). See Section 4.2.3 for details.

This command's submenu lets you move forward or backward through desktop windows you've recently opened, much like the Back and Forward buttons in your Web browser. (The View→Go To→Home Page launches your Web browser, connects to the Internet, and takes you to the page you've designated as your home page.)

Updates the contents of the window. Use this command if you've just cut, pasted, or deleted icons, and the window doesn't yet reflect the changes. Keyboard equivalent: F5.