Photo and document naming rules

Practical steps

1. 1

   Use the company convention. If there is none, use: YYYY-MM-DD_PLOT-REF_ELEMENT_DESC.

2. 2

   Date first, location second, element third, description last. This sorts correctly in any file system.

3. 3

   Use underscores between sections, hyphens within sections. Spaces break some legacy systems.

4. 4

   Avoid filenames longer than 60 characters. Long filenames break on Windows Explorer.

5. 5

   Test a year-old file: type the project name in search; the right files should surface in under 5 seconds.

Key takeaways

• Date first, location second, element third. Always.
• Underscores between sections, hyphens within. Never spaces.
• If you cannot find a year-old file in 5 seconds, the naming convention is wrong.