Do you have hundreds or thousands of documents and having problems finding them on your computer? I watched two videos earlier on Youtube about how to manage your files and folders. In reality, this ABC-method it is very simple: They recommend you to create subdirectories within, for example, My Documents.

Problem one

Each directory should be a letter of the ABC, A, B, C ... Z, and all other documents and subdirectories should be subordinated to them in alphabetical order. For example, the “Wedding Spots” folder should go to the W directory, the “Holidays” folder goes to the H directory, the “Finances” to F. This makes it much easier to find everything. (If you can remember the names of your folders, of course. If not, you can use searching methods.)
Indeed, this is much better than other methods I used before, it proved to be handy for me. But soon it turned out that it would be worthwhile to make some modifications to this system. One problem is that some computer programs want to use the My Documents library and install arbitrarily new folders in it. This interferes with the ABC system, is disturbing me.

Problem two

The other problem is that I use some directories very often, while others only once in a blue moon. For example, I always need a “blogging”, “working” and “new photos” folder, mostly several times a day. It would be uncomfortable to page down or scroll down each time for W to find my actual job-related documents.

The solution

The trick, at least under MS Windows, is very simple, the exclamation mark. First, instead of the folders named A, B, C, I use !A, !B, !C and so on. The exclamation point precedes all the letters in the Windows lists. For example, if Softmaker or Atlantis word processors create their own libraries with the same name in My Documents, they will be placed underneath the libraries named in accordance with the alphabet.

Folders in My Documents (shortened version)

You can use other folder than My Documents, but various programs are offering to save their documents by default in this one. In this case you may have to change the options of your programs.

With the help of the same trick, if we duplicate the exclamation mark, the directory that starts with two will be placed above all other libraries with one. So my file storage system looks like this:

• First the folders “!!blogging”, “!!new pictures” and “!!working”, the most used ones.
• Then the folders named by the ABC, !A, !B, !C ...!Z.
• At the end, all the other things that different silly programs placed there without my permission. (These folders can usually be changed, but sometimes it's quite complicated.)

Example of subfolders in the !W folder

One more tool

It may not sound like a huge thing, but if you work a lot with a computer, you will appreciate it. I tell you with many years of experience. Especially if the deadline is on your neck and every minute counts…

Of course, even so, sometimes you may not be able to find some files or folders, so you may need to use the search engine. Both the searches and the creation of subfolders, and all other file operations can be well-made with the Total Commander software. This, and its predecessor, Norton Commander, are among the best software since 1986. At least I haven’t found a more efficient file manager. If you know something even better and share the idea with me, I will be grateful for it.

(Original ABC Method idea by “Simplevity”, here and here.)

(Cover photo: Pixabay.com)