1. DATA MANAGEMENT:
WHERE’D MY FILES GO?
Presented by Miles - January 2013
2. Agenda
What do I mean Data Mgmt?
4 Points
1. Develop consistent naming system
2. Use Logic Tests to decide location
3. Search tips + folder views
4. Synchronizing and archiving
Discussion
6. Naming Strategy: Folders
Create Consistent Buckets on all machines
Windows Libraries are a great start
7. Naming Strategy: Folders
Departments
Date Related (eases archiving)
Tags
Unique
Use hyphens, no spaces or underscores
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385612,00.asp
8. Naming Strategy: Files
Use YYYY-MM-DD for dates
Include versions in file name
keywords
Unique
Indicative of what the file contains
Scannable (with the human eye)
Naturally ordered alphabetically
Consistent!
Finding files will often come down to search
9. Naming Strategy: conventions to avoid!
File type in folder (“PDFs” “DOCs”)
Generic Words (“data” “files” “follow up”)
Misspellings (will hurt search results later)
Referring to containing folder (“abstracting-
department-checklist-2013-02-03.xls”)
15. Where – Lots of options
Local Drives (C:, partitions, Internal data drives)
Removable Drives
USB Sticks
CD/DVD/Blu-ray
External drives
Network Shared (H:, J:, I:)
Network (personal U: drive)
Web Cloud Storage
16. Logic Tests
1. Is this a final version or a draft?
2. Will this file need to be shared?
3. Is this a template from which other data files
will be made?
4. Is this associated with a department?
5. Will you need to work on this from multiple
locations and computers?
6. Does this file need to remain confidential?
17. Logic Tests: Will this file need to be shared?
If Yes:
consider a shared network drive or in cloud
storage
If No:
Local drive or removable storage
18. Logic Tests: Is this a final version or draft?
If Final:
consider converting to PDF and store on a
shared network drive or in cloud storage
If Draft:
Local drive or removable storage
19. Logic Tests: Is this a template
If Template:
Consider the Intranet, a shared network drive
or in cloud storage
If Draft:
Local drive or removable storage
21. Search Tips
If you’ve stuck to your folder + file naming
conventions, you should only need to know the
general area
Use the Window Explorer Search Box
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-tips-for-searching-in-Windows
22. Windows Views
Details view vs. Thumbnails view
Sortable columns
To set current Windows View for all folders:
InWindows Explorer (Alt +T for Tools) -> Folder
Options…
View Tab ->”Apply to Folders”
Computer use is split betweenApplications vs ContentSystem vs DataI’m talking about the latterTo me, this is the important stuffApplications can be reinstalled. Data needs to be re-created
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