File Naming Conventions (including Folders)

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My question is not solely Windows 10 specific, but as this is what I am currently using, I decided to post my enquiry here, so my apologies in advance if there is a more appropriate section.
Having searched online (and given myself a headache with all the different suggestions), I decided that I would ask the experts and get their ideas and opinions on this matter.

So, how do you (or how would you) name your files and folders if they are strictly kept for ‘personal’ use (e.g., digitising bills and statements) and never shared outside of your own system?

As an example, I have been bucking the trend by using spaces and to date have never had any issues, but many suggest never to use a space.

I suppose I’m looking at it like this: if the system allows you to have spaces, then why not use them?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

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For files like bills and statements that I don’t intend to share with others, may I offer a few rules that have worked for me:

1. Well named and organized folders and sub-folders are the key.
2. File names are less important than folder names.
3. If the source of the file (bank, brokerage, medical provider, etc) includes a date in the name of the file I download, keep that name. As long as the date and other text in the filename are understandable to me, I don’t worry that the naming format of one bank etc is different from another bank.
4. If the source of the file does not include a date in the name of the file I download, I rename the file immediately after downloading to begin with an 8-digit date in the format yyyymmdd. Remember, of course, that single-digit months and days must always be preceded with a 0.
5. For income taxes, for files I may need to give my tax advisor I always include in the file name the tax year and my name.
6. Make regular backups of your data files to two external devices. For me, regular means immediate (daily).  I use a file manager rather than Windows File Explorer.  My file manager has a system for synchronizing directories.  Old-fashioned batch files work too.  These backups are in addition to disk imaging.

Dell XPS17, 11th Gen Intel I7, 64gb RAM, Windows 11 Home 23H2

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Many thanks Paul – appreciate your detailed response.

Just out of interest; do you ever use spaces or any allowed symbols when naming a file or folder, and have you ever experienced any issues?

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I pretty much follow the same procedure as @Paul except, instead of separate folders, I use a single folder with separate zipped archives for each type of document.

BTW, I started using spaces in filename after Microsoft changed from FAT to NTFS that allowed filenames longer than 8 characters (Windows XP) and I’ve never experienced any problems with doing so except for my own “self-inflicted” issues!

i.e. “forgetting” to use quotes around filenames that include spaces when referencing them from a batch file or script.

I do occasionally use special symbols (-, +, _, &, etc.) but normally try to avoid them as they can cause problems when using a batch file or script!

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Thank you, n0ads – good to hear your views, in particular with regard to the use of ‘spaces’ and some special symbols.

I appreciate the fact that they can cause issues in batch or script files and have noted other comments on the web, especially with regard to URLs.

Pretty much a similar scenario for me since Windows XP (how I miss that good old O/S!)

I started out with MS-DOS and its 8.3 file naming restrictions, and looking back, I kind of think that life was way easier back then.

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I do sometimes use spaces in file names, and the spaces haven’t caused problems.

I backup the actual files rather than create zipped archives.  Storage media is so inexpensive these days that I don’t worry about file size.  And I have never tried to measure the tradeoff between the added time for copying larger unzipped files versus the time to create the zip.  If the environment were business rather than personal, I might pay more attention to storage cost and time.

Dell XPS17, 11th Gen Intel I7, 64gb RAM, Windows 11 Home 23H2

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