Naming documents in a standardised, logical and intuitive way ensures that team members and collaborators can discover, manage and access University records when needed.
Why use naming conventions?
Using consistent naming conventions has many benefits, including:
- Improved retrieval of documents on shared drives and University systems
- Facilitated disposal of documents when no longer required for business
- Ensured current or active version of a templates can be easily identified
- Supported sharing of information within your team and with collaborators
- Easier and more efficient file naming for colleagues as they don't have to 're-think' the process each time.
Is there a University-wide naming convention that my team can use?
No. Given the size and diversity of activities conducted by the University, having one single naming convention is not practicable. Instead, we recommend staff use the suggestions on this page to form guidelines that are useful and pragmatic for your Faculty or Chancellery work unit.
What is an example of a good naming convention?
Good naming examples include:
- [Project number] - Data Use Agreement - [Title of research project]
- Approval - Change to employee travel policy - February 2014
- MGSE Marketing - [Title of event] 2017 - Signage - Lifts
How to develop naming conventions?
Establish good foundations
- Keep file names short but meaningful
- Include any unique identifiers, e.g. case number, project title
- Be consistent
- Indicate version number where appropriate
- Ensure the purpose of the document is quickly and easily identifiable
Try to avoid
- Common words such as 'draft', 'letter', 'current' or 'active'
- Unclear, vague or repetitive e-mail correspondence titles
- Symbol characters such as: \ / < > | " ? [ ] ; = + & $ α β
- Abbreviations that are not commonly understood, or which may frequently change throughout time
Consult and identify needs
Discuss the naming conventions with your team and collaborators. For example:
- How does your team search for information?
- Is there anything specific that should be included?
- What key information is required to quickly and easily identify what a file or document is?
A unit may use internal identifiers for a project such as ARC/NHMRC grant ID, THEMIS agreement number or student number.
Document and review
Ensuring naming conventions are documented and made accessible to current and future staff, and included in local staff on-boarding process, will encourage staff to use them.
Reviewing the conventions each calendar year will ensure they remain current and relevant.
Further information
For catered advice on the creation of naming conventions, please submit a ServiceNowrequest.
FAQs
5 best practices for file naming conventions
- Keep file names short, but meaningful.
- Make use of consistent, relevant elements.
- Avoid special characters and spaces.
- Document and share the file naming convention.
- Logical file organisation.
What is an example of a good naming convention? Good naming examples include: [Project number] - Data Use Agreement - [Title of research project]
What are the standard file naming conventions? ›
The computer arranges files by name, character by character. Therefore, put the most important information first. If you anticipate wanting to find a file by date, then put the date first. The file name should be descriptive and provide just enough contextual information.
What are the three types of naming conventions? ›
Variable Naming Conventions
- Snakecase: Words are delimited by an underscore.
- Pascalcase: Words are delimited by capital letters.
- Camelcase: Words are delimited by capital letters, except the initial word.
Use capital letters and dashes (hyphens) as preferred methods to separate words and naming elements. Underscores may be used but are not a preferred method. Spaces should not be used because it counts as a character. Enter dates “back to front” in the file directory.
How to professionally name files? ›
Basic Rules to File Naming
- project name, acronym or research data name.
- study title.
- location info.
- researcher initials.
- date (designated YYYYMMDD or YYMMDD, which insures your files will be sorted by chronological order)
- version number.
File Names Should be Short and in Lowercase
We suggest using maximum of 25 characters for the file name. A good practice is to use an acronym associated with the project, a date if necessary and any other meaningful acronym. For example: paho-hss-mr-07-21-2011. pdf or 160223-malaria-conf-cha-keynote-600px.
What is the ISO naming convention for documents? ›
Project document naming convention
Let's break down each component of the naming convention: [Subtype]: The type of project document (i.e. “Form”, “Draft” etc.) [Project reference]: Project reference including the document and part number and the project id (i.e. “ISO/DIC 24495-1”, “ISO/CD 21911”)
How do I name versions of documents? ›
Using the same file name throughout the life of the document. Using the same characters to separate words in the file name (usually spaces, dashes, or underscores) Using a consistent suffix to indicate the version number of the file (usually v1, v2, and so on)
What is a universal naming convention? ›
Short for Universal Naming Convention or Uniform Naming Convention, UNC is a PC format for specifying the location of resources on a local area network (LAN). UNC uses the following format: \\server-name\shared-resource-pathname.
camelCase is a variable naming convention where the first word is always in lowercase and every other word starts with a capital letter. The words are also not separated by spaces, dashes, or underscores. It is also known as dromedaryCase. Examples: firstName, currentAccountBalance, humpsOnAliceTheCamel.
What is the unique key naming convention? ›
Unique Key Constraint
The naming conventions for unique key constraints should have a "UQ_" prefix, followed by the table name, followed by the column name. The syntax for a unique constraint should be "UQ_<TableName>_<ColumnName(s)>".
What is the best variable naming convention? ›
Follow these rules to create meaningful variables, functions, and classes:
- Use Intention-Revealing Names.
- Name Functions as Verbs.
- Name Classes as Nouns.
- Use Meaningful Distinction.
- Use Pronounceable Names.
- Use Searchable Names.
- Avoid Encodings.
Methods should be verbs, in mixed case with the first letter lowercase, with the first letter of each internal word capitalized. Except for variables, all instance, class, and class constants are in mixed case with a lowercase first letter. Internal words start with capital letters.
What is primary key naming conventions? ›
A primary key is a field or a set of fields in the database table that uniquely identifies records in the database table. A table can have only one primary key. The naming conventions for a primary key constraint should have a "PK_" prefix, followed by the table name. The syntax should be "PK_<TableName>".
