On drive C: of my main PC-compatible workstation, I have 266 MB of data stored in 2335 files in 308 directories. On the internal drive of my Macintosh, there are 807 MB of data comprising 8425 items. If you just got started in computing, you probably have fewer files. But eventually, you will have more, and locating a specific file could become a challenge.
With 2.5 gigabytes of stored data on five drives in four computers, and a stack of backup tapes that contain files going back several years, I imagine that I have a total of four or five gigabytes of files. And I might need any one of these files between the time I write these words and the time you read them. In fact, a customer I haven't heard from in two years could call while you read this column, and I'll be scrambling for the old backup tapes in the hope of finding a project from 1992 that needs to be updated.
Do I have a snowball's chance of finding it? Would you? The short answer, for me, is "yes." But depending on how well organized I was at the time, it could be a major trauma or it could be five minutes to load the right tape and bring the file back to the hard drive. While some organizations actually keep logs of file names, I'm not nearly that organized. So I've learned some tricks that you may want to adopt to avoid file-tracking nightmares on your computer.
The first and most important trick is to keep data files separate from program files. This can be difficult to accomplish, especially in Windows, where every program you install sets itself up to store your data files right in with the files that drive the program! If you created a piece of art for Handy Dan's Plumbing in March of 1993, when you were using CorelDRAW! 3, and you've long since removed both CorelDRAW! 3 and 4 from your machine, where do you suppose Handy Dan is now? And what if you aren't really sure which program you used to create that job?
Because of these potential problems, I've adopted a firm rule. If a Microsoft (or Adobe or Corel) program creates a directory and installs files in it, I don't mess with it. I don't put files in that directory, and I don't take files out of it. When I upgrade to a newer version of the program, I dump the entire directory for the older version--preferably six months after I've replaced the program, just in case there are unforeseen problems in the transition between versions.
Another element of my scheme concerns the fact that too many files in one directory or folder slows any operating system down. It doesn't matter how fast your computer or hard-disk drives are, you will see better performance if you only have a hundred or fewer files in a directory. (For example, even on a fast PC, Windows File Manager takes a noticeable amount of time to give you a listing of the Windows System directory, which normally has several hundred files in it.) More importantly, it is difficult to find the file you are looking for in a long listing unless you know the exact file name.
To avoid these problems, when I install a new hard drive, I start by creating three directories (or folders) called Data, Applications, and Utilities. (On a DOS hard disk, they become Data, Apps, and Util.) When the installation routine for a program like CorelDRAW! suggests that it will install the program in C:\COREL50, I change the directory to C:\APPS\COREL50. Using this approach, I know that the Handy Dan job will be in F:\DATA\HANDYDAN because I keep all of my customer files on the network file server. With customers who I do a lot of work for, I divide the \DATA directory further, keeping one subdirectory for standing components like logos and additional directories for each project or category of work.
What goes in the Utilities directory? Well, the division between application programs and utility programs is somewhat arbitrary, but in general, I consider an application a tool that I actually create work in. A utility program is anything that supports the creation process or the operating system in general. For example, Norton Utilities will be found in C:\UTIL\NORTON on all three of my PCs.
Plenty of programs will be installed on your PC at the root-directory level, and with most of them, there is nothing you can do about it. The exact locations of individual components of the program are probably recorded in WIN.INI and several other places you won't readily find. Macintosh users don't have to worry about this, since any program that isn't installed in the System Folder can probably be dragged anywhere you find convenient. But having 26 subdirectories in \APPS and 40 or so in \DATA makes it much easier to find things than having a hundred or more subdirectories in the root directory.
Incidentally, Windows users need to take one small step to make this segmentation easy, and that is to change the "working directory" of each program. In the Windows Program Manager, select the program icon and choose Properties from the File menu or strike Alt+Enter on the keyboard to bring up the File Properties dialog box. For me, the proper working directory is F:\DATA for customer files. But regardless of the application, a working directory should almost always be something other than the default directory specified by the program's installation routine.
Another crucial element in maintaining a well-organized hard drive is to clean up after a job. During the course of creating a single project, it is easy to build up a dozen or more components and intermediate files, some of them large and useless. For example, scanning a customer logo for conversion to vector art involves creating a bitmap file that is of no use after the logo has been converted to a vector file. Delete the scanner file immediately after you're done with the conversion. You are far more likely to remember that this file is of no further use while the project is still fresh in your mind than six months later when you are desperate to find a couple of spare megabytes. Keeping your directories small makes it even easier to find these unwanted files.
File versions are another area to note. As each vendor updates its software, you need to understand which versions can open files from older versions of the same program. Illustration programs are pretty good about opening older files. But these programs really haven't been around long enough for us to know if they will always open older files. There are quirks. Early CorelDRAW! files, for example, used proprietary fonts that users of the current version won't have installed, and recent versions of FreeHand display fonts in a more precise manner than earlier versions. In both cases, the current program versions will open older files, but you may need to rework the text portions of the files. In another example, each version of PageMaker (PC or Mac) will only open files created in it or in the previous version. And Windows PageMaker will only open Macintosh files from the same version (and vice versa).
If you have a significant number of files created in one version of your program, you should carefully consider if you need to keep the older version installed, and for how long. I know expert CorelDRAW! users who still keep versions 2, 3, 4, and 5 installed because it takes less time to work with older files in the version in which they were created than to use the newer version and check for subtle changes or problems.
Using a meaningful set of names for your files is also crucial. Alas, with only 32 characters available for a Macintosh file name and only 8 for a DOS file, this isn't easy. If the files get loose from their assigned directories, it gets difficult to identify them. But I have a lot of files named LOGO.FH4, LOGO.CD5, or LOGO.EPS, and within a given customer's directory, the content of those files is perfectly clear. Where the same logo is used in different color arrangements, the names might become LOGOCOL, LOGOGREY, and LOGOMONO for the color, grayscale, and black-and-white versions respectively. Where a T-shirt design for the 1995 Choochokam Street Fair will be reproduced on both light and dark garments, the file names will probably be 95FESTLT.FH4 and 95FESTDK.FH4.
If your business involves preprinted items, you have it easy. You can just use your catalog numbers as file names. For the electronic firms here in the Northwest, I use the client's part numbers. I've never seen an art department with a full-time librarian or document clerk, but I've certainly seen art departments on days when they wished they did have one. Be your own librarian by developing a naming system that makes sense to you.
The basic plan for organizing files, however, is to use the computer's ability to divide and subdivide directories to make the purpose of any given file clear. I routinely work five or six levels deep on my Windows machines and probably a little deeper on the Mac.
I guess it really comes down to this: We are so much more productive with a computer that we probably have more files to keep track of than ever before. It will be nice when the computer itself can track our jobs (and some work has been done on this already, though I haven't found anything that answers all of my needs), but common sense in file naming and logical division of directories will go a long way in making files easier to find. Please let me know if you have found any other things that help you with file organization--I'm sure we'll need to come back to this subject next year!