File Naming Best Practices

Organize documents into folders and subfolders

This might seem like common knowledge but, during the course of a workday, it’s easy to let certain documents slip between the cracks and avoid categorization. When hunting down a particular file, having several folders defined by either topic, client, project, or any other subject that’s relevant to your business helps narrow the search.

Additionally, organizing your files into folders and subfolders is helpful in avoiding clutter on Google Drive, saving you time and a massive eye-sore.

Add description

In any company, there are hundreds of files that could be stored away under similar names. For this reason, it’s helpful to add a dash of description to clarify what’s what. Here’s some information to consider including:

• Type of document – e.g., presentation, lesson plan, contract, pitch, outline, invoice
• Date – e.g, date created, date modified
• Name of people or group involved – e.g., student’s name, client name, company name, office branch location
• Department – e.g., class subject, department name
• Project or topic
• Version #
• Status of file – e.g., filed, for review, approved, saved, archived
• Security level – e.g., confidential, for general use

Follow existing formats

Using formats everyone is familiar with helps ensure consistency. Here are some common formatting options:

• When including dates, include the year. You can choose whichever format works for you, but the most accepted ones are YYYY-MM-DD or MM-DD-YYYY. You can even include hyphens (-), underscores (_), or periods (.) between the dates to help with spacing and readability. Dates also help ensure that your files stay in chronological order, which is helpful for long-term projects.
• Separate the date from the rest of the file name with an underscore or with brackets. For example: Blog_03-21-2018 or [03.21.2018]Blog.
• Try to abbreviate words that have accepted acronyms. This keeps the file name short and makes information easier to digest. For example, management would become MGMT.
• If you’re creating different versions of a file, use “v” to denote it. For example: Questionnaire_v1. If there are small edits to the previous version, use Questionnaire_v2.1, 2.2, and so forth.

Things to Avoid:

• Making file names too long, since these are difficult to read and don’t often work well with all types of software.
• Special characters such as ~!@#$%^&*()
• Using spaces between characters. Since most software doesn’t recognize file names with spaces, use these options instead:
  • Underscores (e.g. file_name.xxx)
  • Dashes (e.g. file-name.xxx)
  • No separation (e.g. filename.xxx)
  • Camel case, where the first letter of each word is capitalized (e.g. FileName.xxx)