Abstract: Method and apparatus of accessing and displaying hierarachical files on an electronic workstation screen that includes: (1) an Open Next-To operation that opens a separate window for a file to prevent the window from which the file was originally opened from being obscured, (2) a combination of both Open Next-To and Open-Within operations for opening different combinations, (3) "Chording" for displaying general options and depth display options to give the user a choice of a window OPEN method and hierarchical display depth as well as a choice of selecting "display all levels" format, (4) a FIND capability that enables finding of strings in a folder display, including forward and backward search and automatic text type conversion based on selection, (5) Iconic Pretty-Printing, that is, the icon optionally combined with text is offset as a function of its depth in a hierarchy including, (6) Folding of the display when the indentation reaches a desired column width, (7) a visual method of indicating the extent