Here’s the next in my series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) high-impact post every couple of weeks. This one has worked well for me and is worth consideration.
Start your file name for your digital documents with the year of the document
As I mentioned in my first Quick Tip, I start my file names with the year of the document (click on the link to see the rest of the file-naming protocol). I’ve been doing this from the beginning–I’m sure at someone else’s advice. It has proven to be so beneficial. Here’s why:
- It puts my files in chronological order when I sort alphabetically. I have folders for each person I’m researching and having the files arranged chronologically makes it very easy to find a particular document.
- It makes it easy to see what’s missing. For example, missing censuses jump out.
- It creates a little bit of a timeline for a particular ancestor
I’ve never been tempted to stray from this practice and I frequently think about how much I appreciate it. Like everything else, this is something that works for me and may not necessarily work for the way you think. But when I feel passionate about something–particularly if it has to do with organizing–I like to share!
Something to think about! I start my filenamaes with the person’s surname then first nameas I do not have separate person folders. But adding the yr next might be an advantage – I’ll give it a try to see if it helps. Thanks for the tip.
I’ll be interested to hear what you think if you try it, Kay!
After the year, how do you finish each filename?
Thanks for asking, Carol! I talk about it more in the first Quick Tip that is linked in this one. But to answer your question, my file-naming protocol is: Year Type of Document-Ancestor Name-Locality.ext
Variation that works for me: Year Last name, first name Type of document. File name ends with a “T” if the document is a transcription rather than an original.
Thanks for sharing your variation, Heather. That’s a great idea to put a T on the end of a document that’s a transcription.
I wish I had started my file naming protocol like this. I have gradually changed many of my filenames to start with YYYY-MM-DD (or YYYY if the specific date isn’t available or applicable), but it’s tedious because I have to do it from within Family Tree Maker or the file becomes unlinked from the source citation.
That’s exactly what I do with the date! Or I may put 2020 08 if I know the month too but not the day. I really dislike using dashes or underscores so my file name says: YYYY MM DD Last name first name type of document – with only spaces in between the elements. I think chronologically so this works for me.
I share your dislikes of underscores, Carol, but dashes don’t bother me. So far, I haven’t felt a need to include months or days in my filenames but thinking about it now, I could see how it might be helpful with newspaper articles if I find multiple articles about the same person in the same year.
That does sound tedious. It’s good, though, that the files you’re downloading now have the filename you want!
My filenames use Surname, First-Name Year Event — usually followed by Source &/or Repository information in square brackets, eg,
Smith, Thomas 1916 killed in WW1 [Anytown Times 1916 Sep 3, newspapers.com]
I append a file folder emoji if I’m in possession of the original document. However, I’ve now discovered that Dropbox doesn’t upload files with emojis in their names, which makes it more difficult to remotely back up these files and share them with my family!