Organising files
Computer Jargon

Organising Files

It is worth putting some thought into how to organise files and folders, particularly when working with others and on longer term projects. You should consider:

how you best work: the system you choose should be one you can work with easily
and how others (your team members and colleagues) might need to be able to find items.

You need to also think about:

A folder structure - get this right and finding a file you were working with two months ago is less needle-in-hay-stack.
File names - get this right and you will not be so confused about which was the final version and which a copy of someone else's first draft. Your file names will depend on the folder structure, so start with the folders first....

Folders:

At the very least, think about the files which are for yourself only and which you will be sharing with others. Your personal files are ones that you do not really want to accidentally share. But project files, for example, you will be happy to share with team members. Make sure you have the these two types of files, i.e. personal and project, kept separate.

You may also want to separate files by type of file: e.g. Pictures and images, Downloads, etc. These folders will be ones holding files that you might need to use in lots of different projects etc.

The most obvious ways to arrange files and folders (refer to Microsoft, 11 ideas for how to organize digital files) for projects are:

By client/project name or NMITE challenge name:

By date, or by NMITE year and module name:

See the resources below for more ideas!

File names:

As project team, agree a simple file-naming convention and try to stick to it. The simpler and most obvious it is, the easier it will be for everyone to follow the convention. Some basic guidelines follow:

Make filenames easy to read by anyone
But keep them short by using abbreviations your team will recognise
Consider adding author names, dates, version numbers...

Finally remember that documents and spreadsheet and programming code files can be managed by the software you have used to create them. In particular, consider using any version control and revision features so that you can keep track of different versions and who has done what. For info on those features, refer to additional ASK resources and/or the packages themselves.

Resources

A nice intro: Find Files Faster: How to Organize Files and Folders (zapier.com)

10 Best Practices for Naming Files & Folders for You and Your Team | by Mike Lord | The Why Builder | Medium

11 Ideas for How to Organize Digital Files | Microsoft - slightly more in-depth and relevant for employees and companies rather than students. Some of the basic ideas have been summarised in the introductory text in this section.

More...

There is a lot of theory to storing files for a company or corporation:

6 Best Practices for Archiving and Storing Files in 2022 | The Blueprint (fool.com)

Computer Jargon

Below you will find lots of links to general computer terms...

Resources

Basic Computer Jargon | Wikipedia.org

World’s First Computer Bug | National Geographic Society

Computer Jargon Explained | BBC Bitesize