Sorting Your Work by Date

If you are working on a group project or a paper that is constructed in stages, it is so important to ensure that you always work with the most updated version of your task. It would be so tragic to turn in an unedited version of a paper—when the perfectly proofed and updated version is right there in your computer!

It’s especially important to get into the habit of opening the most recent work in your files if you have saved a paper under a few similar names. This will be very important in college, so now is a good time to practice:

1. In Microsoft Word, go to the OPEN icon that looks like a folder.
2. When the OPEN BOX pops up, check to see if it already has headings to include Name, Size, Type, and Date Modified. If so, you simply have to select the DATE MODIFIED heading to sort files by date.
3. If you don’t see headings (the computer calls them details), you can easily make them appear. Just go to the small icon for VIEWS at the top of your OPEN BOX. From the drop down menu, select DETAILS.

By going through this process, you can see that you can also sort your files (papers) alphabetically by title and by size. It’s a good idea to learn to sort your work now, so you’ll be a real expert once you start writing those college papers!