File Naming Conventions and Organizing Research

What is a File Naming Convention?

A File Naming Convention is a framework for naming files that describes what the files are or contain and how the files relate to other files from the same project or institution. A File Naming Convention helps organize digital files, and it also aids in communicating with other team members about what the files are or contain. Therefore, it is important to establish a File Naming Convention that is descriptive and consistent to the needs of the project or institution. This guide will give you reminders and tips on how to create an effective File Naming Convention.

Elements of A File Naming Convention

When creating a file naming convention, it is important to first think about what information is important to know about the files. This is decided on a case by case basis and must take into account project or institution needs. 

Information to consider including:

• Project Title or Acronym
• Name/Initials of Creator or Team
• Date or Date Range
• Conditions, Quality, or Descriptor for File
• Specimen or sample designation
• Version and Number of File

Tips for formatting dates and numbers:

• Format dates YYYYMMDD to ensure that files stay in chronological order.
• For sequential numbering use 0001, 0002...1001, etc to keep them in your intended order.

Character restrictions:

• Avoid special characters: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ` ; < > ? , [ ] { } ‘ “. These are commonly restricted characters. It is best to avoid them to ensure that the file naming convention can be used in a variety of software or systems, if necessary.
• Do not use spaces. Utilize underscores (File_Name), dashes (File-Name), no separation (filename), or camel case (FileName). These can cause errors in certain operating systems and software.
• Utilize acronyms to reduce the length of a file name. There may be a character limit for file names. Agreed upon acronyms will provide descriptive information while keeping the file names shorter in length.

Steps for Creating a File Naming Convention

The steps below can be adapted for group or individual projects/research.

Step 1: Gather information about the project, team, or institution that you need to create a file naming convention for.

Step 2: Identify the important descriptive information you will need for each file.

Step 3: Review software and other file name restrictions, such as specific character restrictions or file name length limits.

Step 4: Develop the file naming convention using the information you gathered and taking into account the restrictions. The framework should be broad enough to apply to all files in the project, but it should also allow someone to know what is in the file without opening it.

Step 5: Share the file naming convention with those who need it. Provide descriptions of the file naming convention elements. If doing this for individual organization, you still want to create a description to remind yourself of the organizaiton you assigned to your files.

A Stout Example for Creating a File Naming Convention

Step 1: Gather Information

A social media campaign for Homecoming is being created. Multiple departments across campus will be working on it. The campaign will begin in October 2024. Multiple image files will be used for each post of the campaign.

Step 2: Identify Important File Level Information

There is a Homecoming Microsoft Team with a Social Media channel. In that channel, folder hierarchies indicate the department in charge of the post and the platform (Instagram, Facebook, etc). Therefore, this information does not be repeated in the file name.

The important information that will need to be documented at the file level is the following:

• Date
• Version and number of files
• Social media post topic or title

Step 3: Character Restrictions

Microsoft Teams will be utilized.

The following characters will need to be avoided: " * : < > ? / \ |

Step 4: Create the File Naming Convention

The file naming convention will be the topic or title of the social media post, type of file, and the post date associated with the file.

• General File Naming Convention Format: Topic_Img###V###_YYYYMMDD
• Example of File Naming Convention: Parade_Img109V002_20241006
• Notes for file naming convention description document: For text documents, the type of file will be Text. For images, it will be described as Img. The image number is the image order number for the social media post. V is for the version number to indicate the final version of the image.

Step 5: Share

There will be a document file in the Social Media channel of the Homecoming Team that will describe the folder structure and file naming convention elements for all members of the team.