How does one 'organise' a documents folder/library?

[TheTomG]

Dont forget the free yWriter too, which also lets you create notes about characters, places, etc, all within the same file.

Mostly, just name your files, then you can at least search for them

I've been focused solely on music lately, and Evernote has been capturing my audio scribbles, but I do forget to name them, which is definitely a big problem. Starting with that should take care of most of your problems anyway!

After that. it's preference. I always add date onto the files, using 2012_06_23 as my format (because the UK uses dd mm yy and the US where I am uses mm dd yy and I get confused between them, so I stick resolutely to my own yyyy mm dd on my file naming) Since I make lots of files as I go, I add _a, _b etc as I save the same thing multiple times after destructive changes through the course of a day.

After that folders arent so critical, but still good to have - for writing, I just keep novels under "Novels" as the document title identifies what it is. For audio, I have individual folders for each song (as they have associated recorded audio files with them, etc.)

Hope this helps!

 

[Vertigo]

Just a point worth noting on using dates in file names if you organise them as yyyymmdd as TheTomG suggests it also creates matching alphabetical and chronological sorting which neither the American or European date formats will do.

 

[Venusian Broon]

After that. it's preference. I always add date onto the files, using 2012_06_23 as my format (because the UK uses dd mm yy and the US where I am uses mm dd yy and I get confused between them, so I stick resolutely to my own yyyy mm dd on my file naming)

Just to add to the confusion, I know your preferred dating of files as Swedish - just without the dashes, so usually a six digit string like 120623 to take your example.

And I use it too - because it has the added bonus of correctly ordering your files by date on a list - say on a 'My Documents' window - from earliest to latest (or latest to earliest if you have reversed the descend/ascend...)

EDIT - Vertigo beat me to it!

 

[TheTomG]

Well the Swedish get my vote for the only sensible date format in use

 

[Kaldaur]

I'll second Phyrebrat's statement about Scrivener. Download the trial and see if it's the right fit for you. I know that it's been invaluable for both my WiP and my academic dissertation I'm currently preparing (with 30+ secondary sources and accompanying notes).

 

[Biskit]

Biskit's simple rules for folder organisation (based on years of experience various techy environments)

*******
0: If it can go wrong, it probably already did. Take regular backups. Take backups of backups. And label the backups. Never throw backups away. We had a 'diary file' which was a spreadsheet recording jobs due/progressing/done, and kept a regular backup, deleting the backups when they were more than a few months old. The application corrupted the file and we had lots of backups of rubbish...
*******

1: Keep each layer small - not too many files per layer in the folder tree because you can go nuts trying to find the name you are looking for in a long list

2: I'm a dinosaur, still determinedly living with WinXP. I force my entire machine to show me my folders as a tree - so much easier to see the structure if your OS supports it.

3: Keep the tree shallow - if you have to go down twenty layers in your folders, it can get really, really tedious. (Seriously - been there, endured that.)

4: Use 'shortcuts' (or whatever equivalent exists on your machine OS) for the things that really matter i.e. current version of current WIP(s) and anything else in regular use. Put those shortcuts somewhere very convenient, and keep their number small, otherwise you end up needing a filing system to keep track of your shortcuts...

5: As others have said - make your filenames informative and practical.

6: Search functions are your best friend, especially if you remembered to follow rule 0.

7: Never underestimate the power of swearing at your computer. Millions of software developers use it on an hourly basis as a valuable tool in relieving stress. Contrary to popular belief, it does not in any way increase the natural malevolence of your computer (which is as near to infinite you are ever likely to see).

 

[Vertigo]

2: I'm a dinosaur, still determinedly living with WinXP. I force my entire machine to show me my folders as a tree - so much easier to see the structure if your OS supports it.

Can't agree with this one enough. It amazes me how many people work with the 'My Computer' interface and can only see the files in the current folder. That's so limiting.

In XP try turning on the Explorer View (I think that's what it's called). In Win 7 it's Organize - Layout - Navigation Pane.

As Biskit says, you can now see your whole computer organisation in a sensible structured way. Get used to using this view and you will soon get familiar with using folders to sensibly organise your data. Using the simple My Computer interface tends to encourage a very flat and disorganised file structure.

A little effort up front, setting up this sort of organisation, will pay enormous dividends over time.

 

[Ursa major]

In XP try turning on the Explorer View (I think that's what it's called). In Win 7 it's Organize - Layout - Navigation Pane.

I'm sure that before XP, this was the default view. Well, it was in WindowsNT, though I suppose the company's IT people may have set it up that way. (In those days, I was running a RiscPC at home.)

Frankly, I don't know how anyone manages without it. Ignorance of this view is definitely not bliss.

