Thanks for a great video on how you structure your filing and file naming. Useful list of tips on file naming, with consistency, for me being the most important, but also the most challenging! I use Pascal case to avoid using spaces with first letter of each word in capitals, and then I separate parts of my filename with underscores. I am mostly naming invoices so my filename would typically look like "2024-08-08_Invoice_BuyingEntity_CompanySelling" . I use NameThatFile to name my files, which by default doesn't allow spaces, and once set up, allows me to formulate my filenames with clicks of a mouse to avoid typos. It also then allows me to sort the files in to a folder structure, according to the parts of the filename. Keeping on top of your filing system needs a good file naming convention, and discipline to stick to it!
Your naming approach makes the most sense to me. Others I have seen using date to begin the name doesn't fit for me. I agree with trying to not have too many folders. I find many videos I have seen tend to use in teams, etc. This is not good for me at this stage in my life (old and retired). I tried to apply other approaches but just could not see how it would help me. It was so reassuring to find someone that uses clean and simple approaches. Thanks for effort in this video.
I generally use these techniques. I use underscores instead of spaces because SharePoint renders spaces in file names with lots of extra characters. I also use v01, v02, etc. instead of v1, v2, etc. to sort properly in case we go beyond v9.
I fully concur, Dr. ! I personally use letters which allows up to 26 versions in a day. After that Im already beat anyway! :) However, both are perfectly fine. I am a stickler on consistency. I also do not use spaces in date codes. I have found that sometimes Ill inadvertently put a space either before, or after the hyphen, or both, which plays havoc on sorting.
Could you explain more about how SharePoint renders spaces in file names with lots of characters, what does this mean? I am trying to be better about naming and organizing files.
Example: If you name a file “My File.ext” (without the quotation marks & where .ext is the file extension), SP fills that space between My & File with %20% so that it is actually named behind the scenes as “My%20%Files.ext” (without quotation marks). It doesn’t affect the end user experience b/c the user generally uses the file’s Title property & SP reverses the conversion to display the name with the space. It has affected me most when writing VBA which must use the “true” file name, not the “displayed” name. It also applies to folder names. So, every space in a full path-file name is replaced by 4 characters (%20%). On a few occasions, those extra characters cause the path to exceed the maximum # of characters (I think it’s 64?) which makes that path completely unusable by the code.
Hi Andy, thank you kindly for making this video. I use most of these techniques also, especially the file date codes, which came from pre 2000 days of DOS. My only version is in V1, V2.. I will use a, b, c.. I seldomly create multiple revisions of a file in a day. In naming lengths, it is important to know that there are two separate file naming limits within OneDrive. It is 256 and 400 characters. This includes the Office365/Microsoft365 tenant name, and all folders, subfolders names. So your point about flat as possible file structures is very valid. I work with companies to migrate them from on premise file servers to Onedrive. The 400-character file limit applies to storing and using you documents ONLINE using the online version of software (Word, Excel, etc..) The 256-character file limit applies t usign the desktop version of the software. Such as accessing it from a synced folder and opening it up using the desktop app. This used to not clearly explained in the file naming limits and restrictions section of the Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint document until recently. So a practice of keeping subfolders and file names to a minimum is good. Migrating companies from old bad habits of large quantities of nested folders is a lesson in Tact, sort of like helping hoarders de-clutter. While I am on this subject of large files, and quantities. The maximum limit of over 30 million files and folders is accepted in OneDrive or Sharepoint, however the sync client chokes after 300,000 combinations of files and folders. I have clients that have over 500,000 files and folders. it is a painful experience making those migrations. Below is the link to all those limits, which is a good page to bookmark, for it is updated frequently. OneDrive has got to be a lot better over the years, however still has limits that are important to understand fully. Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restrictions-and-limitations-in-onedrive-and-sharepoint-64883a5d-228e-48f5-b3d2-eb39e07630fa
Hi - thank you for the comment and the link to additional resource. I am by no means an "expert" here and merely sharing some basic best practices and personal applications of those practices with folks. So really appreciate you sharing your technical expertise on this subject with the community. 👍
Great tips. It takes discipline to take the time to name your files consistently using a file naming convention. Agree you need to have enough information in the file name to know what it contains and to find it more easily when you need it. I have a similar convention but tend to put the date at the beginning, use underscores to improve readability and tend not to use spaces but use Pascal case instead ( Capital letter for every new word). A typical example might be "2021-10-13_Receipt_VFK_BuzzCutsHair". I developed the application NameThatFile to make file naming easier and more consistent and then to put files into folders and subfolders using parts of the filename. Cheers VFK
Thanks for your video. Longer file names: From experience I know that my „future me“ does not remember whether the scanned file does exist nor how I had named it. So I do use longer file names (not as long the one in your video) and future (dumb) me will stand a greater chance to find the file.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the tips I shared are general best practices but ultimately, we need to use methods that works best for us. But please keep in mind that although being able to find the file is the first priority, being able to see the relationship between the file is also important. So if you're using a longer filename, try to use the same long filename in the different versions. 😀 Thanks again for watching and for your engagement.
