Manage Your Files Better

Use My Documents. For many reasons, it's smart to take advantage of My Documents feature in Microsoft Windows. To open My Documents in Windows, click Start, and then click My Documents. My Documents provides an easy way for you to store your personal documents. By using My Documents, you will be better able to:

Adopt consistent methods for file and folder naming. Develop a naming scheme for the kinds of files you create most often and then stick to it.

Keep names short. Even though Windows allows you to use long file names, it does not necessarily mean you should. Long names produce cluttered displays. Brevity promotes clarity.

Let your folders do some of the naming. For example, rather than create a file called Great American Novel Chapter One First Effort.doc, you can build a structure like:

Figure 1: Suggestion of how you can keep folder names short

Separate ongoing and completed work. To keep the My Documents folder from becoming too unwieldy, use it only for files you're working on. This reduces the number of files you need to search through and the amount of data you need to back up. Every month or so, move the files you're no longer working on to a different folder or location—preferably not in My Documents. You can archive them on a folder on your desktop (you could even label it Archives) or move them to a backup tape or recordable CD. Your My Documents folder, which you should back up frequently, remains relatively small.

Store like with like. Restricting folders to a single document type (or predominantly one type) allows you to take advantage of folder templates in Windows Explorer. This makes it easier for you to find files. For example, with all your graphics in a single folder, it's easy to use the Filmstrip view and slide show feature in Windows Explorer to find the right picture for your newsletter.

Avoid big folder structures. If you need to put so many subfolders in a folder that you can't see all of them at a glance, consider creating an alphabetic menu. An example is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Example of how you can avoid big file structures by using an alphabetic menu

Use shortcuts and shortcut links instead of multiple copies. If you need to get to the same file from multiple locations, don't create copies of the file. Create shortcuts to it instead. To create a shortcut, right-click on the file and click Create Shortcut. You can drop-and-drag the shortcut to other locations.

Use abbreviations. Keep file names short by using common abbreviations, such as "MTG" for meeting or "ACTG" for accounting. This makes the file names more descriptive and you can more easily find files through Search if it's necessary.

Use thumbnails. Search through folders in the Thumbnail view. They're easier to see and you can put a picture or clip art on the folder so that it's more easily recognisable. For example, a folder that contains information about a product can have a picture of the product—or something else that reminds you of the folder contents.

To view your folder list in Thumbnail view, on the My Documents folder, in the toolbar click View and then select Thumbnail.

To put a picture on the folder, right-click the folder and click Properties. In the Properties dialog box, click the Customise tab. In the Folder pictures area, click Choose Picture.

Use common names. To make it easier to search for documents, name your files and folders with easily found names, such as model numbers, project names, or the project lead in the title.

Don't save unnecessary files. Be selective about the files you keep. You probably don't need to keep them all. With e-mail, for example, you rarely need to keep everything you receive.

Use My Recent Documents. To find a file a just worked on, use My Recent Documents in the Start menu.

Put My Documents on the desktop. Put a shortcut to My Documents on the desktop. You can save several clicks of the mouse to get where you want to be sooner.