DOCUMENT AND FOLDER MANAGEMENT

Documents should never be saved without a unique name or a unique location. Because people are often in a hurry, they simply use the default that the computer provides to name their documents.

Many people have documents that are listed as Doc1, Doc2, Doc3, etc. Often, students accidentally overwrite their original documents because they get Doc1 as an option each time they sign on, and, since it’s the first time they are saving that day, they don’t realize that they are overwriting past work.

Other problematic document names are, for example

Since most computers continue to operate using Microsoft Office 2003, it will be

or

I have you scheduled for:

This happens when you save quickly and the entire first line of a document becomes the document name.

A significant number of students and staff have rows and rows of documents and no folders. This makes it very difficult and time consuming to find anything, and to remember what you’ve named your documents.

Below are some instructions on document and folder creation and management which may help you better organize your computer files.

I. How to Rename an Already-Saved Document

  1. Click on Open

  1. Click on My Documents

  1. Locate the document you wish to rename and RIGHT Click on that document’s name. You will see a menu.

  1. Scroll down to Rename and LEFT click. A box will appear around the document name.

  1. Type the new document name and delete any unnecessary letters.

  1. Left click outside the box.
  2. Your document has been renamed.

If you have several documents with similar names, or you wish to create several versions of the same document, use the same name and add a number, in sequence, to the next documents (e.g. Homework Center Rules 1; Homework Center Rules 2, Homework Center Rules 3).

II. How to Create a Folder

  1. Click on Open

  1. Click on My Documents
  1. To the right of the top drop-down box there are five icons; the next to last is a yellow folder.Click on the yellow folder. A “New Folder” dialogue box will appear with a place for you to give the folder a name.
  1. Type the name you wish to title the folder and click OK.
  1. You will see the new folder listed in the top drop-down box and an empty space beneath. You can now place all the documents related to this subject in this folder.
  1. If you want to go back up a level and see where this folder is now listed, look to the right of the drop-down box and click on the yellow folder with the green arrow on it. Click on that icon.

III. How to Copy/Move Your Documents into the Appropriate Folder(s)

  1. Click on Open
  1. Click on My Documents
  1. You have two ways to move a document to a folder:

Method 1 –

  1. Right click on the Document you wish to move to a folder. You will see a menu.
  1. Left click on Cut or Copy.
  1. Double click on the folder into which you want to put your document. That folder will now appear in the top dialogue box.
  1. Right click in the document list field.Left Click Paste. Your document is now located in the folder you chose.(If you have copied the document, a duplicate will remain in My Documents. Take this opportunity to go back and delete it from My Documents. If you have done a Cut and Paste, your document will have been moved out of My Documents into the folder you chose).

Method 2 –

  1. Highlight a document in your list by Clicking it ONCE. Then “Drag” it to the folder in which you want to place it and “Drop” it in that folder. (This method is best when using main folders rather than sub-folders).
  1. You can “Drag and Drop” several documents into a single folder by clicking on the first document and then holding down the CONTROL key while you click on several other documents. When you have selected a few documents (they will all be highlighted in blue) you can Drag them to the same folder.