 

[crystal haven]

How do I organise? - badly is the answer. After reading this thread I realise why it seems to take forever to find anything.

Must put folders in folders ...

Thanks for all the info. A great help, and it's given me a little push to get my documents sorted out.

 

[Venusian Broon]

In XP try turning on the Explorer View (I think that's what it's called). In Win 7 it's Organize - Layout - Navigation Pane.

Oh thank you Vertigo! I have access to a Windows 7 machine occasionally and the new default set up for whatever Win7 has for explorer drives me completely batty. It tries to be 'intuitive' and helpful - but as you and others have pointed out, there is nothing as helpful as seeing the directory tree and therefore helping to build sensible structures.

 

[Vertigo]

OK another tip for XP explorer users moving to Win7

I think they call the breadcrumb display. That's the top bar that used to show the path but now shows each folder with a drop down for the sub-folders (actually quite useful he grudgingly admits). If you click into that bar (not on any of the folders, so to the right of them) it switches to the old display shing the Windows path, that you can then select and copy and past for example.

I too hated the new Windows Explorer; it is so fundamental to how I organise and work with my PC that any changes to it tend to leave me in despair. But, to be fair, now I've gotten used to it it's not so bad.

Another one is that if you turn on Organize - Layout - Details, you get an extra pane at the bottom that shows loads more context specific data on the current selected file; pretty much removes the need for the 'details' view.

Another one: if you want to get the good old proper 'menu' bar (you know, with File,Edit,View,Tools,Help) then use Organize - Layout - Menu Bar.

 

[Vertigo]

Sorry for the double post but this is an IMPORTANT note for fishii (the OP):

I suspect that many of the comments in this thread are actually invalid for you as I suspect it is not you who has created all those files with useless numeric names.

I've just noticed from your screen grab that you are using Scrivener already. And it is doing your organising. The thing with Scrivener is you should olny acess your documents from within Scrivener. It is Scrivener that names all your files with uninformative numbers like 1,2,3 etc. and you certainly shouldn't rename those files from Explorer or anything else.

If you want to get the documents out of Scrivener with sensible file names then I think you need to export them from Scrivener, when they will (I think) get renamed using the document title you will have provided in Scrivener.

What you do need to do probably is organise your Scrivener project folders (but not their contents). Those are the folders whose names end with .scriv. If you can't see the .scriv then go to Tools - Folder Options (XP or Win 7 with the menu bar turned on) or Organize - Folder and Search Options (Win 7). Go to the View tab and untick the option "Hide extensions for known file types". I always recommend people do this anyway to really see what kind of files everything is. The point is you should never add, modify or delete anything in a .scriv folder. Manipulation of this folder should only be done from within Scrivener otherwise Scrivener will end up failing to access your documents and you really will be in a mess.

Your comment about a lot of things ending up called Untitled has probably also comes from Scrivener. In Scrivener whenever you create anything (document, snapshot, resource etc.) always provide a sensible title. If you then export, that is what should be used for the exported file name.
I'm sorry I didn't notice you were using Scrivener before.

 

[subtletylost]

That is useful to know but I was trying to organize my documents so that I could import my wips into scrivener which I had just found before i posted this the maany odd files were all my fault and so I was trying to fix that. I have gotten some really neat ideas from this and can't wait to see more. to see what else people do.

 

[Vertigo]

OK cool. I just saw Scrivener in there and in your link on post 7 for the files that went on your memory stick, all those files just called 11, 11_synopsis, 11_notes etc are actually Scrivener generated internal files (they are actually 11.rtf, 11.links, 11_synopsis.txt, 11_notes.txt etc.) and I suspect all those untitled 1/2/3... files are almost certainly the same (i.e. Scrivener files again). Then I suspect the backup software you used to copy them to the memory stick has stripped the folder structure (not very kind of it) and just copied them all flat into the root of your memory stick, which means, not being in the Scrivener project folder any longer it's very difficult to identify which project each of those files belongs in..

 

[Sapheron]

Well, inspired by this thread I had a look into trying some basic organisation of my most recent work.

Some of it remains unfound. Two documents were located on the desktop, three, quite logically, in the 'Writing' folder, and somewhat less logically another seven or eight in 'My Pictures'. Now, after about ten minutes, I've put everything I wrote in the last two weeks in a single, easy to find folder and I consider my work complete.

I did take a quick glance at the 'Unnamed Folder 7' on the desktop. Even the thought of arranging that madness makes me feel ill...

 

[Vertigo]

That's the problem with this sort of thing. It easily becomes self-fulfilling. So the longer put off getting organised the more impossible it gets to be and then never happens...