A File Naming Convention (FNC) is a systematic arrangement of files and folders with similar content to make them easy to locate and retrieve. Since everyone has their way of arranging their files, a consistent and similar naming system in the company will ensure clarity and organization. When employees are familiar with the same system, all users will be able to locate files with ease.
For a large company, a proper FNC will increase your productivity by streamlining the service delivery processes.
What are the features of the best FNC?
1. Meaningful Folder Names and Abbreviations
When naming files and folders, quality FNCs ensure that the name given is relevant to the content stored. This will make it easier for employees to determine the data they need quickly and accurately. The same applies to abbreviations. A good FNC has a clear and logical abbreviation for folders, hence making them easily understood by other workers. Files with many characters tend to cause errors when being opened or when transferring data.
2. Avoids the use of Space and Special Characters
While some operating systems may process file names with spaces, most do not. This means that the files may fail to open or execute in different systems. Good FNCs use capitalization in the first letter of each word and in abbreviations to make the name more recognizable and easier to remember.
Along with spaces, special characters such as “!, *, %, #, @,” etc. will also make your files harder to find and thus should be avoided. You may, however, use alternatives like dashes (e.g., folder-name) underscores (e.g. folder_name) or no spaces (e.g., FolderName).
3. Good Date Formats.
Organizing your files in the right chronological order makes them easy to search and locate, regardless of when it was created. A good file naming convention uses a YYYY/MM/DD date format. This back to front order makes it easy to access the latest documents, and also maintain a logical order of records in the file directory.
4. Short File Names.
Many programs can read and open files with short names. It is therefore advisable that you avoid long names for naming your files. Long names create long file paths and thus increase the chances of errors when locating the files. They may also be hard to remember and contain some words that add no meaning to the name.
Your FNC should also avoid repetitive words for the file and folder names.
5. Consistent Numbering sequence.
When organizing lots of data, finding files with similar content is quite common, and hence, numerical numbering is the most effective solution.
The numbering system should, however, be consistent (i.e. 01, 02, 03 or 001, 002, 003). This uniform numbering order will make it easy to differentiate the files, especially when dealing with multiple versions or revisions of the same document.
Conclusion.
By ensuring your file naming convention meets the above features, you can be confident that your company’s files will be well-organized and easily searchable. You should, however, ensure that all your employees know how to use and apply the system for maximum efficiency.