I'll adopt these techniques that you've taught! Hugelly appreciated watching your video. As my content grows in the disk, I had to find some effecient way to sort everything the best way possible. JESUS Bless you. ✅
This is super helpful! Do you ever use multiple modifiers? Like how would you both specify the version and the author? Do you use something like v1 vSmithJ?
I don't realy agree with some points here. When you put the date into the name, what date should this be? The creation date or the date of the last modification? In the second case you have the same information in the file attributes... And the version? You always have to keep this part up to date and don't to forget to change it. Another problem is that you can't use any links to your files if you keep changing the name each time you modifiy the content. Or do you keep each version in the folder?
Great video and great discussion. I plan on giving a hard drive of family images such as TIFF, RAW, DNG and maybe PSD files to each of my children. I'm stuck and don't know how to proceed re: hyphens and underscores. I see you use hyphens in your date but underscores other places. I've got over 100,000 images so it's important that these will open in the future without worrying about gee I should have used underscores there or hyphens there. Also, what is the length of the filename that I can reach safely? If it is too short, it's not very descriptive, but on the other hand I can't have the filename the length of a paragraph.
Thanks A R. It's really a matter of choice on hyphens or underscores, either should be fine. Some of the general best practices suggests character lengths between 25-35 for filenames.
I started using spaces too over these past five years. Once I get in to the development code folders, I tend to not use spaces, I wonder though just how detrimental it would really be.
Very nice presentation without arms and finger waving around the picture. If you could have cut the very low bottom of the picture, it would have been perfect.
😆Ok, I just rewatched the video to see what you're talking about and I get it. The voice does seem overly distorted. This should be fixed for more recent videos.
Don’t put dates in files names. Why? For 2 good reasons. 1 - Files with common topics can’t be sorted together. 2 - If you do put dates in files names, the dates would be redundant. - - - Windows and Mac operating systems create and maintain file “Create Dates” and “Last Modified Dates”. No need to duplicate that information. If some other date (like “Meeting Date”) is important, add it as a tag (attribute) of the file. It will show on the list of files. Also, folder structure needs to be discussed in conjunction with a discussion of a file naming system. Why? Because the file names need to conform to the folder structure. Folder structure needs to be hierarchical, to assist a person in finding files that he/she created months, maybe even years ago. - - - I believe that all people relate to topics (like Art, Entertainment, Equipment / Parts, Family, Food, Investing, Medical, Politics, etc.). I always recommend to people to build their system around folders and subfolders which are topics. File names need to be specific cases of a topic / subtopic which is deeper in the hierarchy than the folder names. MECE is a principle for folder structure. Some professional consulting firms use it. It stands for mutually exclusive (ME - no overlap) and collectively exhaustive (CE - nothing overlooked). - - - If it appears that a file can logically fit into more than one folder, that’s a signal that either the hierarchical file structure needs to be changed or tags should be used. - - - New users will not likely want to be bothered about adhering to MECE, but as the number of folders and subfolder expands the need to confirm increases.
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Thanks for a great video on how you structure your filing and file naming.
Useful list of tips on file naming, with consistency, for me being the most important, but also the most challenging!
I use Pascal case to avoid using spaces with first letter of each word in capitals, and then I separate parts of my filename with underscores.
I am mostly naming invoices so my filename would typically look like "2024-08-08_Invoice_BuyingEntity_CompanySelling" .
I use NameThatFile to name my files, which by default doesn't allow spaces, and once set up, allows me to formulate my filenames with clicks of a mouse to avoid typos.
It also then allows me to sort the files in to a folder structure, according to the parts of the filename.
Keeping on top of your filing system needs a good file naming convention, and discipline to stick to it!
Your naming approach makes the most sense to me. Others I have seen using date to begin the name doesn't fit for me. I agree with trying to not have too many folders. I find many videos I have seen tend to use in teams, etc. This is not good for me at this stage in my life (old and retired). I tried to apply other approaches but just could not see how it would help me. It was so reassuring to find someone that uses clean and simple approaches.
