Organizing your files on the file server is a crucial part of efficiently managing your work. Knowing exactly where to find each document will save you much time and frustration. Especially as multiple people access the file server, it is important that we cultivate a culture of attention to details and respect for each other. One person who doesn't respect the principles laid out here can wreak havoc and frustrate everybody else.

• Please avoid using characters with accents or special characters in folder or file names.

Start with one master folder that will contain only the products you are developing or printing. Everything else should be organized in other folders outside this one. For example, note these top-level folders:

• IDTM01_Products
• IDTM02_Resources

The IDTM01_Products folder is where you store everything you will eventually directly print. The IDTM02_Resources folder is where you neatly organize everything else useful such as print drivers, repair manuals, images, fonts, etc.

Let's take a closer look in the IDTM01_Products folder now. Think of the big categories you will need, and create a folder for each category. Let's say that most of what we print is books and tracts. Create a folder for each of those categories. Perhaps we also print a variety of documents for various schools around the country. Create one folder called Education. Within the Education folder, you can create a folder for each school so that as the years go by, you can easily find what you previously printed and modify it for printing the next year. If you print Sabbath School quarterlies, create one folder for that. Let's see a practical example now:

• IDTM01_Products
  • A_Books
  • B_Tracts
  • C_Education
  • D_SabbathSchool

Be careful not to create too many of these category-level folders. The goal is to have a few broad-scale folders to help us to more quickly locate the category.

Within each category-level folder, you will store your product-level folders. Each product will have its own folder and unique 11-character identification code.

Let's start by looking at a sample product-level folder, complete with its code:

A-0001-ENGL_Sabbath

This is a booklet about the Sabbath. Now, analyze the code character by character:

• Character 1: “A” tells us this belongs to the “Book” Category-level folder.
• Character 2: “-” is a spacer for readability.
• Characters 3–6: “0001” — These four digits signify a unique number for this book. No other book has this number.
• Character 7: “-” is a spacer for readability.
• Characters 8–11: “ENGL” is a four-letter language identifier.

A properly formed 11-character code will correctly identify any product. Now, if we translate this book into multiple languages, we will keep the same identification number, but change the language. The number stays the same because it is the same source book, just translated into a different language. For example, here is the same book in English and French:

A-0001-ENGL_Sabbath

A-0001-FREN_Sabbath

Each product level should have three sub-folders. It will look something like this:

• A-0001-FREN_Sabbath
  • archives
  • current
  • pret-a-imprimer

The “archives” folder is where we can put anything that we used in the development of this product, but that we don't really need anymore. Perhaps eventually, this folder can be cleaned out if we are sure the development is complete. For example, one could store the initial .odt file from the one who translated the book from English into French. It is essentially a manuscript that we don't need once the final editing and layout and design has been finished.

The “current” folder is where we store only the most up-to-date source files for the product. If you duplicate a file as a backup and update one copy, be sure to place the older copy into the “archives” folder. It is a good practice to append the current date to the filename. Any extra files or images not currently needed to produce the document should be moved to “archives.”

The “ready-to-print” folder normally contains only one or two print-ready pdf files.

• One file
  • for tracts
• Two files
  • for books (one for the cover and one for the pages)

Be sure to give your document a readable, logical name. Not applying the following recommendations can cause frustration and a waste of time. Here are a few qualities that make a good filename:

• It should be relatively short. The title of the product usually serves the purpose.
• It should be descriptive. Name the file so that somebody else looking for the first time can easily identify the product that needs to be printed.
• It should just contain characters. Preferably, avoid using spaces; use “-” or “_” instead.
• It is polite to append the paper size after “_” on pdfs nearing completion.

Here is an example:

• A-0001-FREN_Sabbath
  • archives
  • current
    • A-0001-FREN_Sabbat_A5.odt
    • A-0001-FREN_Sabbat_A5.pdf
    • A-0001-FREN_Sabbat_couverture_A4.svg
  • pret-a-imprimer
    • A-0001-FREN_Sabbat_A4.pdf
    • A-0001-FREN_Sabbat_A3.pdf
    • A-0001-FREN_Sabbat_couverture_A4.pdf

The A5 pdf in the “current” folder is the original exported document from LibreOffice, but imposition has not been done yet. Either of the A4 or A3 pdfs in the “ready-to-print” folder are ready to send to the printer.

If there are not a lot of images, you can keep them in the “current” directory. If the document uses numerous images, best practice is to create an “images” directory within the “current” directory.