A method is performed at a computing system having one or more processors and memory. The process generates a hierarchical set of folders for a collection of documents. Each folder specifies a rule/query (possibly empty) for identifying a subset of the collection of documents. Each folder also specifies a user-defined set (possibly empty) of individual documents from the collection of documents. In addition, each folder specifies a set (possible empty) of subfolders. The process receives user input to select a first folder of the set of folders, and generates a responsive result set. The result set includes documents that satisfy the specified rule for the first folder, documents from the user-defined set of documents for the first folder, and documents recursively contained in subfolders of the first folder. The process then displays the result set to the user.