Thanks for effort in this video.
I generally use these techniques. I use underscores instead of spaces because SharePoint renders spaces in file names with lots of extra characters. I also use v01, v02, etc. instead of v1, v2, etc. to sort properly in case we go beyond v9.
Thanks Jim. Great point about using a leading 0 in the versions numbers!
I fully concur, Dr. ! I personally use letters which allows up to 26 versions in a day. After that Im already beat anyway! :) However, both are perfectly fine. I am a stickler on consistency.
I also do not use spaces in date codes. I have found that sometimes Ill inadvertently put a space either before, or after the hyphen, or both, which plays havoc on sorting.
Could you explain more about how SharePoint renders spaces in file names with lots of characters, what does this mean? I am trying to be better about naming and organizing files.
Example: If you name a file “My File.ext” (without the quotation marks & where .ext is the file extension), SP fills that space between My & File with %20% so that it is actually named behind the scenes as “My%20%Files.ext” (without quotation marks). It doesn’t affect the end user experience b/c the user generally uses the file’s Title property & SP reverses the conversion to display the name with the space. It has affected me most when writing VBA which must use the “true” file name, not the “displayed” name. It also applies to folder names. So, every space in a full path-file name is replaced by 4 characters (%20%). On a few occasions, those extra characters cause the path to exceed the maximum # of characters (I think it’s 64?) which makes that path completely unusable by the code.
@@jimfitch Ohhh, I see, thank you so much for explaining. I actually do change file types some times!
Hi Andy, thank you kindly for making this video.
I use most of these techniques also, especially the file date codes, which came from pre 2000 days of DOS. My only version is in V1, V2.. I will use a, b, c.. I seldomly create multiple revisions of a file in a day.
In naming lengths, it is important to know that there are two separate file naming limits within OneDrive. It is 256 and 400 characters. This includes the Office365/Microsoft365 tenant name, and all folders, subfolders names. So your point about flat as possible file structures is very valid. I work with companies to migrate them from on premise file servers to Onedrive.
The 400-character file limit applies to storing and using you documents ONLINE using the online version of software (Word, Excel, etc..)
The 256-character file limit applies t usign the desktop version of the software. Such as accessing it from a synced folder and opening it up using the desktop app.
This used to not clearly explained in the file naming limits and restrictions section of the Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint document until recently. So a practice of keeping subfolders and file names to a minimum is good. Migrating companies from old bad habits of large quantities of nested folders is a lesson in Tact, sort of like helping hoarders de-clutter.
While I am on this subject of large files, and quantities. The maximum limit of over 30 million files and folders is accepted in OneDrive or Sharepoint, however the sync client chokes after 300,000 combinations of files and folders. I have clients that have over 500,000 files and folders. it is a painful experience making those migrations. Below is the link to all those limits, which is a good page to bookmark, for it is updated frequently. OneDrive has got to be a lot better over the years, however still has limits that are important to understand fully.
Restrictions and limitations in OneDrive and SharePoint
support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restrictions-and-limitations-in-onedrive-and-sharepoint-64883a5d-228e-48f5-b3d2-eb39e07630fa
Hi - thank you for the comment and the link to additional resource. I am by no means an "expert" here and merely sharing some basic best practices and personal applications of those practices with folks. So really appreciate you sharing your technical expertise on this subject with the community. 👍
Great tips. It takes discipline to take the time to name your files consistently using a file naming convention. Agree you need to have enough information in the file name to know what it contains and to find it more easily when you need it. I have a similar convention but tend to put the date at the beginning, use underscores to improve readability and tend not to use spaces but use Pascal case instead ( Capital letter for every new word). A typical example might be "2021-10-13_Receipt_VFK_BuzzCutsHair". I developed the application NameThatFile to make file naming easier and more consistent and then to put files into folders and subfolders using parts of the filename. Cheers VFK
I use some of these techniques, however I got so much more from your video, thankyou
Thanks Andy. Once again your content is very 'apre pos'. I will certainly use some of the suggestions.
Excellent! Thanks Bernice!
Best video on this subject. Thanks
Great tips, this will save me tons of time and frustration in the future! Subscribed!
Thanks R. D!
