Is it possible to recover inadvertently deleted file folder structure in Documents in Mac OS X?

I'm actually asking this on behalf of someone else who told me that she inadvertently hit some combination of keystrokes that caused her folder structure in Documents to disappear. All the files were there but not in folders. She could not figure out what she'd done or how to reverse it. (I'm not sure what version of OS X she was in when this occurred; it was a few years ago.) As a result she is unwilling to spend time organizing her files into folders and is looking for another product to use to organize the files on her hard drive. (She wants a local, not cloud-based solution.)

So:

1) is there a way to "undo" the unknown command that she inadvertently keyed in and restore the files in their proper folder locations?

2) if not, is there another product that can be used to keep her files locked into an organized structure? She mentioned iWeb (no longer available) and FileMaker Pro...?

My instinct is that she should keep her files in folders in Documents but I can't convince her without a good answer to the first question.

PS: she uses TimeCapsule for backup.

Thanks for any insights.