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People think I'm organized. That's not really true, but a lot of project management work has helped me learn some tricks so I can find the documents I need, quickly. In this article, I'll not only explain one of my organization tricks, but I'll give you a timesaving, free utility to help you get started organizing your own computer files.
Once when I was hired as a project consultant, I walked into a company right in the middle of a huge project. The objective was to establish 200 computerized training centers around the United States. The company realized they were tangled up in documentation and hired me to help them accomplish their goal. I was given a mass of documents, of various types, for each of the sites. I needed to quickly get a handle on what was what so I could get busy taking charge.
Clean Up the Mess
The first thing I did was incorporate one of my favorite organizational tricks. I created a main, shared network drive that would be accessible to all the team members. I then created subdirectories for each file type, such as folders for budgets, status, and equipment reports. Next, I began moving the many files from all over their network into the new directories. After that was done, it was time to figure out what all these documents meant and what was missing.
Rather than trying to make sense out of all the file names each different person used, I first set about getting the files into a format that would give me a better feel for what I was dealing with. I opened a Word document and created a Word table by clicking Table|InsertTable. I created titles for a number of columns. In this case I set up columns for Site Name, Status, Keywords (such as cost, equipment, or contact) and a column for a text description of what was contained in the document. The last column was a link to the actual file itself.
After setting up the headings, I applied some quick formatting. I selected my first row and chose Table|Header so my table knew not to attempt to sort the words in this row, but to keep this row separately at the top.
Link Files
Now I could open a file, peruse it and link it to this main document. Adding appropriate descriptions and keywords, I could then easily sort by any column to quickly pull all the necessary documents together. To link the files, I used hyperlinks. Hitting Ctrl+K in Word opens the hyperlink dialog box. Browse to the file you want to link and select it. This link gives fast, one click access to view, modify or print any document.
Once I had located all the documents and linked them to my master project document, I could sort them and see what was missing, such as equipment reports for some sites or status reports for others. I could then set about adding the missing information. For those sites that didn't have any information available yet, I created a blank document and linked it as a ToDo file.
Now I was ready to charge ahead by quickly locating contact details, making calls to introduce myself and get the status reports I needed. A quick click on the appropriate file link would bring up the file for me to add updated information. A shortcut to the master file was placed on my desktop for quick access, as well as the computer desktops of all team members. I was only half-way through day one and already I had a very good idea of what had already been done and what work was still needed.
One-click Sorting
Since I was ahead of schedule, I decided to add another little feature to my master document that would save me time whenever I needed to sort the files. Word has a cool feature that lets you create a hyperlink to run a macro. A macro is a recorded set of keystrokes that can save you time since macros can run commands in a nanosecond versus the time it takes you to click around dialog boxes. First I needed to create sort macros for each column. To do this, I just clicked Tool|Macro|RecordMacro (or you could click the REC button at the bottom of the Word screen). After I gave the macro a name, Word began recording. So, I clicked Table|Sort and selected a sort by Site Name and executed the sort. Then I clicked the square button on the macro record to stop recording. Now I just had to add this site sort macro to the column.
I clicked in the Site Name column heading and deleted the text I'd placed there previously. Then I clicked Insert|Field and scrolled to select MacroButton. In the input dialog box for this field, I entered the name of the sort macro that I just created to sort this field and reentered the column name into the field syntax so these words display to activate the macro. I clicked OK to insert the field into the heading.
Standard macro button fields activate with a double click. But I also know of an undocumented trick that changes the field click settings so they'll run with a single click. I open the Visual Basic Editor by hitting Ctrl+F11 and typed the following AutoOpen code:
Unfortunately, this setting is only available through VBA code; there is no dialog box that includes this option. Now, after I close the VB Editor and save this main document, I can open it again and this code will run to set up my macro button fields so they run with just one click!
Finally, as a former graphic designer, I feel the need to add a little style to the look of my heading cells to make them look a little more like buttons. So I highlight the row, click Format|BordersAndShading and add a little pizzazz to the border style by choosing a thicker border. I then record the remaining sort macros and insert each of them into the appropriate column with the appropriate column heading display text. With all these documents now organized and quickly accessible, I'm ready to charge ahead.
I know there are many project management software programs out there, and I do use Microsoft Project when I have the time or the need. But, depending on the project, sometimes those programs are just more than you need. I needed to get busy fast and this linking technique did the job and did it well.
Organize Other Files
You may have a lot of files on your computer, such as graphics, music files, family photos, letters or school reports that you have to access often, but find yourself constantly searching around for them. If that's the case, I'd suggest you create yourself some master link documents and get those files within easy reach by linking them in one category doc. Create one for all your music files, another for family photos, maybe one to link you to all these great computer help articles!
To get you started organizing, you can go to http://www.mousetrax.com/downloads.html and get yourself a copy of the award-winning MouseTrax File Cataloger (by Greg Chapman).
It works with Word 2000 and XP, and best of all, it's freeware! For those of you who are interested in VBA, Greg has left the code open so you can look at it and see what he did. Just select the Word template from the New Document dialog box whenever you want to organize a bunch of new files. You select a directory and it creates a Word table for you, hyperlinks all the files it finds into the table, sets your macro clicks to 1 (if you want), and even adds the column sort macros for you. All you'll need to do is add descriptions and keep the document updated by linking new files as you need them. Enjoy!
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