Decide on a file naming convention to use whenever you create a document. Useful file names:
- are consistent;
- are meaningful to you and your coworkers; and
- allow you to find the file easily.
It is useful if your department agrees on the following elements of a file name:
Vocabulary – choose a standard vocabulary for file names so that everyone uses a common language.
Punctuation – decide on conventions for if and when to use punctuation symbols, capitals, hyphens and spaces.
Dates – agree on a logical use of dates so that they display chronologically e.g., YYYYMMDD (this is the ISO standard date format).
Order - confirm which element should go first, so that files on the same theme are listed together and can therefore be found easily.
Numbers – specify the number of digits that will be used in numbering so that files are listed numerically (for example, 01 or 001)
Version Control
Versioning refers to saving new copies of your files when you make changes so that you can go back and retrieve specific versions of your files later.
Few documents are drafted by one person in one sitting. More often there will be several people involved in the process and it will occur over an extended period of time. Without proper controls this can quickly lead to confusion as to which version is the most recent. Here is a suggestion of one way to avoid this situation:
- Use a 'revision' numbering system. Any major changes to a file can be indicated by whole numbers, for example, v01 would be the first version, v02 the second version.
- When draft documents are sent out for revision, they should return carrying additional information to identify the person who has made the changes. Example: a file with the name policy_v01_20230316_bjs indicates that a colleague (bjs) has made changes to the first version on March 16, 2023. The lead author would then add those changes to version v01 and rename the file following the revision numbering system.
- Include information about the status of the file, e.g. "draft" or "final," as long as you don't end up with confusing names like "final2" or "final_revised".
- Agree who will finish finals and mark them as 'final.' Final versions can be saved as PDFs so that they are "fixed" and are not changeable.
The versioning information is less relevant if you are creating and editing documents using applications that have version control built in (e.g., O365 SharePoint), but is a good way to think about how to make sure you are always working in the correct version of a document.
Tips for using SharePoint:
- Be sure everyone makes edits within SharePoint (downloading an making edits separately can create chaos for the process.
- It may be beneficial to rename the document at certain points to make sure you have the most current version. Is also beneficial if you need to ‘revert’ to a previous version.
- If multiple people are editing at the same time, it will save the version under the name of the person who made the last edit in that session.
- To view the versions, click on the three dots to the right of the name and select version history.