Definition
File – referring to any kinds of formats of computer file. (e.g. JPEG / PNG / PDF)
Naming Convention – referring to the company practice and standard when naming a file.
What Problem Patterns File Naming Convention Solve
Differentiate the Target File from other File
The Function of a File Name is to uniquely identify a specific File from its counterparts. By uniquely naming the File, you can save both you, your teammate and your client HUNDREDS of hours in now and future during:
Communication
The more generic the file name you are naming, the more time in the future you need to spend on adding properties to uniquely identify the target file.
For example, when you want to tell (or type) the client to find the Report in the Email, you can imagine there will be thousands of file names with Report shown in the storage pool. Afterwards, you have to tell the client the Report created on Oct 16 2024, and then a few, and then you keep adding property to describe the file name until there is one and only one result (i.e. unique) show up.
No matter you speak or type, both you and the audience take times. The less you speak or type, the more time you save.
Searching
Same logic , if you can simple telling the client / teammate / future yourself the unique number of the File Name, your (now and future) life will be much more easy.
In fact, the time in Communication and Searching accounts for at least 50% in a working life, while Production time (i.e. the time you really put on creating the output) just accounts for 30%. (the remaining 20% is time or correcting error)
Step By Step on File Naming Convention
Identify the Parameters
For example, If a teammate wants to send a Ads Budget Record to its client, the following parameters should be carried out:
| File Name Parameters | Description | Example |
| Teamwork Task# (TMT) | The 8-digit Task# of Teamwork.com1 | #42919323 |
| Client Alias | The short name you used to mention your client in daily life | Nike (instead of Nike Asia Ltd) |
| File Title | The topic of the file content | SalesReport |
| Version | Version in terms of YYYYMMDD | 20240525 |
| Status | Approval or Production Status | Approved |
The final example outcome will be as below:
#42919323_NikeSalesReport@20240525_Approved
Sytnax
No Spacing
We will trim (i.e. delete) all spacing between each world in the file name. This is because when you are using the system not in UTF-8 encoding system, the file name will use the string %20 to replace the space. For example
Nike%20Inc
In case you really want to separate 2 words inside the file name, you can put a _ between the 2 words.
Nike_Inc
Pascal Case
| Camel Case | nikeInc |
| Pascal Case (Default) | NikeInc |
We will pick Pascal Case in DDM Group.
Teamwork Task#
Teamwork Task# is option. It will be applied only if you are working in / for Diamond Digital Marketing Group (DDM)
Don’t forget to add the # as the prefix of the file.
In the long-run, you can communicate and searching easily by simply inserting the teamwork task# when you are working for the same task in teamwork.com interface.
In case there is no Teamwork Task#, unique ID from any kinds of systems will be an good alternative.
Client Aias
There are quite a few types of name which you can use to mention to your client , for example:
File Title
File title should be semantically describing the content of the file, especially in the image or video files, for example:
Bad Example:
IMAGE_203204242
Good Example:
NIKE_REVOLUTION_7_BLACK
How details should be the file name depends on if whether the description can uniquely identify the file from others.
Version
Do NOT use following words to apply on versioning
Final – You will never know the file is a final version or not. If your client revised your Final version, your Final Version will become Final Final , which makes the version naming meaningless.
v2 – You / your teammate / future yourself / your client, can NEVER remember what is the previous version number before he/she names the file.
Therefore, using the Dateas the version name will be the most feasbile and easiest way. If Date (YYYYMMDD) is not enought to uniquely identify the file because you have modified the file few times in the same day, you can append Time at the Date to make it become YYMMDD_HHMM .
Approval Status
You may need following types of Status to identify the file:
Approval Status – [Approved / Rejected]
Sign Status – [Signed]
Production Status – [Template / Instance]
- Only if you are working with / for Diamond Digital Marketing Group. ↩︎
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