Naming and organising documents is a matter of preference. Not so in a collaborative environment, where standards and conventions must be adopted by all members. Prior to discuss how we can catalog files, let us discuss naming conventions.
Following naming conventions is a programmer’s daily routine. The rigor of case-sensitive coding imposed some natural structures that, when followed, improves productivity and reduces errors. The designers I meet, however, name their files inconsistently:
- per date (which format?), client, session, version…
- lowercase, uppercase, dashes, underscores…
- files received are either left untouched or renamed
A simple naming convention can deal with all these issues at once. Honestly, there is little need to feel inspired about a file name, just keep your creativity for other areas of design.
Some naming conventions exist. I use the camelCase notation.
Basically, the camelCase notation stipulates that words must be concatenated, thus forming a single compound word. Then, every word starts with a capital letter, except the first one.
Example: “graphility_clubgold_quote.pdf” becomes “graphilityClubGoldQuote.pdf”
When the first letter is capitalized (i.e “GraphilityClubGoldQuote.pdf”), it refers to the Pascal case notation – not exactly the same. Some camelCase coders also capitalize the first letter, but only to refer to functions.
The camelCase notation removes spaces, avoiding operating systems conflicts. It does not reduce readability, and dashes/underscores can still be used for another purpose if need be. It works for me, as well as for some programmers and designers I worked with. Give it a try, see if you like it, or choose another convention that works for you. You should soon notice a renewed sense of organization with a little discipline.
Further reading:
- camelCase on Wikipedia