Filing is the organization and storage of electronic records and paper records such as cards, letters, memorandums, reports, receipts, addresses, and business forms. It is also the organization and storage of items such as computer disks, pieces of art, and baseball cards.

Before you begin the exercises, you should know the meaning of the following words:

Unit. In filing, the term unit refers to each part of a person's name, an organization's name, or a company's name. For example, the name Kenneth Coleman Chesterfield has three parts, or units: Kenneth, Coleman and Chesterfield . The company name Alabama Coaxial Cable Company has four units; Northern Oregon Ski Trails Incorporated has five units. These parts, or units , are used to file the names alphabetically with other names. The twelve filing rules will help you decide which part of the name is Unit 1, which part is Unit 2 and so on.

Alphabetizing. Alphabetizing is the process of arranging names in alphabetical order- a before b , b before c , c before d , and so forth. The names Bass, Childs, and Dahl are arranged in correct alphabetical order based on the first letter of each name— B comes before C and C comes before D . The names Kaiser, Keister , and Konrad are also arranged in correct alphabetical order, based on the first and second letters of each name. When alphabetizing names that begin with the same letter, compare the second letters in the names. Compared to each other, the second letters in the names Kaiser, Keister , and Konrad are in correct alphabetic order— a comes before e , and e comes before o .

Case. The term case refers to the size of a letter of the alphabet. A small letter (a) is called lower case ; a large, or capital, letter (A) is called upper case . The size, or case, of a letter is not important in alphabetizing. An upper case A is treated the same as a lower case a , an upper case B is treated the same as a lower case b , and so on. The company name IBM Corporation comes before the company name Ibucron Corporation because the third letters in the names are in correct alphabetical order: M in IBM comes before u in Ibucron . Similarly, Iberia Airlines comes before IBM Corporation because the e in Iberia comes before the M in IBM .

Indexing. In filing, indexing is the process of first deciding the name or heading by which a record will be filed, and second, identifying each part of the name or heading as Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, and so forth. The twelve filing rules will be a guide to you in making these two indexing decisions.

Filing Rules. To have a standard way to file records, the Association of Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA) has published rules for alphabetic filing. The twelve rules you will learn follow the sample principles as the ARMA rules. There are twelve filing rules to learn. However, you first must be able to alphabetize names correctly. In the chart below, the names are divided into units.

Alphabetize the above names using the unit-by-unit method:

1. Look at the first units. The first unit is always the one under which a record is filed. Arrange the first units in alphabetic order.
2. Some of the first units are the same. In the example above, Pestgone appears twice and Quality appears three times in the Unit 1 column. If first units are identical, alphabetize the second units. Thus, Pestgone Company comes before Pestgone Incorporated .
3. Some of the first and second units are identical. In the example above, Quality Discount appears twice. If first and second units are identical, alphabetize the third units, and so on. Thus, Quality Discount Drug comes before Quality Discount Lumber.

Alphabetizing names is not always as easy as the above examples illustrate. You may have to alphabetize names such as these:

Note the following about the names in the above chart.

1. Under Unit 1 the name Road Master (spelled as two words) appears once; Roadmasters (spelled as one word) appears twice; and the name Sunrise appears twice. Road Masters comes before Roadmasters, and Roadmasters comes before Sunrise .
2. One Roadmasters has no second unit; the other Roadmasters has a second unit, Camping . If a name has no second unit, it comes before the same name that has a second unit. This Roadmasters comes before Roadmasters Camping . This is called the “nothing comes before something” rule for arranging names in alphabetic order.
3. Road Masters has nothing after the letter d in Road. It comes before Roadmasters which has the letter m after the letter d. This is another example of the “nothing comes before something” rule. A name that is spelled as two words comes before the same name that is spelled as one word.
4. One Sunrise has the second unit Rest ; the other Sunrise has the second unit Restaurant . Again, because “nothing comes before something,” Rest comes before Restaurant . So Sunrise Rest Home comes before Sunrise Restaurant .