Organizing Documents on Your Laptop

This document describes how to save documents that you create on your Macintosh so that they are easy to find at a later time. For example, you'll find suggestions for naming documents and creating folders that organize your work in useful ways. Please note! This document does not discuss organizing email.

Tip #1: Use descriptive document names
Tip #2: Create folders for different projects or topics
Tip #3: Delete what you don't need
Tip #4: Use Spotlight to locate documents or folders

Tip #1: Use descriptive document names

Document names in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint can be a maximum of 27 characters in length (not including the period and 3-letter extension—such as .doc—required at the end of document names).

It is wise to use only letters, numbers, underscores (_), hyphens (-), spaces, and periods within document names. Avoid using other characters, since they may cause difficulty if you send your documents via email or otherwise transfer your documents to other computers.

Make sure your document names are descriptive. Here are some good document names:
diversity cttee.2006-05-23.doc
geometry-2D quiz3.doc
conference letters Nov 2006.doc

Tip #2: Create folders for different projects or topics

You can create folders to group documents by project or topic. For example, you might create folders like these:
Grade Reports
Geometry
Algebra
Technology Committee

You can make folders-within-folders. So you could elaborate your folder structure as follows:
Grade Reports
2005-2006
2006-2007|
Geometry
Quizzes
Tests
Algebra
Quizzes
Tests
Lessons
Technology Committee

There are 2 ways to create a folder. You can create the folder directly on your Macintosh desktop, or your can create the folder at the moment you are saving a document within Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or other application.

Create a new folder on your Macintosh desktop

You can create a new folder on your Macintosh desktop.

1. Click the Finder icon on your Dock:
   
2. When a Finder (desktop) window opens, navigate to the location where you wish to create the folder. For example, click Documents in the left-hand sidebar to navigate to your Documents folder.
3. Pull down the File menu and highlight New Folder. A new, untitled folder will appear inside your Documents folder.
4. Immediately, type a name for the folder, and then press return to save the name.

• Tip. If you press a key or click the mouse before typing the folder name, you will need to re-select the folder in order to replace the name "untitled folder" with a name that's more appropriate. To re-select the folder, click once on "untitled folder" and press return. Then type a new name and press return again to save the new name.
• Tip. After you have created the folder, you can create new documents and save them into your new folder when you save them for the first time. Or you can drag existing documents, currently in other folders, into the folder you just created. To drag an existing document into your new folder:
  • Double-click Macintosh HD to open a Finder window, and navigate to the location where your document currently resides
  • Then double-click Macintosh HD again to open a second Finder window, and navigate to your new folder
  • Finally, drag the desired document into the new folder.
    
    

Create a new folder when saving a document

You can also create a new folder when you are saving a document. For example, suppose you are working in Microsoft Word. When you are ready to save your document...

1. Pull down the File menu and highlight Save.
2. Type a name for the document.
3. Locate the arrow to the right of the name. If it is pointing downwards, click it so that in points up to display the complete set of folders on your hard disk.
4. Navigate to the location where you wish to create the new folder. For example, click Documents in the left-hand sidebar to navigate to your Documents folder.
5. Click the New Folder button. Type a name for the folder and click Create to create the new folder
6. Finally, c lick Save to save your document into the new folder.

Rename a folder

To rename a folder, go to your Macintosh desktop (e.g., click the Finder icon on the Dock). You must work on your Macintosh desktop to rename a folder (you cannot rename the folder from within Microsoft Word or other application).

To rename a folder, click its name once and press return. Type a new name and press return again to save the name.

Tip #3: Delete what you don't need

Periodically you should look through your documents and remove those you don't need. (If in doubt about their future worth, you can save old documents onto a CD and then delete them from your laptop. Ask the Tech Department for information about burning CDs.)

To delete a single document, drag it to the Trash. Or click it once and press delete.

To delete more than one document, click the first document. Then press and click each additional document in turn. Finally, drag the documents to the Trash (or press delete).

Tip #4: Use Spotlight to locate documents or folders

You can use a feature of Macintosh called Spotlight to locate documents based on their names, dates of creation/modification, or any word they contain.

To use Spotlight, press spacebar. Or, click the blue Q at the upper right:

Type a word that is contained in the title or contents and press return.

Spotlight returns a list of matching documents: