Organising files and folders
Hard disks are becoming increasingly large. That’s great, but it also means that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to locate the files you’re looking for. Here are some simple tricks for reorganising your hard disk.
Where is it?
Do you dump all your files in the My Documents folder? Chances are you will soon be losing time looking for that one file. True, the search function integrated in Windows Vista and Windows 7 also allows you to search the content of your files, but still, efficient organisation of your files and folders remains crucial. Here are some tips for creating some order in your file chaos!
Filenames and folder names
It’s very important to give your files useful names. For instance, you could start each filename with the date of creation and end it with the version number, say, 20090511 - Tax return - v1. Since Windows 95, spaces have been allowed in filenames, and we recommend using them! Moreover, it’s important to create an adequate number of folders. For instance, first create a folder that you give your own name, and within this folder others such as Private or Work, and within them yet more sub-folders.
Tip 1. Don’t over do it, otherwise you may have to click 20 times before reaching the right folder. You can generally tell if you have many folders which are empty or contain only one or two files.
Tip 2. You can also create a separate disk partition for your data files (for instance D:). Make this partition sufficiently large, since increasing the size of a partition isn’t simple and may require the reinstallation of Windows.
Efficient searching
If you’re running Windows 7 or Vista, you can search through both the filenames and the content of files via the Start button. In Windows Explorer, you can confine your search to a specific folder. If you’re still running Windows XP, install Windows Search4.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/getitnow.mspx) to get virtually the same search facilities. In Vista and Windows 7, you can also save your searches. In Windows Explorer, simply select Save Search after conducting a search. In this way, you can repeat searches efficiently via the Searches folder.
Add labels
You can add labels or tags to all your files. Labels can be compared to subjects or keywords that you assign to a file, for instance lawyer, bank, computer or website. You can attach various labels to one file - use a semi-colon to separate them. In Explorer, select a file and enter your tags at the bottom. You can also attach labels in certain programs, such as Office. In the Windows search field, simply type a label name to find the relevant files quickly.
Tip. Labels are ideal for locating photos and videos, since, apart from the filename, they are files which contain no text which can be indexed. You can search for these files via Explorer or using Windows Live Photo Gallery (http://download.live.com/photogallery).
Sorting and adding columns
In Explorer you can add columns by right-clicking on the column title. Useful extra information includes Created on, Titles, Authors, and Size.
Note. When you click on a column title, all the files will be sorted according to this criterion. Click on the title again to reverse the operation.
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