File_Folder

File and Folder Management
how to name and where to store Folders and files

File and Folder Management, or "HOW to Design how I name and store things so I won't have to twiddle everything (every file and folder I have ever created) at some point in the future.

This is probably the hardest subject-area you'll EVER have to deal with on your computer. It is a very VERY VERY HARD thing to design "today" for some activities that you will have to 'do' in 5 or 10 or 20 years from now. Fortunately - EVERYONE faces this struggle, and fortunately - computers these days (early 2007) have PLENTY of hard-disk space for almost anything you're going to do - and even more Fortunately - you (as the computer-hard-disk-owner) have both choices as well as time to change things in the future should you decided you need to do this.

HOWEVER, - think, too, of 'time' - if you spend - just one minute 'extra' - 5 days a week - 'messing-about' with file and folder management - over a year you'll have 'wasted' almost a whole working-day of time over a period of a year - that's a LOT (see the ' time ' section elsewhere).

Lastly, unlike 'years past' in today's world, if it 'makes sense' to duplicate or copy a file (or group of files) so you store them in two different places, that's fine. You can also create 'soft-links' so you have only one copy of the file but you 'link to it' from some other place. This was a common strategy years ago when hard-disk-sizes were limited and we had a lot of files to store. However, in today's world, most people have a lot more hard-disk storage space than they really need. - so copy if necessary. (Copying is also part and parcel of the backup-process (treated separately, elsewhere)) - Link to the Backup_Information.

Learn to THINK the MODEL - then life will get easier - naming and storing and finding your files will get easier and your life will improve (I promise) but it will take time to meld all this into a unified whole - don't expect to be able to change things 'over-nite'...

Months-Model: - one way to structure your files and folders - based on months / dates
==============================================================

here's a way to organize your hard-disk:

at the 'top-level' in your files-folders structure you want:

2007 - inside 2007 there might only be about 2-5 folders - one for Business, one for Home, one for others

Business - a folder
     January2007 - a folder
        Project_A - a folder
            specifications (in-put)
            reports (out-put)
        Project_B
           specifications (in-put)
            reports (out-put)

        Project_C
     February 2007
        Project_B
           specifications (in-put)
            reports (out-put)

        Project_C

Home
    January2007 - a folder
       Family - folder
          kid's_soccer
       Friends
          dinners
       Pictures

       Sites

        Documents
             letters - bills-invoices
             letters - personal
             letters - kid's college

       Kayaking

Other

2006

similar structure to 2007, but - perhaps - some folders don't exist because in 2006 you didn't have those activities?

2005

Subject-based-model: - another methodology to organize things - more based on subject than month-year?
==========================================================================

at the 'basic' level - the 'top' level of your hard-disk organizational scheme you might have:

Documents - anything YOU CREATE
     outgoing formal
     outgoing informal
     UserManuals_pdfs

Finance-Investments-Stocks - I build this directory and it has all these 'money' things in a single place - you could easily have three directories
     Stock_Broker
     US_Government
     Banking

Family - anyone related by blood or marriage
    Children
    Parents
    in-Laws

Friends - anyone not a 'blood-relative'
    work-related
    kayaking-related
    misc
    children-related

Pictures - this basic directory is typically 'given to you' by the operating system; what you put inside of it is up to you -- In THIS CASE I've switched from 'subject-based' to 'month-based' within the directory - that's not a problem - the 'core' or 'root' or 'home' directory is still 'subject-based' - AND INSIDE of Pictures I could still do this sort of folder-organization: Cats, Kayaks, Kids, Spouse, Parents, Trees, Birds, Work, Misc.
    Jan07
    Feb07
    Pictures2006
       Jan07
       Feb07
       .......

WebSites
     Personal
       Me
       You
       Them
       Us
       ....

   Business
      Project_A
      Project_B
      Project_C
      Misc
      .....


It MAY BE that you use certain organizational methodologies in certain folders - that is - for instance, Pictures is month-year-based, but Finance-Stocks is subject-based with a folder for Dean Witter, a folder for AT&T and a folder for something else?

Some other 'rules-of-thumb':

1.) make sure that what you have / design / use - FITS with your work-thought-processes
2.) try to make sure that when you open a folder - that it has less than - say - 10-20 folders within it - if you need more 'levels' - define them but make sure they make SENSE
3.) try to make sure that when you open a folder - that it has less than - say - 30 files within it - or it will be hard to find the one file you want?
4.) IF You need more 'granularity' in your organizational scheme - then create new files & folders - and make CERTAIN to not 'scrimp' on naming - make the files and folders MAKE SENSE.

File - Folder - naming thoughts:

no spaces: - use 'underlines' instead = '_' character; spaces in file names 'choke' some file-transfer software and some operating systems (though not many, but don't 'tempt fate' !)
limit paths: /Users/Bill/Documents/Finance/Letters07/DeanWitter/StockTrades/ to 'about' 200 characters
limit file-names: Account.info.request.doc to 'about' 32 characters
don't be afraid to have LOTS of folders to 'granularize' your filing system.
think about this: - what IF YOU GET DEAD unexpectedly and someone else has to 'make sense' out of your hard-disk?
try to name all Folders with a Leading Capital - this allows you to almost always recognize, easily, what is a Folder and what is a file - (most files would begin with lowercase letters)
once you start 'thinking' about paths and file-names - THEN you will know that you have 'arrived' at the 'nirvana' of computer-organization.

Alphabetizing file names and Folder Names and how those names are listed:

It is something to mention, here, and something that you will learn about your own operating system. However, when you start building and publishing web-pages, and when you start using other operating systems, and using remote login software and ftp software you'll find differences:

SOME operating systems 'alphabetize' their file and folder-names with all Capitalized items 'first' - then all lower-case items (one reason to make all your Folders have First Letter Capitalized, and make all your files named with lowercase letters)

SOME operating systems alphabetize their file and folder-names with a mix of Capitalized and lower-case names all mixed-in-together

SOME operating systems let you choose

SOME operating systems do things differently in their GUI file-folder-views and another way in their 'command-line' interface

SOME operating system(s) do things differently depending on how you issue a command to them for what you want?

SOME operating system(s) 'hide' files from you if the file has no file-name but only an 'extension' (these are typically unix-based systems where 'hidden' files are named with a leading '.' (dot or period) However, most operating systems have a methodology to 'hide' some files, given some commands or methods to display a file-list. - You should know what the default action is in your operating system and how to over-ride that behaviour when necessary.

SOME operating system(s) alphabetize things differently in different applications.

BOTTOM-LINE - know what your defaults are, and how to over-ride the defaults to get what you want!

a graphic or comparison table may help here?

more to come - later (than Monday, 29th January, 2007)

last updated: 21:35 p.m. on Monday, 29 January, 2007; revID: 1e