The traditional approach to computer files essentially recreates the physical structure of our files. While digital documents, in any structure, have a number of advantages over their tangible counterparts, maintaining traditional computer file structures of nested folders requires care.
Finding Files is Always the Problem
We have to create folders, arrange all documents within, and be certain that each document in the proper folder to avoid document loss. Locating a misplaced document on a computer is perhaps more troublesome than searching through tangible papers. Without some computer expertise we are powerless to recover the document without excessive frustration or the intervention of some expert third party. As computer files increase, it seems inevitable that we will encounter the misplaced document problem. Under those conditions, it seems reasonable to avoid converting paper to digital as a matter of course.
Integrated Desktop Indexed Search
The game has changed dramatically with desktop-based indexed search. Mac OS X and Microsoft Vista have indexed search integrated search features that index both file names and contents of the computer in the background and automatically. These search boxes are ubiquitous throughout the operating systems and reduce search time to almost nothing. This is a seismic shift in desktop computing and file management in the law office.
Setting the Desktop Like Google Unlocked the Internet
Imagine the Internet without Google or any other search engine and instead the Internet was like giant encyclopedia. Or Westlaw with only Key numbers and no ability to search. We can’t imagine either system without search; in fact search is critical feature that allows each system to exist in the depth and breath that they do. Just like the Internet and Westlaw, index search now enables our personal digital world grow to massive proportions. In fact, the more information we include in our digital world the more effective it becomes for us. Before index search a computer file with ten thousand documents was unmanageable and required tedious labeling and structure. With the native search features it is possible to have a perfectly organized computer without specifically naming or saving any document in any particular place.
That's right, save any file with any name and anywhere on your computer and find it seconds, simply by typing any word that appears in the document, title, or meta-data, or based on the date of creation, or file type, author, etc.