Open Word and save a file. If you let your computer make all the decisions you will end up with a file named Document1 in the My Documents folder. Excel isn’t much better at deciding things for you. It will name your spreadsheet – Sheet1. Apparently a name like this is good enough for some people as 1.4 million spreadsheets in the Google database have this name.
Give your files names that mean something. If you are creating a resume for a Google job, name it “Resume for Google job.doc”.
Downloading files is another story. Depending on your browser and how you have things setup, it may automatically save downloaded files to an obscure location like
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp\{00CF420F-4511-461E-BD60-D835BD4D2698}
where you will never find it.
Never click “Save” until you are certain the location is OK for your file.
I have talked before about organizing documents in folders. I have a similar strategy for downloading files. I have a folder called “download” on my hard drive. Everything goes in there. Some downloads get a sub-folder. I have a folder called WordPress which holds all the updates for my blog software as well as any new themes and plugins.
Computers are poor at anticipating how we want to manage our information. Don’t let the computer make the important decisions. Be intentional when you save files. This will increase your probability of finding the files later.
TSPY=4.84