How to Name Files
Get tips on naming files so that you’ll be able to use your computer to easily find exactly what you need, when you need it.
I’ve talked in the past about how to name your file folders to make them easy to find.You can also make files easier to find within a folder or within search results when you search for a file.
If you’re on my Facebook page, you know I’ve been learning to sing and dance for Evil Dead: The Musical. My role was the most important role of all, which I’d coveted since 2nd grade: the dancing tree, which clearly establishes that the other characters, who actually have dialog, are indeed in a cabin in the woods.
How to Name Electronic Files
I created an Evil Dead folder on my computer to hold all my Evil-Dead-related files. I downloaded song lyrics. The director emailed notes after rehearsal, telling me I had done a very good job. I found a link to a recipe for tasty, edible fake stage blood that doesn’t stain. You never know when you’ll need that. Pretty soon my folder was a jumble of files.
What tools does my computer give me to organize files? Alphabetical order. Fifty years into the computer revolution, the geniuses who make them can alphabetize. They can’t do much else (like get a date), so this is clearly their revenge.
How to Use Keywords in File Names
Start file names with an all-upper-case keyword that tells you what kind of file it is. All files with lyrics now start with the word LYRICS:
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LYRICS Cabin in the Woods,
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LYRICS S-Mart Employee, and
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LYRICS All The Men in my Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons.
When I sort my folder alphabetically, lyrics files are grouped together. Finding them is a snap. I also scanned in receipts when I bought something. Those files started with the keyword RECEIPT. RECEIPT Fake Blood Ingredients or RECEIPT Bobby pins (don’t ask; we dancing trees have our special needs). Use any keyword that you need. My most common ones are RECEIPT, RECIPE, LYRICS, PROPOSAL, INVOICE, and CONTRACT.
How to Use Numbers in File Names
Sometimes you’ll want to use numbers in file names. But if you have files called Scene 1, Scene 2, all the way to Scene 10, alphabetizing screws up. Scene 10 comes between Scene 1 and Scene 2, since computers alphabetize the characters in the number, not the number itself. So when you use numbers in file names, use leading zeros. By naming files Scene 01, Scene 02, all the way to Scene 10, alphabetizing keeps them in proper order. I number my Get-it-Done Guy episode scripts 00001, 00002, ond so on. I won’t run into problems until episode 100,000, when I am five hundred and sixty nine years old. I am very optimistic.
How to Use Version Numbers in File Names
If you have a file that you change often, you can be paranoid like me and save every single version of the file. Just add V1, V2, etc. to the end of the file name. If you anticipate the versions will go into the double digits, use V01, V02, etc. For example, CHARACTER STUDY Dancing Tree V001, CHARACTER STUDY Dancing Tree V002, and so on. (I have a Quick Tip that might make this a little easier)
If you’re collaborating with someone who will be working on the file with you, it gets a bit trickier. If you send Melvin CHARACTER STUDY Dancing Tree V001, because you want feedback from someone with the personality of a juniper bush, he’ll add his comments and save the file with a new name, something like Dancing Tree Notes with Melvin Comments. The instant you get the file back from Melvin, rename it to the next version number in your series, so at least your life stays neat and orderly, despite his attempts to destroy your psyche and steal your job by screwing up your file naming convention. I shouldn’t pick on Melvin. In ten years of doing this, I’ve found many people change the filename around completely, and no one has ever seen V001 and thought to change it to V002.
How to Use Dates in File Names
The last tricky thing is dates. My director Kim sends me notes nightly, telling how my performance can be improved. Maybe I need to lift a branch, or tilt a little to the right. I call these Director Notes and then add the date. But how do I write the date? Dates have all these numbers. 4-10-10 is April 10th. When I alphabetize, that file gets put right next to 4-10-09, which was April 10th, 2009 (it’s taken a while for me to get this dancing tree thing down). It’s worse if you live in a country where dates start with the day number: 4-10-10 is October 4th, and it will get sorted right next to other files created on the 4th of any month.
What alphabetizes correctly and works in any country is to put the four-digit year first, followed by the two-digit month number, and the two-digit day. Kim’s nightly notes end up as Director Notes 2010-04-10, Director notes 2010-04-11, and so on. I can send them to cast member Yasmin in Europe. She immediately understands the dates, and can sort them in chronological order.
Use The Same Conventions Throughout Your Computer
If you use these conventions everywhere, when you search for files across your entire computer, you can sort the list by filename and have all your similar files grouped together, even if they’re in different folders. You’ll be able to see all your lyrics together, whether they were from Evil Dead: The Musical or Mary Poppins.
Put it All Together
You can use all these techniques at once. I file taxes personally and for my business. My scanned-in tax forms get named TAXES 2008 PERSONAL State V1, TAXES 2008 PERSONAL Federal V1, TAKES 2008 BUSINESS State V1, and so on. When I sort them alphabetically, all taxes appear together. Within the taxes files, the same year gets sorted together. Within each year, my personal taxes are sorted together. If I ever have to revise or amend a tax return, I can bump the version number from V1 to V2.
The secret to good file names is alphabetizing so you can find the files you need. Use capitalized keywords at the start of your file names. Use leading zeros on your numbers, use version numbers when you anticipate making changes to files, and use a four-digit year, then month number, then day number when adding dates to file names.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
(Oh, and if you need help keeping track of different drafts of printed documents, I have a Quick Tip that can help you with that.)
RESOURCES
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evildead themusical – Official site of Evil Dead: The Musical
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Read the Get-It-Done Guy’s Tips on Naming Your Files by Alphabetizing Them
– Pictures of me in Evil Dead: The Musical -
/productivity/organization/file-so-you-can-find-anything-instantly – Prior episode on naming file folders
File image from Shutterstock
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.Â
