1. Use abbreviations. Keep file names short by using common abbreviations, such as “MTG” for meeting or “ACTG” for accounting. This makes the file names more descriptive, and you can more easily find files through the Search function, if necessary.

2. Use thumbnails or icons. Change the view to display the files as icons in Windows 7 or Windows Vista or search through folders in the Thumbnail view in Windows XP. To view icons in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, click the Change your view button (Windows 7) or the Views button (Windows Vista) in the toolbar, and then select the icons size you want to use. To view icons as thumbnails or icons in Windows XP, click the Views button in the toolbar, and then click Thumbnail or Icons. Change your view list in Windows 7.

You can change the default appearance of your folders so that they always appear in the view you want them to.

3. Use common names. To make it easier to search for documents, name your files and folders with easily found names, such as model numbers, project names, or the project lead in the title.

4. Don’t save unnecessary files. Be selective about the files you keep. You probably don’t need to keep them all. With email, for example, you don’t need to keep everything you receive.

5. Use Recent Items. To find a file you just worked on, use Recent Items (called My Recent Documents in Windows XP) in the Start menu.

In previous versions of the Windows operating system, Recent Items showed a list of your recently used files on the right side of the Start menu. You could open a file from this list by clicking it. In Windows 7, Recent Items no longer appears on the Start menu by default, but you can add it. To add Recent Items to the Start menu:

• Right-click the taskbar, and then click Properties to open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box.
• Click the Start Menu tab. Under Privacy, select the Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar check box.
• Click Customize. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, scroll through the list of options to find the Recent Items check box, select it, click OK, and then click OK again.

6. Put Documents on the desktop. Put a shortcut to Documents on the desktop: Right-click the Documents folder, and then click Create Shortcut. You can save several clicks of the mouse and get where you want to be sooner.

7. Organize files by dates. Use a date in the document name. For example, jeb051810 could mean Jeb’s file from May 18, 2010. If you want to be able to sort primarily by date, you could use the yyyymmdd format, for example, and name the file 20100518jeb.

8. Color-code your folders. Use a third-party program which allows you to “color” certain folders in Documents. This helps you find your documents even more quickly and is especially useful with folders that you use every day.