It is recommended that the file name and path is included in the footer of a document. Make sure documents can be identified on their own - not dependent
on the folder they are saved in
It is not proposed to retrospectively review the naming conventions that are currently in place unless there is strong business reason to do this.
Simple Key Rules
1. Keep file names short, meaningful and easily understandable to others.
2. Order the elements in a file name in the most appropriate way to retrieve the record.
3. Avoid unnecessary repetition and redundancy in file names and paths
4. Avoid obscure abbreviations and acronyms. Use agreed University abbreviations and codes where relevant.
5. Avoid vague, unhelpful terms such as “miscellaneous” or “general” or “my files”
6. Use capital letters to delimit words, as the preferred option, although underscores (_) or hyphens (-) may add clarity, they make the file name longer.
7. For numbers 0-9, always use a minimum of two digit numbers to ensure correct numerical order (e.g. 01, 02, 03 etc.)
8. Dates should always follow same format: YYYYMMDD e.g. 20170425
9. When including a personal name give the family name first followed by initials, with no comma in between e.g. SmithAB
10. Avoid using common words such as ‘draft’ or ‘letter’ at the start of file names unless doing so will make it easier to retrieve the record.
11. Use alphanumeric characters i.e. letters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9). Avoid using invalid characters in file names such as *? \ / : # % ~ { }
12. The file names of records relating to recurring events should include the date and a description of the event, except where the inclusion of these elements
would be incompatible with rule 3.
13. The version number of a record should be indicated in its file name by the inclusion of ‘V’ followed by the version number (e.g. V01, V03 etc.). However