A-Z

Tips for Managing Your Digital Files

 

1. Organize, Organize, Organize:

Why? It saves time and improves department efficiency. Most importantly, state offices are accountable to the public to manage their records- that means ALL records, not just paper.

2. Folder Structure:

Most departments have a folder structure based on how they use their files. The most important thing is to create easy navigation to quickly find files when you need them- or anyone else in your department. If you don’t have a folder structure, a good place to start is by looking at the University Records retention schedule because:

  • The retention schedule is arranged by function (Accounting and Financial records, Administrative records, Human Resources, Environmental etc.)
  • From there it is broken down to specific records.
  • It tells you how long to keep that record. Keep subfolders for each year plus the current year.

A good folder structure should look something like this:

This makes it easier to manage your records for retention by deleting folders instead of looking through each individual file.

3.File Naming Conventions:

File names should be specific enough that if the file was outside of its folder structure, it should be understood. punctuation, symbols, spaces, and special characters should be avoided. Additional best practices for file naming include:

  • unique and consistently structured;
  • persistent and not tied to anything that changes over time or location;
  • Limit the character length to no more than 25-35 characters;
  • Use leading 0s to facilitate sorting in numerical order if following a numeric scheme “001, 002, …010, 011 … 100, 101, etc.”
  • Contain a file format extension; Use a period followed by a file extension (for example, .tif, .jpg, .gif, .pdf, .wav, .mpg);
  • Avoid all uppercase or all lowercase file names. Capitalize the first letter of each word example, “File-Name-Convention-001.doc”;
  • Use numbers and/or letters but not characters such as symbols or spaces that could cause complications across operating platforms;
  • Avoid spaces. Use hyphens instead of spaces;
  • Use international standard date notation (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMDD);
  • Do not use a complex or lengthy naming scheme that is susceptible to human error during manual input, such as “filenameconventionjoesfinalversioneditedfinal.doc”. (Archives, 2017)

 

Following these tips will not only organize your records but make your job and file retrieval easier and faster.

 

Other Tips and References: