NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Organizing your electronic files from the beginning can save a lot of time later. A lot of home computer users that I have worked with have a rough time finding templates, web pages, word processing documents or other materials on their computers. A simple thing to do is to use the “search” function we talked about in an earlier blog post. But another time saver is to create a “filing system” from the very beginning so that all of your documents regarding a particular matter are in one folder. Let’s take a look at “filing” your word processing documents on the hard drive.
Chances are, your documents were prepared using Microsoft Word. By default, the software program will save your Word documents in the “My Documents” folder on your hard drive. Using this article, for instance, if I click the “save” icon, here’s what appears on my screen:
I could just save the document using the software’s default, but the problem is that after several months of storing documents by using the default mode, it is hard to find exactly what I am looking for in the future.
To illustrate this problem, if you just threw everything in a file drawer without creating folders, you could find your papers but it would take a heck of a lot longer to find something than if papers were filed in folders marked with a caption or name. The same is true with your computer. It’s a lot easier to create “folders” in My Documents so that you can find everything that you have drafted on a particular matter by opening a folder instead of digging through an entire file cabinet packed with an assortment of unorganized papers. It’s just like making physical folders for your file drawer, except these are folders on your hard drive.
To make folders, after you have clicked the “save” icon, simply click the “new folder” icon that appears in the menu. It looks like this:
Name the folder with something that will make sense to you in a future search:
Click “Okay.”
The file is the document itself. The next step is to rename the file so that it will make sense to you later:
And then click “save.”
That’s it. You’re done!
If you have another document that relates to the same matter, you simply select the folder that you have already created:
Double click on the folder and it will open, revealing all of your files. Instead of using the system default, name your file so that you will know what it is about in the future.
You can do this with any word processing program, image program, photo downloads and so forth. By making a practice of creating folders at the outset and storing documents in the appropriate folder, you will avoid frustration when you need to find documents or images on your computer.
As a filing tip, I generally include a date in the beginning of my file names. For instance, I might call the article that you’re reading something like “07-13-08_Doc-Organize.doc” so that it’s easy to have a chronological record of my electronic files.
Opening a document at a later time is easy. Click the “start” button that is on the lower left hand corner of your computer screen (in the system tray). You’ll see a selection for documents or pictures. In the case of finding a word processing document that you created in Word, click “documents” and the “My Documents” folder will open up automatically.
Select the folder that you want and all your documents (files) should be in there.
Double click on the document that you want and your software program should automatically launch. You can, of course, open a document (or image) from your software program. For instance, if you are already in Word, just click file and open.
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I'm such a messy, disorganized slacker so I'm really grateful for these tips. They make a lot of sense. Now got to go and "clean up my rooms", hehehe.
This is pure genius for dummies like us. It never occured to me to precede the filenames with dates. It makes a lot of sense and really puts things in order and easy and convenient to recall.