How do you organise your 'My Documents' folder

ATTENTION: You are viewing a page formatted for mobile devices; to view the full web page, click HERE.

Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

<< < (9/11) > >>

iphigenie:
I had a tree structure like this but you end up spending more times shuffling files than working - and a lot of things could fit in more than one category so in the end you are never sure where to look for things.

So I went to a much flatter set up and better search.

Armando:
At one point I tried to fight the silly ms naming convention, but more recently, I decided to go with it for consistency (rather than fight it) and it has made my life easier. Accept the convention and things get less painful.
-Metacosm (August 30, 2007, 04:30 AM)
--- End quote ---

Same conclusions...

I had a tree structure like this but you end up spending more times shuffling files than working - and a lot of things could fit in more than one category so in the end you are never sure where to look for things.

So I went to a much flatter set up and better search.
-iphigenie (August 30, 2007, 07:31 AM)
--- End quote ---

Same conclusions too!
This is why I've decided to put all my energies in filenaming instead.

app103:
I could write volumes on file organizing, but here is the basics (and yes, it is just the basics, sorry it's so long):

It seems to me that the way that Microsoft thinks with the My Documents folder, they expect you to only have 1 hard drive and one huge partition on it and keep all your stuff in that single folder.

I don't use the default folder provided by Windows for anything I care about...and that would be everything that's mine. (I hate putting anything on the OS drive that isn't part of the OS)

And I don't install programs to the default folder on the system drive. And if I can move a default folder off the system drive without encountering any problems, I do it.

Almost every category of file has it's own partition and I have more than 1 hard drive, including an external drive for backups.

extended system & software
--bookmarks
----daughter's
----mine
--cursors
----type
--drivers (specific to this pc)
----device
------version
--email
--icons
----subject
--programs installed
----program name
--taskbar shortcuts (these are the folders of shortcuts that are the bars on my taskbar instead of the default quicklaunch)
----mine (I have 2 of these, unlike normal people)
------taskbar1
--------Drives
--------P1 & P3 drive folders
--------system tools
--------misc tools
--------office tools
--------web
--------p2p & chat
--------audio & video
--------programming & web design
--------art
--------misc personal stuff
------taskbar2
--------games
--------important bookmarks
--------misc programming references
--------C books I am currently reading
--------most used delphi reference books
--------desktop customization
--------misc file utilities
----daughter's (she only has 1)
------type (purpose) of application or file

media
--midi
--mp3
----artist
------year-album name
--------disk # (audio files go here)
--------art (cover scans go here)
--------lyrics (text files go here)
--phone calls (voicemail)
----sender's name
--sounds
----category
--swf
--video
----movie
----music
----shorts
--wav
--wma
--playlists
----daughter's
----mine

images
--clip art
----disk name
--collected images
----subject, type, or purpose (cats, wallpaper, siggy tags, etc)
--personal photos
----camera name
------date-subject (originals here)
--------edited (edited versions here)
--personal art
----mine
------application name (bryce, psp, axialis screensavers, etc)
--------project name
----my daughter's
------(she does her own thing in here and I do not interfere)
--received photos
----source (name of person that gave them to me)
------date-subject

projects
--programming
----ideas
----language (delphi, C, AHK, etc)
------code snips
------project name
--------version #
----------previous builds (contains zipped sources)
--screenshots (this is sort of a Snagit dump that I clean out periodically)
--web
----site name
------version #

Books
--fiction
----author
--magazines
--new (dumping ground for new unsorted books)
--nonfiction
----subject
------(I break this down much further)

Personal
--daughter
----(she does her own thing in here)
--me
----bills
------account name
--------year
----chatlogs
------application
--------year
----------month
----friends (this is a collection of misc stuff from or related to specific people)
------name of person
----poetry
----private musings (& things that may become blog posts)
----receipts
----surfulator knowledgebases
----etc (lots more folders to sort stuff only of interest to me)
--hubby (this is pretty much empty)

backups
--laptop
----(my daughter determines how this is arranged)
--P1 (entire contents of my other pc)
----drive letter
------(entire contents of that drive)
--P3 (a pc that is long dead & buried)
----drive letter
------(entire contents of that drive)
--P4 (this pc)
----system
----application settings
----registry
----etc (important files & folders)
----email
----bookmarks
--pocket pc
----cf card
----system backups

downloads (some folders get cleaned out and sorted to other locations)
--AIM
--Ares
--Email attachments
--FlashGet
--Fonts (I have over 12,000)
----A
----B
----C
--MSN
--program setup files
----9x only (things for my other pc that can't/shouldn't run on this one)
------application name
--------version
----------documentation
----clueless (setup files for applications I don't know what they are)
------application name
----installed (currently installed on this pc)
------application name
--------version installed
----------documentation
--------older versions
----------documentation
----linux (things meant to run on linux)
------application name
--------version
----------documentation
----not installed (tried, but not installed on this pc)
------application name
--------version
----------documentation
----obsolete (old DOS stuff & things that are so old they won't work)
------application name
----Pocket PC (things meant to run on WinCE)
------application name
--------version
----------documentation
----untried (downloaded but never installed on any pc)
------application name
--------version
----------documentation
--psp
----tubes
------categories
----frames
------categories
----brushes
------categories
----textures
------categories
--Safe 2 Share (items I copied here specifically for sharing over p2p)
--torrents
--WinMX
--xchat
--Yahoo

As you can see I am pretty much an organizing freak when it comes to my files. I think my PC is the only thing in my life that is well organized.

It's not that complicated for me, because it's done to the way I think and I have been doing things this way for years. I can find everything rather quickly, and in the cases of folders I access often, there are shortcuts to them on one of my taskbars, often times right next to the shortcut of the application associated with those files (ex: xchat downloads folder next to xchat application shortcut).

I can find my files in my sleep and do not usually need to use a search utility or even the search built into windows for most things.

superboyac:
^^^
OK, app103 gets the OCD trophy this year. Wow, I thought I was bad.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

Go to full version