File Naming Conventions: Best Practices for Organising and Finding Digital Assets

29th July 2022

Do you ever figure out what image you want to use for a piece of marketing or sales collateral, search for it in your file storage solution and... nothing?

The file isn't in the folder it should be, and all of your searches based on what you think it's called don't turn up anything.

If you're using a file storage solution like Google Drive, Dropbox or Microsoft SharePoint, you're probably familiar with this problem. In fact, if you're using SharePoint specifically, we've got a whitepaper you might be interested in.

If you want to reduce the incidents of lost assets within your file storage solution, or just save yourself some time, you need to implement a strict set of file naming conventions.

Firstly, what is a file naming convention?

A file naming convention is a standardised way to name files so they are easy to find, sort, and identify at a glance. For example, instead of final_version2.docx, you might use 20240729_Marketing_Plan_v2_Smith.docx.

6 best practices for file naming conventions

• Keep file names short, but meaningful
• Make use of consistent, relevant elements
• Avoid special characters and spaces
• Include version control
• Use a consistent date format (e.g. YYYYMMDD)
• Choose a readable structure (e.g. underscores or hyphens)

1. Keep file names short, but meaningful

Your file names should be as short as possible while retaining enough meaning to make them identifiable from similar assets. It's a tricky, but vital, balance to strike.

Using meaningful abbreviations is a good tip to achieve this. For example, if the file is a blog featured image, you could use the abbreviation 'feat'.

2. Make use of consistent, relevant elements

Using consistent and relevant file name elements will also help with keeping them short and meaningful. Using too many could cause some technical issues (for example, the maximum file path is 259 characters in Windows), while too few will make it hard to distinguish between files.

The order of the elements in the file name should relate to the importance of that information, while the order should also be consistent between files.

One example might be:

'[DATE]_[DESCRIPTION]_[VERSION NUMBER]_[AUTHOR]'

How might this look?

'20222707_SalesDeckPres_v3_SSmith'

3. Avoid special characters

Special characters in your file names as these are sometimes defined functions in operating systems, and cause issues when saving and searching for files.

Special characters to avoid include but are not limited to:

* : \ / < > | " ? [ ] ; = + & £ $

4. Include version control

Add a clear version number or status to each filename to avoid confusion over which file is the most recent.

Example: AnnualReport_v2 or PolicyDoc_DRAFT

This helps avoid multiple people editing outdated versions or overwriting the latest file.

5. Use a consistent date format (e.g. YYYYMMDD)

Including a date makes it easy to track the most recent versions. Use a consistent structure like YYYYMMDD to keep files sorted chronologically and avoid ambiguity.

For example: MeetingNotes_20250801.docx not MeetingNotes_1Aug25.docx

6. Choose a readable structure (e.g. underscores or hyphens)

Break up the filename using hyphens (-) or underscores (_) to improve readability. Avoid running all the words together or using inconsistent formatting.

For example:

Good: ClientA_Invoice_20250801.pdf
Bad: ClientAInvoiceAug1.pdf

Real-world examples of file naming in action

To bring the above tips to life, here are a few practical examples showing how files can look with and without a clear naming convention:

These improvements make each file easier to understand at a glance, saving time, avoiding duplicates, and keeping things consistent across teams and storage systems.

Tips for Creating Your Own Naming Convention

While best practices are useful, the most effective file naming conventions are those tailored to your team’s needs. Here are a few tips to help you establish one that works:

• Define standard rules with your team
  Involve relevant departments to agree on consistent naming elements, such as project names, dates, or versioning, so everyone is on the same page.
• Document the convention in your DAM or brand guidelines
  Don’t just rely on word of mouth. Add your naming rules to your Digital Asset Management system or brand documentation, so new and existing team members can easily refer to them.
• Review and update periodically
  As teams grow or your needs evolve, conventions may need to be refined. Schedule periodic reviews to ensure your approach still makes sense.
• Combine naming conventions with metadata for maximum clarity
  File names are just one piece of the puzzle. Strong metadata helps you filter, group, and retrieve assets faster, especially at scale.

Why this isn’t as important with a Digital Asset Management system

Unfortunately, even when you’ve spent time creating detailed documentation around your file naming convention, assets will still sometimes go missing, whether that’s because the naming convention hasn’t been followed or the file has been moved to a different drive.

You might not even want to find a specific file, but see a selection of files that match a specific theme, for example if you want to browse different images for some content you’re creating.

This is why Digital Asset Management (DAM) is so much more effective than traditional file storage.

That’s because a DAM like ResourceSpace is built on metadata. When you use metadata as the primary method of organising digital assets, those assets can be classified in a number of different ways. Need to find an image of a family for a blog post or web page, but don’t have a specific image in mind? Simply searching for ‘family’ will return all images tagged with the metadata ‘family’. You don’t need to know the name of the file you’re looking for, you just need to search for related categories.

ResourceSpace allows for fixed metadata fields so you can control the metadata inputs, including through dropdown lists, radio buttons or checkboxes, as well as AI tagging. AI automated tagging will recognise objects, terms, faces and places present in an image and prompt appropriate keywords for the user to choose from.

This doesn’t mean file naming conventions aren’t still important, don’t start uploading files with nonsensical names or neglecting folder logical structure, but it does mean more searching for the perfect digital asset, whether you know what that’s going to be or not, is so much easier.

Get More from Your DAM

In short, ResourceSpace’s file naming best practices, when combined with powerful metadata and version control, make your DAM cleaner, faster and more reliable.

Ready to put this into action? Speak with our expert team to see how ResourceSpace can help you organise and retrieve assets more efficiently.