Comments on: How to Name Your Digital Files So You Can Find What You Need

By: Neena Nandagopal

Neena Nandagopal — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 21:21:45 +0000

Hi Donna,
Haha! I am so happy that this article gave you some good ideas. Any naming convention that makes sense to you is a good one. The key is to stick with the system that you create.
And … we are never too old to learn!

By: Donna Craft

Donna Craft — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 23:06:49 +0000

Great ideas. Just hope this old dog can learn some new tricks!

By: Neena Nandagopal

Neena Nandagopal — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 17:23:51 +0000

In reply to Suzi Whitford.

Hi Suzi,
Thank you! I date just about anything that I file online – in the cloud or on my computer. It makes everything much easier to find. 🙂

By: Suzi Whitford

Suzi Whitford — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 16:59:49 +0000

Great tips! I never thought about dating my photos! What a fantastic time saver!

By: Neena Nandagopal

Neena Nandagopal — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 17:52:45 +0000

In reply to Ed Rhett.

Hi Ed,
It sounds like you have a solid system in place for organizing your photos – great ideas! Several programs like Apple Photos also give the option to tag photos based on location, activity, and subject. This might be the way to go for some people if hard drive storage space is an issue and if they don’t like a date based naming system.
Thanks so much for sharing your way of doing things!

By: Ed Rhett

Ed Rhett — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 22:25:16 +0000

I never use date to get to my pictures – I end up storing some stuff twice because of dual storage needs. I want all my vacaction pictures together basis Haiwaii or florida or Key west of Costa Rica – I can’t remember when I went! Then I duplicate to put all the birds together and waterfalls together, covered bridges. I name them what the are! I name the folder what i was doing – all camping picturing are together broken down by folder of where we were camping or biking or paddling. Always name them to be searched on in Windows and presto you will see where they are. The picture will tell you when they were taken by meta data or maybe even file dates. Sorry I think dates are the wrong way to go for me cause I may be years off in remembering when I went – I am pretty good at remembering what I was doing and where I was. NewRiverGorge/Hiking/EndlessWallTrail/EndlessWall-f1,f2,f3

By: Neena Nandagopal

Neena Nandagopal — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:11:01 +0000

In reply to Richard.

Hi Richard,
Glad the tip helped – it works for me!

By: Neena Nandagopal

Neena Nandagopal — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:10:03 +0000

In reply to Seana Turner.

Hi Seana,
I like the way files line up in order with this convention. I agree that it doesn’t make sense to go back and rename everything but a quick way to organize old files (if you are a little obsessed 😉 ) is to create some top level folders by year and just dump files into those.
Have a great week!

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:51:11 +0000

BRAVO…WISH I HAD THIS INFO A HUNDRED YEARS AGO! WELL, I’M STARTING TODAY: 2018-2-26 Best Digital Organizing Format From Neena @ AlmostPractical.com! THANKS FOR THE GREAT TIP NEENA!

By: Seana Turner

Seana Turner — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 14:36:02 +0000

I learned about the date-method of naming documents awhile back and I started applying it. I don’t use it for every file, but I do for many. I didn’t go back and rename all the old stuff, just started where I was. I agree that it makes everything fall into order, making things easier to find!

By: Neena Nandagopal

Neena Nandagopal — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 16:55:07 +0000

In reply to Hassaan Khan.

Hi Hassaan,
Thank goodness you were able to get your data back! I also have been using cloud storage for more of my stuff – it is easier to access from multiple devices and is always there in case something happens to my computer.
As far as naming files goes, it is just important to be consistent – whatever naming convention you choose.
Thanks for stopping by!

By: Hassaan Khan

Hassaan Khan — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 21:40:52 +0000

Hi Neena,

I loved this blog post.

So I have two systems in place.

1) I use Dropbox for random screenshots that I gather during the research, and I name folders like “digital marketing” and “blogging” on the cloud.

2) I use mname-yyyyy format for the blog posts on my computer. I simply use month’s name and year. I started off taking Dropbox quite seriously when I lost my 1000GB of data due to the hard drive crash — during the recovery process, all I wanted to recover tons of unpublished content. I was okay with losing the video content and pictures back up, but the unpublished content was something I had been working on for last five months, but fortunately, the hard drive got recovered.

Great blog post topic. I’m looking forward to reading more of these.