Setting Up A Filing System Part 4: Naming Computer Files
Naming computer files in most ways is the same as naming any other file, except for a few conventions you need to think about.
Using Special Characters
Generally, when naming computer files in Windows, you cannot use the following characters:
< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
” (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)
However, [...]
Setting Up a Filing System Part 3: Creating Your Files
In Part 1 of Setting Up a Filing System, I talked about the types of filing systems you can choose from. In Part 2, I talked about Active vs. Historical files. Now that you have some of the theory behind you, let’s talk about actually setting up your files.
Most of the time when we design [...]
Setting Up a Filing System Part 2: Active vs. Historical Files
One thing to consider when setting up your filing system is how you are going to treat active versus historical files.
Essentially, active files are ones you still need to have regular access to while historical files are those which you are unlikely need to access to, but which need to be kept for legal purposes.
Types [...]
Setting Up a Filing System Part I
No matter what level you work at in the administrative support field, whether you’re a receptionist or a C-Level Executive Assistant, you are going to end up doing filing. That’s just the way it is. When you work with documents, you have to know where to file those documents for later retrieval. Most of what [...]
How to Organize the Boss’s E-mail
Often as an administrative assistant (and very frequently as an executive assistant), you’ll have the job of monitoring and organizing your boss’s e-mail. This essentially entails reading through his new mail and either replying on his behalf, delegating the e-mail to one of her direct reports, or organizing e-mail that needs a response directly [...]
Have You Got Google Wave?
Google Wave is the newest application of the ever popular Google company. They’ve taken a variety of IM and networking tools and made a truly unique collaboration interface.
You can, of course, communicate with others in Wave as if you were in an IM, but you can do so much more than that. You can work [...]
Ask the Admin: Scheduling Tasks for Others
And we have another question about Microsoft Outlook, this time about scheduling e-mails. Json asked in his e-mail:
Hi I read your article about setting up recurring tasks and wonder if there is any way to do automatic email reminders to my staff. My staff members have tasks with different due dates. For [...]
Ask the Admin: Set up Recurring Tasks at 8 Month Intervals
I had a question stemming from my post on setting up recurring tasks in Microsoft Outlook. Pierre wants to know how to set up a task to recur at 8 month intervals.
This is actually quite easy. If you look at the Task Recurrence Window:
If you choose Monthly as the recurrence period, you’ll see that you [...]
10 Things To Do When You Have Nothing To Do
photo credit: sunshinecity
One piece of advice that I give to every up-and-coming administrative assistant is this: NEVER SIT IDLE! If you have nothing to do, then go out and find something to do. Occasionally, though, you do find yourself temporarily at loose ends, so here’s a list of 10 things to do when you [...]
Create a Desk Reference Manual
photo credit: Dan4th
What happens if a sudden emergency occurs and you have to be off work for a week or more? Could a temp walk into your office and be able to easily handle things while you’re gone? She can if you’ve created a Desk Reference Manual with procedures on how to handle your [...]
