Finders Keepers Ever lose a computer file? You'll appreciate these tips for keeping things in order.

How many times have you spent hours writing a proposal--or beenup all night putting together a sales presentation--only todiscover the next day that the file is nowhere to be found? Youaccidentally saved it to the wrong subdirectory on your hard disk .. . and now you have no idea where it is.

What about when you're working with documents on a network,and you need to quickly locate a crucial document to complete asale? Or you have a mass of documents on your hard drive, and youneed to find all the ones that contain information on a particularcompany?

In each case, you'll save considerable time by developing astrategy for finding your files before you actually need them. Youmay already have all the tools you need right in your operatingsystem or in your application software. Or, if you often need toquickly search information by key words from a wide range ofdocuments, you might want to consider more specializedsoftware.

Help From Windows

Windows 95 users have access to substantial file-findingfeatures right within the operating system. Unlike the olderversion of Windows, which allowed for file names of up to eightcharacters only, Windows 95 lets you save your files with long,descriptive names of as many as 255 characters.

A dedicated file finder utility on Windows 95 allows you tosearch for files and folders anywhere on a network by file name,date, specified text, file size, location or other search criteria.Windows 95 also lets you save the results of a complex search as anicon you can use over and over.

Many people who use Windows 3.1 have installed Symantec'sNorton Desktop and PC Tools to replace Windows' Program Managerand File Manager. These products offer substantial tools forlocating and retrieving files. Both have enhanced file managers soyou can search for documents by name, type and time of creation.You can also search within documents for a particular word orphrase and view the contents of the file without even openingit.

Using Your Word Processor

If you create documents with a word processor, start by usingthe tools your word processor provides to help you find files. BothMicrosoft Word and WordPerfect for Windows, for example, come withbuilt-in capabilities to help you easily find saved files.

Word helps you find files by name, subject and key words byproviding a Summary Info dialog box. You can specify a title,subject and key word fields for each file as you save it. Later,you can use any of these criteria to find a file stored in anysubdirectory on your hard drive through the Find File command onthe File menu. When the list of matching files pops up, you cansort them and display their contents.

WordPerfect for Windows provides a Document Summary dialog boxfor each file it creates. To find the files, use the Advanced Findcommand under the WordPerfect File Manager.

WordPerfect differs from Word in that you can conduct "fulltext" searches that allow you to match any word in yourdocuments rather than looking only for previously specified keywords. And to speed things up, WordPerfect offers a separateQuickFinder File Indexer to index documents. Like a book index,this feature allows the software to go directly to a particularword in a document rather than having to search through the entiredocument each time it looks for a particular word. Just select FindFiles, enter the desired word or phrase, and then click on theappropriate index to find the document.

Utilities And Databases

If your word processor doesn't come with built-in featuresfor finding files, consider an add-on utility like Worldox fromWorld Software Corp.

Worldox works by intercepting the File/Save and File/Opencommands of popular Windows applications and replacing them withdialog boxes that control the document storage and retrievalprocess. It allows you to use file name descriptions of up to 70characters rather than the standard eight-character DOS names. Youcan save documents with a document profile that stores standardinformation such as the creator and the date, or you can make acustom profile that includes information such as the departmentname or a description of the docu-ment's contents.

Worldox also offers document viewers that let you browse througha document's contents, and it indexes documents so you caneasily locate files based on their contents.

Another category of products is text databases--such as AskSamfrom AskSam Systems--that let you import files as ASCII text andfind them again using a powerful database that allows you to searchfor any phrase you might remember. AskSam can handle entiredocuments and can search any text so you don't have to rely onkey words or fields. But if you'd prefer to include key words,AskSam lets you define an entry screen with fields and field names.You can then append the document's entire text to thedata-entry screen.

Overall, AskSam is great because it lets you perform verypowerful text searches. However, its database origins make it moredifficult to use than some of the other utilities mentionedhere.

With any of these packages, the next time you lose a file,you'll no longer have to go fumbling through your hard disk.Just perform a simple search and go on with your work.

Contact Source

AskSam Systems, (800) 800-1997, http:\www.asksam.com;

Microsoft Corp., (800) 426-9400;

Novell, (800) 747-5958;

Symantec, (800) 441-7234;

World Software Corp., (800) 962-6360.