Smile Software’s TextExpander ( ) is one of my favorite productivity apps on the Mac. Using TextExpander, you can make sure your filenames are structured consistently. But that’s not the only way to help yourself out. You could create an Automator workflow to rename files when they’re first created.
Whenever you hear the word “consistent” in relation to a computer task, a small part of you should consider automation while we humans are creative animals, consistency is not one of our strong suits. Automating the processĬonsistent file naming is a big deal.
Changing filename conventions mid-stream is a lot harder than doing so at the beginning. Make sure you are comfortable with your rules because you are going to be living with them for a long time. Take some time setting up your own filename taxonomy. Just always use lower case and forget about it. Your files will have inconsistent names or you’ll spend a lot more time than necessary keeping it straight. Use Lower Case: If you start capitalizing letters, you will not remember when to capitalize. Putting the date first guarantees your documents are date-sorted, no matter what platform they eventually land on.ģ. This serves, in essence, as a rudimentary tagging system in addition to a naming convention.Ģ.
You could code documents as proposals, offers, contracts, marketing, or any other sort of document you routinely bump into. would be named – area51 – service agreement.pdf. If you are in the service business for example, you could add the client name after the date: The February 7 service agreement for a company named Area 51, Ltd. So, for example, a letter from Brett Terpstra to me on May 16 about a new iPhone gets named – terpstra->sparks re-iphone 7.pdf. For example, – property insurance declarations page or 2012-05 water bill.įor correspondence, I put the name of the sender and recipient after the date separated by an arrow (->), followed by re- (for regarding) and a brief explanation. You could skip this and simply use a space, but I prefer the extra space for readability. For recurring monthly invoices, I leave off the day and use a yyyy-mm format: 2012-05 – electricity bill, for example.Īfter the date, I place a space followed by a hyphen followed by another space. For example, someone may sign a letter to me on May 18, which gets delivered May 23, and gets scanned on June 5. That date may not correspond with the actual document date. The file-creation date is the day that you scan the document or save the PDF file. One possibility is the date the file was created. Now that I have a date format, the next question is which date to use. Longer filenames can make those files easier to find and to manage.
0 kommentar(er)
