Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 2: Sort alphabetically
• Method 2 of 2: Indexing Documents
• Tips
• Warnings

Organizing your printed documents - both for work and personal purposes - can be done without much hassle if you organize them alphabetically. This organization of documents will allow you and any other person to quickly find the information you need, as well as ensure the protection of documents. However, not everything is so simple, and there are several subtleties in sorting documents alphabetically, which we will now tell you about.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: Sort alphabetically

1. 1 Organize documents alphabetically based on their title. Use the so-called alphabetical index for this.
2. 2 Put the documents in one or another letter folder, based on which letter they begin with. Sorting documents that start with the same letter should be based on the second letter of the title. If the second letter is the same, then the third one. Or the fourth. Or fifth. There are no deviations from this algorithm, and there cannot be, but it will reward you a hundredfold - this sorting will erase all white spots in the documentation.
3. 3 Describe how you have sorted the documents. You want everyone who has access to the documents you have ordered to know how they are arranged.
4. 4 Place documents in a drawer or where they should be kept in order. When adding something new to documents, do not forget about the alphabet!

Method 2 of 2: Indexing Documents

1. 1 Use labels with letters of the alphabet. Indexing (in other words, signing) documents is the basis of the basics in organizing documents. It is at this stage that the documents will be transferred to the appropriate sections and sections of your catalog. Actually, the names of the sections are used to describe their contents, and then the name of the section becomes the name of the document as well. Arrange the sections alphabetically using the tips below.
2. 2 Proper names can be indexed in the following order: surname, then first name, then patronymic or middle name. Punctuation can be ignored.
   • If prefixes are used, concatenate the prefix with the part of the name that it precedes and put it first. No punctuation is needed.
   • Hyphens can be ignored, and parts of the name before and after the hyphen should be put first.
   • Abbreviations and one-letter words are indexed as they are. The initials are split into separate parts.
   • Positions and nominal suffixes are listed last, with the position indicated first, then the suffix.
3. 3 The documents related to organizations can be sorted by the name of these enterprises. In this case, each word of the name of the organization is considered a separate element. The accounting is in the same order in which the words are presented in the title.
   • Abbreviations and one-letter words are indexed as they are. In this case, the letters should be separated by spaces and considered as separate elements from each other.
   • Punctuation marks in this case are omitted, words before and after punctuation marks are indicated in the first element.
   • Numbers and numbers are written in letter format and indexed as they would if they were originally words. Punctuation marks are again omitted. Documents whose name begins with Roman numerals are located earlier than similar ones, whose name begins with Arabic numerals, while the numbers are indicated from smallest to largest. Only then can you place documents starting with words.
   • All characters are written in words, all numbers directly associated with a character should be specified in the first element.
4. 4 The names of government organizations are indexed with the country and region of jurisdiction of a particular organization in the first place. The name of the organization is indicated in the next element, and the words “management”, “bureau”, “representative” and similar are indicated at the very end.
5. 5 In the event that the names are the same, use the address for cataloging documents. Use the following order: name> region> city> street name> house number.

Tips

• Always put your documents back where you took them from.
• When indexing, it is important first of all to follow the standard rules, and only then - to the corporate ones.
• Develop a system to indicate when and by whom the document was received.

Warnings

• The more people have access to the document catalog, the more clutter there will be.