# 6.3. Retrieving a Saved Document

The "Open" command can be invoked 4 ways:

- By clicking "Open a previously saved document" and the "Choose" button when Opening a New Document

- By selecting File->Open from the Menu bar

- You can use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-O

- or by clicking on the toolbar.

Any of these methods results in the same action by KWord.

When trying to open a file, a dialog appears.

Lets look at this dialog more closely:

This dialog shows my current directory is "/home/mike". You can see this by the textbox at the top of the dialog

The large box below that shows I have 3 folders in this directory. One of the folders is "/home/mike/Desktop", another is "/home/mike/Mail".

The third folder is labled "..". This is a special folder that exists in all directories on my computer. It tells the computer that if I select this folder, to move up one level in the directory heirarchy. (If a directory heirarchy is a foriegn concept to you, I would refer you to a basic book on Unix).

We can also see I have previously saved a file called "tempkwordfile". (All KWord documents end in .kwd).

The text box labled "File Name" is blank.

The text box labled "File Type" shows we intend to load a KWord file. Using KWord, you can load files from other formats. For information on this, see the section on Filters.

Another function of the "File Type" box, is to act as a file mask. A file mask hides all the files that KWord believes are unimportant to your current task. When the KWord filetype is set to KWord file, the dialog box only shows Folders, and files ending in ".kwd". If you file does not end in .kwd, you need to change the file type box to read "All files". Now all files will be displayed.

There is a "Cancel" button, if you click this button, the load will be aborted.

There is a "Open" button, which will be used when we have selected the correct location, correct format and correct filename.

There are also 4 buttons:

| Moves you up one level in the directory tree.
| Creates a new folder. If you click on this button, a new folder will be created. The title of the new folder is "New folder", but you are automatically asked to give it a new name.
| This button toggles the file details (size, date created,etc) off.
| This button toggles the file details (size, date created,etc) on.

Using this dialog, you can move through the directory tree to find a location to load your document from.

To enter a folder, you double click on that folder. To exit that folder, you double click the ".." folder, or click the button.

Once you have located your file, you can open it by double clicking on the filename, left clicking on the filename and then clicking on "Open", or by typing the filename in the text box labled "File Name" and clicking "Open".