Thanks Andy, very helpful.
just what i was looking for and very simple to understand...thnx Andy
Interesting and useful tips... Using some of these in daily works... ❤❤❤❤
Excellent tips. Thanks, Andy! :)
Thanks for your video. Longer file names: From experience I know that my „future me“ does not remember whether the scanned file does exist nor how I had named it. So I do use longer file names (not as long the one in your video) and future (dumb) me will stand a greater chance to find the file.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the tips I shared are general best practices but ultimately, we need to use methods that works best for us. But please keep in mind that although being able to find the file is the first priority, being able to see the relationship between the file is also important. So if you're using a longer filename, try to use the same long filename in the different versions. 😀 Thanks again for watching and for your engagement.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks! Subscribed. Hopefully I will get lots of useful information from your channel. Good luck!
Thanks for the sub! 😀
This was so helpful! Thank you!
Thank you very much Sir, this is a good video!
Thank you!
Excellent
Great Video!
I'll adopt these techniques that you've taught!
Hugelly appreciated watching your video. As my content grows in the disk, I had to find some effecient way to sort everything the best way possible.
JESUS Bless you.
✅
I needed to see this video 🙏🙏🙏🙏⚡️❤️
Great video
Thanks!
Love your videos!!
Thanks for watching!
This is super helpful! Do you ever use multiple modifiers? Like how would you both specify the version and the author? Do you use something like v1 vSmithJ?
Subscribed! awesome content
Thanks John!
Great!
Thanks Luigi!
Use spaces only in your rarely used files. Using cmd on files with spaces in their name is possible, but cumbersome.
I don't realy agree with some points here. When you put the date into the name, what date should this be? The creation date or the date of the last modification? In the second case you have the same information in the file attributes... And the version? You always have to keep this part up to date and don't to forget to change it. Another problem is that you can't use any links to your files if you keep changing the name each time you modifiy the content. Or do you keep each version in the folder?
Great video and great discussion. I plan on giving a hard drive of family images such as TIFF, RAW, DNG and maybe PSD files to each of my children. I'm stuck and don't know how to proceed re: hyphens and underscores. I see you use hyphens in your date but underscores other places. I've got over 100,000 images so it's important that these will open in the future without worrying about gee I should have used underscores there or hyphens there. Also, what is the length of the filename that I can reach safely? If it is too short, it's not very descriptive, but on the other hand I can't have the filename the length of a paragraph.
Thanks A R. It's really a matter of choice on hyphens or underscores, either should be fine. Some of the general best practices suggests character lengths between 25-35 for filenames.
I started using spaces too over these past five years. Once I get in to the development code folders, I tend to not use spaces, I wonder though just how detrimental it would really be.
Hi Justin - When it doubt don't use spaces. 😀
Are there any AMA recommendations regarding file naming for submissions and storage of claim substantiation documents?
Hi Chinwe - Thanks for watching. Sorry, but I'm not familiar with AMA and can't offer recommendation it.
Very nice presentation without arms and finger waving around the picture. If you could have cut the very low bottom of the picture, it would have been perfect.
Your the guy that does Stephen Hawking’s voice overs.
😆Ok, I just rewatched the video to see what you're talking about and I get it. The voice does seem overly distorted. This should be fixed for more recent videos.
@@AndyPark365 It’s partly your accent to. And your tone is spot on. No doubt if you practiced it would be a good party trick.
No spaces we are told yet the examples have spaces.
Hi Jefferson - I clarify this point at around 1:55 timestamp in the video. Thanks for watching.
Don’t put dates in files names. Why? For 2 good reasons.
1 - Files with common topics can’t be sorted together.
2 - If you do put dates in files names, the dates would be redundant. - - - Windows and Mac operating systems create and maintain file “Create Dates” and “Last Modified Dates”. No need to duplicate that information. If some other date (like “Meeting Date”) is important, add it as a tag (attribute) of the file. It will show on the list of files.
Also, folder structure needs to be discussed in conjunction with a discussion of a file naming system. Why? Because the file names need to conform to the folder structure.
Folder structure needs to be hierarchical, to assist a person in finding files that he/she created months, maybe even years ago. - - - I believe that all people relate to topics (like Art, Entertainment, Equipment / Parts, Family, Food, Investing, Medical, Politics, etc.). I always recommend to people to build their system around folders and subfolders which are topics.
File names need to be specific cases of a topic / subtopic which is deeper in the hierarchy than the folder names.
MECE is a principle for folder structure. Some professional consulting firms use it. It stands for mutually exclusive (ME - no overlap) and collectively exhaustive (CE - nothing overlooked). - - - If it appears that a file can logically fit into more than one folder, that’s a signal that either the hierarchical file structure needs to be changed or tags should be used. - - - New users will not likely want to be bothered about adhering to MECE, but as the number of folders and subfolder expands the need to confirm increases.
Can you give us a few examples for all to see. Thanks for your pointers
Hi. What's your height?