Managing increasing number of files pg 180 181

20. Managing Increasing Number Of Files

Systematic File Naming

In a year, if you keep monthly files, you will have 12 files. If you start from January, the files are as follows:

January file
January-February file
January-March file
January-April file
January-May file
January-June file
January-July file
January-August file
January-September file
January-October file
January-November file
January-December file

To help you search and remember the location of a particular file, place all the files in the same folder. Give the folder an easy-to-remember name.

You may also prefer that files are placed in chronological order, i.e. January file will appear above the February file when you open the folder. To put this order into effect, just remember the rule that a name with a number will appear above a file name with an alphabet. Within the numbers and alphabets, the ordinary order will follow. So, the following file names will make them appear in this order:

Acc-01-2000.xls
Acc-02-2000.xls
Acc-03-2000.xls
Acc-04-2000.xls
Acc-05-2000.xls
Acc-06-2000.xls
Acc-07-2000.xls
Acc-08-2000.xls
Acc-09-2000.xls
Acc-10-2000.xls
Acc-11-2000.xls
Acc-12-2000.xls

180

Systematic naming of your files will help you in the long run.

Over the years, say after 5 years, you will have more than 60 files in one directory. You will not use many of the files regularly, especially the old ones. You may consider creating a sub-folder and put all files you do not use regularly into this sub-folder. For example, you can create a sub-folder with name '1998' for keeping all 1998 files. An easy-to-remember sub-folder name will be helpful.

TIP

Remember, you can rename a file easily in windows Explorer view. So, if you find that the existing file name is not descriptive enough, you can rename it anytime.

Back Up Files

Another aspect of file management which is very important is that you must have a back-up copy of all files. The size of each file is not big (most will fit into a floppy); so backing up will be easy and fast. Here are some suggested locations for your back-up files:

Floppy disk
Separate partition on your hard disk.
Separate hard disk on your computer.
Separate computer in a network.
CD-RW disk, CD-R disk, Zip disk, thumb disk, etc.
On the Internet (cloud)
In Google or Microsoft Outlook etc

181