File Naming Convention | Beyond Who, What, Where, When, Why

Are your folders filled with assets called things like "IMG_1014.jpg" and "document.docx"? Do you frequently find yourself sorting through files called "untitled(01).pdf", "untitled(02).pdf", and "untitled(03).pdf" searching for the one you want? If that seems familiar you may want to implement a standardized file naming convention for your assets.

What are the benefits of developing a naming system? From improving all users ability to quickly learn information about a file from a glance at the name to helping your team efficiently upload and organize files in logical, easy-to-find locations, the list of positive reasons is nearly endless. 

We'll admit developing a naming structure sounds daunting but there are some simple questions you can ask yourself to break it down into manageable pieces. 

Who

Let's start with "who". When considering a naming convention think about, who are your end users and what kind of information is relevant to them? 

You may need to think outside your internal users, too, and consider where you send files externally. What do those recipients need? It adds value to accurately label the file with a logical name.

And who are your uploaders? How many people upload files to your system? If it is a large team, how can you encourage the use of a naming convention? It's nearly impossible to enforce complicated naming systems which is why naming should remain simple to execute and intuitive for everyone.

When

When should file naming happen? The earlier in their lifecycle the better. If you have a photographer or designer creating assets for your company, discuss your naming needs with them. What information do you want in the name and what metadata do you need to be captured? If they're able to adhere to a naming system of your preference you'll eliminate steps from your team's workflow. 

Make sure you document your file naming convention and provide that information to all your team members so that everyone is on the same page and has a reference sheet to guide them.

Where

Where would having a naming system make sense? It could be helpful in your entire library, but you don’t necessarily have to use a naming convention in every part of your DAM. It might make sense to do it in one area and not in another.

For example, if you have a folder with licensed, approved imagery, that might be a good place to use specific nomenclature. 

What

What goes into a name? There are lots of ways to do it, but here are some suggestions on where to start.

First-off, keep it simple! It is easy to get bogged down in specifics, but remember that the filename is not the sole source of information on the asset. All of the file information should be included in the (searchable) metadata, so the name is really just an initial reference point. Simplicity is especially important if you have a larger team involved in naming files. You want to hit the sweet spot of enough information to make the name unique, but not so much that file naming becomes too cumbersome and falls by the wayside.

Often, looking at your DAM folder structure can help you think through the beginnings of a naming convention. Can some of your folder structure be simplified? Can you include additional information in the file name in order to get rid of a level (or two or three) of subfolders? 

Naming Conventions

• Start with general information (on the left) and get more specific as you move through your file name, just like you do in your folder structure. This helps your files sort logically, from the top down.

• Consider including a general prefix (client, product) and/or a specific suffix (version number, color).

• Keep your abbreviations short but significant, 2-3 letters if possible, as long as they have a commonsense meaning.

• Use underscores, dashes or upper/lowercase letters to help with readability, and do not use spaces.

• Periods should only be used to separate the filename from the format extension (e.g. logo.jpg), never in the filename itself.

• We recommend formatting dates as year-month-day (with or without dashes) in order to have the files sort chronologically.

• If you end up with more than one similar file name, use 2-3 numeral spots at the end and start with zeroes (001, 002). Similarly if you use numbers at the start of the filename, use 2-3 numeral spots and start with zeroes so that your files sort correctly.

• When versioning out files, use the designator “V” and a number, e.g. “V01”.

• Avoid special characters (< > | [ ] & $ + \ / : * ? “) so your file names are web-usable and cross-platform compatible

• Avoid overlong filenames. For example the Windows API imposes a maximum filename length such that a filename, including the file path to get to the file, can’t exceed between 255-260 characters.

Naming strategies assist with legibility but are also important for file stability. As we will hear below, moving thoughtlessly named files across systems can cause various problems.

Customer Stories 

We asked some information professionals for their take on this question of file naming conventions and challenges;

"We do use file naming conventions, but it is an evolving art. The names are mostly for internal management of files and linking digital objects to the analog object. We are starting to use barcodes that are affixed to the analog object: books, artwork, collections, and using that as the naming convention for the digital file.

It is an ongoing conversation between the digitization folks and the archives folks about how much information we need in a file name. We do try and make them meaningful, but there is a danger of creating really long file names and convoluted formulas that mutate and become nonsense over time."

Jennifer Cwiok
Digital Projects Manager at the American Museum of Natural History

"We use different filename conventions to manage files across systems to aid both internal and external searchers. In some instances, we use unique ID numbers vs. semantic names to eliminate confusion around the use of assets that are re-purposed across products, programs, or business units. Often these ID numbers also contain format and language code metadata which helps the searcher to quickly differentiate between multiple availabilities of the same content record.”

To aid end-users we have sometimes augmented the semantic title of an asset with additional metadata, i.e., genre or content type. While our users also have access to filters and other subject-related metadata, using a convention in the asset title itself is one more thing that may help them get to the content they need faster."

Shannon McDonough
Senior Manager Digital Content Creation for Harvard Business Publishing

"File naming conventions come in a myriad of contexts. My background in providing guidance on them is in regard to record-keeping practices. For example, if one is dealing with records with trigger dates for retention, file them by year/month.

The other scenario I have been in with file naming conventions is with records creators (who would ultimately send along records to archives) or with staff who are doing digitization work. The guidance here is to enable file and folder stability across operating systems, so tell folks not to use illegal characters, to use underscores instead of spaces, and try to not make file names extremely long (to reduce issues with character length restrictions on operating systems)."

Erin O’Meara
Archivist for The Gates Archive