Exercise - Create a backup copy of the desktop folder

Completed

This exercise demonstrates some actions that are used to organize and manage files and folders.

In this exercise, you will:

  • Get the location of the desktop folder for the current user.
  • Retrieve the contents of a folder on the desktop.
  • Create a new folder on the desktop.
  • Copy the contents of the first folder to the new folder.
  • Write to a text file.
  • Rename the text file to contain the current date and time in its file name.

Steps

Follow these steps to organize and manage files and folders:

  1. Create a folder on your Desktop and name it Important.

  2. Open the new folder, right-click in the folder, go to New, and then create a new Text Document.

  3. Repeat the previous step for other available document or file types. Though no restrictions are placed on the amount, three files should be enough for this exercise.

  4. Create a new process and add the Get Special Folder action to the workspace.

  5. Set the Special Folder Name: field to DesktopDirectory and then store it in a variable.

    Screenshot of Properties of 'Get Special Folder' action dialog.

  6. Using the Get Files in Folder action, set the Folder field to %SpecialFolder%\Important. This setting will select the folder that you previously created on the desktop.

    Screenshot of Properties of 'Get Files in Folder' action dialog.

  7. Add the Create Folder action to the workspace.

  8. In the Create New Folder into field, enter %SpecialFolder%.

  9. In the New Folder Name field, enter Backup Files.

    Screenshot of Properties of 'Create Folder' action dialog.

  10. Add the Copy File(s) action.

  11. Set the File(s) to Copy field to %Files%, the Destination Folder field to %New Folder%, and the If File(s) Exists drop-down option to Overwrite.

    Screenshot of Properties of 'Copy Files' action dialog.

  12. To create the log file, add the Write Text to File action and then set the File Path field to %NewFolder%\Backup Log.txt.

  13. In the Text to Write field, add a message that will show that the process has run successfully.

    Screenshot of Properties of 'Write Text to File' action dialog.

  14. Add the Rename File(s) action and then set the File(s) to Rename field to %NewFolder%\Backup Log.txt.

  15. In the Rename Scheme drop-down menu, select the Add Date or Time option.

  16. Set the Separator drop-down option to no separator and the DateTime Format option to dd.MM.yy_HH.mm.

    Screenshot of Properties of 'Rename Files' action dialog.

    The completed process should resemble the following screenshot.

    Screenshot of the completed Main process.

  17. Run the process.

After the run process has completed, you will have a new folder called Backup Files on your Desktop. The folder will contain all contents of the folder named Important and an additional text file called Backup Log, which will have the last date and time that the process has run appended to its file name.