<p>Most text editors have a navigation pane that lets you see all the files you currently have open.  Or a pane that lets you browse a file directory.</p>

<p>How do I do this in Emacs?</p>

C-x b TAB
will give you an auto complete with all open buffers.   Alternatively, click on the
```
Buffers
```
menu item if you are in a windowed version (not sure if there is a terminal equivalent of that).
EDIT: Also
C-x C-f
will let you open a file, and you can use
TAB
for autocomplete, then
TAB
again to view files/directories in that current directory (assuming the first tab did not autocomplete something).