Imagine taking every piece of paper that comes to you and just throwing it in one drawer of your filing cabinet. No folders for individual "topics" you file, just a big pile of papers. The result? Every time you wanted to refer to a particular document, you'd have to search through the whole pile of papers to find it.

Ridiculous? Sure, but that's the way many sales associates organize their hard drive. Many of them, for example, save everything in the "My Documents" folder just because that's the folder that comes up for most of us whenever we decide to save a document from our screen.

There's a better way: organize your hard drive using folders.

Your hard drive is like a filing cabinet. Think of your C drive as "Drawer C." You can put as many folders as you'd like to in Drawer C so that finding things can be made much simpler. You might want to have a folder labeled "Transactions" where you can save anything related to your current transactions, one labeled "Photos" for all your photos, one labeled "PhotoShare" for all your PhotoShare multimedia presentations, etc. But don't stop there.

Why not create a folder labeled "Side Saddle Road" under your photo folder for all photos of your Side Saddle Road listing, or one labeled "Smith To Jones" under your transaction folder?

To create a new folder on your C drive, bring up Windows Explorer (click on "Start" on your task bar, then Programs, then find Windows Explorer at the bottom of the list that pops up and click on it) and click on the C: icon. It should turn blue. If so, click on File on the menu bar at the top of the window, then click on New. Click on Folder, then type in the name of the folder you want on your C drive, then hit your enter key. You now have a new folder on your C drive. If you want a sub-folder under your Photos folder after you've created it, click on the Photos folder icon, and when it turns blue repeat the above process to create and name a sub-folder.

Use this process to add the folders and sub-folders you need and simplify your search for things you save to your hard drive.

Published: March 9, 1999

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Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Allen F. Hainge only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.