How to Manage Files on Your Computer

Every time we use a computer we usually use a program and end up wanting to save our work for future use. Organising our files is very similar to having paper files stored in a filing cabinet. With a little forward planning you can easily maintain and quickly find your files.

Computers using Windows Operating systems have already given you a head start on organising your files.

Each separate user has a file structure already laid in place for example;

Jessica (the user name on her computer) has the following Folders on her computer (Windows XP)

Jessica : -

My Documents
My Pictures
My Music
My Videos
My Downloads

So as you can see, already you can save specific types of folders into different categories. An additional option you have is to create a specific folder in the folder based on a particular program you may be using for storing files, such as Adobe Photo shop or Video Creation software.

Within each of the different types of folders (lets use My Documents for example) you can structure your files using categories. OK, lets say Jessica is a novelist so she may be writing a new novel, so she creates a folder called 'New Novel' and inside this folder she has 'Chapter 1', 'Chapter 2', 'Chapter 3',etc.

It will look something like this for folder structure;

Jessica -> My Documents -> New Novel - > Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Chapter 3

For each file she actually stores (lets say Jessica is using a text editor to write her story) she has decided to have 4 text documents per chapter, so each chapter Folder will contain 4 text Files.

OK, lets look at some tips on creating File and Folder names as this will assist in quickly finding your files down the track.

For My Documents - Try to keep to very short names using only one or two words, like 'Meetings June08', 'Meetings July08', etc. You can store this in a folder called Meetings. If you name your files and folders to specific tasks, you can easily find both these Folders and Files later.

For My Pictures - Naming your folders to events is helpful for quickly finding pictures, like 'Jessica's Birthday 07' & 'Michael's School Play'. Now most digital cameras use a number sequence when uploading photos to a computer, so you may have to rename each photo individually to something more meaningful. Lets use the folder 'Michaels School Play' and he has 20 photos inside, and they get renamed to 'Michael's Costume', Michael's Entrance', Michael's Opening On Stage' etc

For My Music - The benefit for this folder, is if you are already storing music from a CD or purchased over the Internet, Windows is savvy to find the name of the Artist, Track and album and will automatically store your music in this format. You still have the option to rename files & folders if you wish.

For My Videos - Depending on the Video Editing program you use, files will initially be stored like digital photos, using a number sequence (some video editing programs will ask for a file name before saving the video). Use a folder/file structure here the same as the My Pictures folder.

For My Downloads - Usually a repository of programs or files you may download from the Internet. I suggest to structure 2 additional folders inside here, one called 'Files' and another called 'Programs'. I suggest the 'Files' folder for file downloads you may receive from Instant Messaging programs or you may download specific files (like a game update). I suggest the 'Programs' folder for specific programs you may download, like freeware programs, game trials, shareware programs and the like. I also recommend renaming these files as they are usually named something like gam1345.exe, so I would rename this to Pirates Game Trial.exe, which is something more meaningful if I want to find this file later on.

Some more tips on file storing, usage, finding and archiving;

Depending on what you do, try to keep like files with like folders, for example, keep music in the music folder and not the documents folder, it will save you hassle further on.

To stop having so many files stored on your PC, look at archiving your files at certain intervals to external storage. That way you are only keeping current information on the PC and more importantly, if you suffer a computer catastrophe, 90 % of your data is stored elsewhere. These archiving intervals can be whenever you wish, weekly, monthly, quarterly, its up to you.

With archiving your files and folders at regular intervals, you will also be able to find your current information much quicker.

If you are accessing certain files everyday, consider placing a shortcut to that file on your desktop, two mouse clicks and you are working straight away.

If you do work with a large amount of files, consider using an alphabet or date structure within a task named folder (by day, week or month), this will stop files being found too deep within a group of folders.

Consider using the shortest names possible for files and folders, a file called 'Ab Lincoln project' will be easier to search and find rather than a file called 'Abraham Lincoln - A Day In The Life Of - School Project'

When using Windows Explorer - Try to view your My Music, My Pictures and My Videos with the "Thumb View", you will visually find your files quicker than as a list. For My Documents and My Downloads folders a 'view by list' may be a better view for quickly finding folders/ files.

If you have been working on some files and they are for temporary purposes. Consider deleting these files, to free up more space for permanent files.

Backup, backup, backup, consider a backup routine for all your files, I backup all my files as well as use an archiving routine. I backup all my data about once every three months to external storage.

Try any and all of these tips and helpful pointers and you will no longer feel overwhelmed with keeping all you information in check