- PC SOFTWARE -

When you save something, where does it go?

It either goes to "My Documents", a database file buried in a business application, or another unique location (like an address book).

Personal files are the computer generated products that we spend a lot of time creating, stretch our talents and imagination doing them to the best of our ability, and are usually very proud of when they are completed.  They can be anything from a simple letter to a spreadsheet to an animated graphic.  Developing them is the main reason we own a PC (aside from cruising the Web and doing our E-Mail or Video Conferencing thing), they represent the fruits of our own labor, and we don't want to lose them!  

Your personal files cannot be replaced if your hard drive crashes.  It is important to file them in a location where you find them later (see Files Management) and back them up in case of a system failure.  The main thing I will talk about here is safeguarding (or "backing up") your personal files.  I spent a lot of time designing the fill-in-the-blanks form below in MS Word for a real estate client, and I would probably have had a cardiac if I had lost it - but I didn't - and I had it backed up just in case!