James L Rothschiller MD PA

Pediatric Anesthesiologist

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File Naming Conventions

File Naming Conventions

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Naming files for cross-platform compatibility:

  1. Use letters, numbers, hyphens (-) and be consistent
  2. Dates use ISO notation YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD
  3. File names should NOT contain punctuation, symbols, or special characters such as: . ” / \ [ ] : ; | = _ , < ? > & $ # ! ‘ { } ( )

White Spaces: When saving a file “Save for Web”, certain software programs will replace the space for a hyphen, so it follows the URL naming convention. E.g. The file “image myringotomy ear tube 20201112.jpg” becomes “image-myringotomy-ear-tube-20201112.jpg“.

Learn more here on spaces, underscores, and hyphens.

Why use a standardized convention?

In the future, all of us will experience the inability to open old files or save new files due to an unconventional file name. Anticipate over the next few years a stricter standardized “File Naming Convention” for naming files for cross-platform compatibility.

Adopting international accepted file naming conventions can help ensure cross-platform compatibility between operating systems and disk formats, such as in Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and UNIX. File naming is also an important consideration when transferring and sharing files via the Internet, where it may not be evident what computer platform was used when the files were originally created.

File naming best practices updated 20201104

  1. Use letters, numbers, and a hyphen (-) in between words to represent a space.
  2. Use international standard date notation YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD to ensure that files are sorted in proper chronological order
  3. File names should not contain punctuation, symbols, white space, or special characters such as: . ” / \ [ ] : ; | = _ , < ? > & $ # ! ‘ { } ( ). Some of these symbols are used in operating systems to perform certain tasks.
  4. Underscores ( _ ) are no longer used per ISO 8601, uses hyphens instead. Computer programs view hyphens as word separators while an underscore will not be recognized.
  5. If you use an underscore ‘_’ character, then Google will combine the two words on either side into one word. 
  6. Any spaces in URLs are converted to the encoded space character by the web browser.
  7. Use lowercase letters. When using more than one consecutive word use CamelCase, start each word with an uppercase letter.
  8. Begin with a letter, not a number
  9. Periods are only used to identify file formats for example, .pdf, .jpg, .doc, .mpg, etc. Follow the name with a period (.) between the name and extension (E.g. .pdf). NOTE: Only folders do NOT require this.
  10. Starting your filename with the most important keyword (parameter or component)
  11. File names should be consistent short, and descriptive (max 25-35 characters).
  12. scannable (with the human eye) according to how you and your colleagues find information

Note: Dashes are not hyphens. Basically, you want to use the shortest character (-) and no space between words.

Advanced File Naming

  1. Use leading 0s to facilitate sorting in numerical order if following a numeric scheme “001, 002, …instead of “1, 2, …, etc.”;
  2. Versioning: use -v1. If the document will be maintained over time, use the convention v1, v2, v3, etc. to depict its place in the sequence of versions. You may want to separate the “v” from the content type with a hyphen. As versions are made and updated, change the version #, but keep the file name the same.
  3. Sequential numbers: Make sure that, if there are going to be more than 9 files with that name (versioning, photos), it should be 01, 02, 03,.. so that it can be sorted in chronological order. Same if it is more than 99 files, it should be -001, …. -060, ..-099, ..-100

The overall goal of intentional file naming is to increase readability in file names. It empowers people new to the content to navigate files more easily, makes searching and finding documents easier by having our filenames reflect file contents, and guides file authors to develop each document around a single, concrete purpose, which reduces clutter. More concretely, it allows you to:

  • Know the content of a document without opening it.
  • Retrieve and filter documents very quickly using the search/filter function of your computer.
  • Store documents in a single folder without losing their context, if you need to.
  • Find and identify documents even if they are no longer in their original folder.
  • Easily browse long lists of files to inventory or check for missing documents.
  • Manage documents more easily on your website (often content management systems store documents in a single “uploads” directory).

Using a consistent file naming convention will speed up your workflow by utilizing your computer’s sort and search features.

Batch file renaming tools

Batch Renamer 6 for Mac OS

Advanced Renamer – Batch file renaming utility for Windows

Bulk Rename Utility is compatible with all versions of Windows, e.g. Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003, 2000.

Filing Bio CVs

Any filing notation will work if you are consistent and follow the basics as written above:

  1. Use letters, numbers, hyphens (-) and be consistent
  2. Dates use ISO notation YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD
  3. File names should NOT contain punctuation, symbols, or special characters such as: . ” / \ [ ] : ; | = _ , < ? > & $ # ! ‘ { } ( )

My personal preference is:

  • Bio-LastName-Suffix-FirstName-MI-rev20201202-other.docx
  • Eg: Bio-Smith-MD-John-D-rev-20201202-anestheisologist.docx
  • Or: Bio Smith MD John D rev 2020-12-02 anesthesiologst.docx

A space and a hyphen are the same. Using a hyphen shows that there is only one space. If you inadvertantly double white space, it will throw off the order of other files. A hyphen will visually reveal your error.