Some of us relish a good spring clean whilst others are self-confessed hoarders and our approach to saving files at work often reflects our habits at home. But most of us produce many more electronic documents each week than we buy new items of clothing so developing a filing system that allows us to retrieve this information quickly and easily is of vital importance.

Here are some handy tips designed to help you manage your work better and avoid those frantic searches for files you know are there – you just don’t know where.

1) Using the Documents (My Documents) folder

Vista calls it Documents, whereas XP and previous versions called it My Documents, and many users like to use this folder for storing files. Windows provides easy access to this location so finding your files should be easy but beware because ‘Documents’ is located on your local C drive by default. Always ensure your network administrator has redirected this folder to a network location where files will be included in the nightly backup.

2) Be consistent with file naming

Adopting consistent methods for file and folder naming will save time when searching for important documents. Develop a folder structure for the kinds of files you create most often and stick to it.
 

4) Keep names short

Windows allows you to use very long file names but this doesn’t mean you have to. Long file names can be hard to read in certain screen displays or browsing windows and they are harder to skim through in a long list of your work.

5) Let your folder structure do some of the naming

6) Use Recent Items

Recent Items (known as My Recent Documents in XP) is located in the Start menu and handy for finding a file you were just working on.

7) Separate ongoing and completed work

Some users find it easier to reserve their main data folder (for example Documents) for files they are currently working on. This reduces clutter making it easier to search for your most commonly used documents. Other work may be regularly archived to a different network location or even copied to removable media such as an external hard drive or CD.

8) Storing like with like

Restricting folders to a single document type helps some people organise their work better and can allow you to take advantage of folder templates in Windows Explorer. 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.

9) Don't save unnecessary files

Be selective about the files you save. You do not need to keep everything you create or receive and this is particularly important for email because large numbers of messages stored in your inbox can have a serious impact on system performance.

10) Shortcuts on your desktop

Creating a shortcut on your desktop can help you jump straight to the network location where frequently used documents are stored. Be careful only to create shortcuts on your desktop and not actually save your work there as desktop files are unlikely to be included in your company’s overnight backup.

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