How to name your files properly: Document Naming Conventions

In this video, I will share some of the best practices in naming documents. I will share examples of how I use these best practices.

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[donaldjeansonne]

Your naming approach makes the most sense to me. Others I have seen using date to begin the name doesn't fit for me. I agree with trying to not have too many folders. I find many videos I have seen tend to use in teams, etc. This is not good for me at this stage in my life (old and retired). I tried to apply other approaches but just could not see how it would help me. It was so reassuring to find someone that uses clean and simple approaches.
Thanks for effort in this video.

[jimfitch]

I generally use these techniques. I use underscores instead of spaces because SharePoint renders spaces in file names with lots of extra characters. I also use v01, v02, etc. instead of v1, v2, etc. to sort properly in case we go beyond v9.

[allangock]

just what i was looking for and very simple to understand...thnx Andy

[lynettecooke]

I use some of these techniques, however I got so much more from your video, thankyou

[namethatfile]

Great tips. It takes discipline to take the time to name your files consistently using a file naming convention. Agree you need to have enough information in the file name to know what it contains and to find it more easily when you need it. I have a similar convention but tend to put the date at the beginning, use underscores to improve readability and tend not to use spaces but use Pascal case instead ( Capital letter for every new word). A typical example might be I developed the application NameThatFile to make file naming easier and more consistent and then to put files into folders and subfolders using parts of the filename. Cheers VFK

[bernices]

Thanks Andy. Once again your content is very 'apre pos'. I will certainly use some of the suggestions.

[gadflyy]

Great tips, this will save me tons of time and frustration in the future! Subscribed!

[ghanus]

Hi Andy, thank you kindly for making this video.
I use most of these techniques also, especially the file date codes, which came from pre 2000 days of DOS. My only version is in V1, V2.. I will use a, b, c.. I seldomly create multiple revisions of a file in a day.
In naming lengths, it is important to know that there are two separate file naming limits within OneDrive. It is 256 and 400 characters. This includes the Office365/Microsoft365 tenant name, and all folders, subfolders names. So your point about flat as possible file structures is very valid. I work with companies to migrate them from on premise file servers to Onedrive.

The 400-character file limit applies to storing and using you documents ONLINE using the online version of software (Word, Excel, etc..)
The 256-character file limit applies t usign the desktop version of the software. Such as accessing it from a synced folder and opening it up using the desktop app.
This used to not clearly explained in the file naming limits and restrictions section of the Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint document until recently. So a practice of keeping subfolders and file names to a minimum is good. Migrating companies from old bad habits of large quantities of nested folders is a lesson in Tact, sort of like helping hoarders de-clutter.

While I am on this subject of large files, and quantities. The maximum limit of over 30 million files and folders is accepted in OneDrive or Sharepoint, however the sync client chokes after 300, 000 combinations of files and folders. I have clients that have over 500, 000 files and folders. it is a painful experience making those migrations. Below is the link to all those limits, which is a good page to bookmark, for it is updated frequently. OneDrive has got to be a lot better over the years, however still has limits that are important to understand fully.

Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint

[healthytalk]

Interesting and useful tips... Using some of these in daily works... ❤❤❤❤

[jessejames]

Thank you very much Sir, this is a good video!

[LuisAmbrosioFerreira]

I'll adopt these techniques that you've taught!
Hugelly appreciated watching your video. As my content grows in the disk, I had to find some effecient way to sort everything the best way possible.
JESUS Bless you.
✅

[dxouggo]

Thanks! Subscribed. Hopefully I will get lots of useful information from your channel. Good luck!

[pauldittus]

This is super helpful! Do you ever use multiple modifiers? Like how would you both specify the version and the author? Do you use something like v1 vSmithJ?

[faraway]

Thanks for your video. Longer file names: From experience I know that my „future me“ does not remember whether the scanned file does exist nor how I had named it. So I do use longer file names (not as long the one in your video) and future (dumb) me will stand a greater chance to find the file.

[AR-ehhh]

Great video and great discussion. I plan on giving a hard drive of family images such as TIFF, RAW, DNG and maybe PSD files to each of my children. I'm stuck and don't know how to proceed re: hyphens and underscores. I see you use hyphens in your date but underscores other places. I've got over 100, 000 images so it's important that these will open in the future without worrying about gee I should have used underscores there or hyphens there. Also, what is the length of the filename that I can reach safely? If it is too short, it's not very descriptive, but on the other hand I can't have the filename the length of a paragraph.

[skirolf]

Very nice presentation without arms and finger waving around the picture. If you could have cut the very low bottom of the picture, it would have been perfect.

[catabakies]

Use spaces only in your rarely used files. Using cmd on files with spaces in their name is possible, but cumbersome.

[justingiovanetti]

I started using spaces too over these past five years. Once I get in to the development code folders, I tend to not use spaces, I wonder though just how detrimental it would really be.

[chinweoparaocha]

Are there any AMA recommendations regarding file naming for submissions and storage of claim substantiation documents?

[tarikb.]

I don't realy agree with some points here. When you put the date into the name, what date should this be? The creation date or the date of the last modification? In the second case you have the same information in the file attributes... And the version? You always have to keep this part up to date and don't to forget to change it. Another problem is that you can't use any links to your files if you keep changing the name each time you modifiy the content. Or do you keep each version in the folder?