File Organization
I recently had the ‘pleasure’ of introducing my incredulous students to my [admittedly cryptic] file naming conventions, and file organization practices. I picked many of them up from my old boss and friend Gustavo Fontana, and I’ve adapted them somewhat to my personal taste.
The Nightmare Scenario [that happens every day.]
First, let me make the case for organization. Last week a client came to me and said “remember that project we did a year ago? About three-quarters of the way through the project, we developed a concept with thus-and-such features, and for some reason decided not to follow that concept through to the final product. Could you pull up that file, find the data I’m talking about, and use it to modify the final deliverable?”
Sound like a nightmare scenario? It actually wasn’t. In fact, I do it all the time. My files are meticulously stored in a very fixed systematic arrangement, making it very easy for me to travel back in time to find a specific version of a specific file. Here’s the basic scheme:
Folder Structure
Basically I have a master consulting folder, under which I have a folder for each client. Inside each client’s folder, I have a folder for each project. Within each project, I have a series of folders designed to help me find files quickly and easily, and almost every file or folder’s name begins with a six-digit date code, YYMMDD.
Inside each project folder I have folders that are date-coded to help me navigate through the history of a project. With each new day on the job, I create a new folder, and any file that I create OR MODIFY on that day will be saved as an incremental copy inside it. It is very important that every major change to any file be saved as a new and distinct document, thus allowing you to easily go back in time if something awful happens (like the client changing his mind… six times… a year later).
Keeping incremental copies of your files is also helpful because it makes it easy to remember how a project progressed, and even correct the client if they remember incorrectly how a given decision was made. If I weren’t organized, it’s just my memory vs. the client’s, and guess who wins?
I also keep two special folders in my project directory: received, and released. Every file or folder that is sent to me by the client is dated with a ‘YYMMDD_’ at the beginning, and put into the ‘received’ folder. This makes it easy to find resources sent by the client, without having to dig through your email archives. Secondly, and even more importantly, every file that is sent to the client is zipped, dated, and saved in the ‘released’ folder. This way I can always remember which files were sent to the client, and which were not. This is VERY important!
File Naming Rules
The reason for YYMMDD rather than MMDDYY is simple: when you sort a list alphabetically, YYMMDD will sort in chronological order year after year, while MMDDYY will not.
You might notice something else about all of my file naming conventions: they have no spaces or special characters of any kind. Just remember: ‘Letters, Numbers, Underscores.’ That’s all. Nothing else! The reason for this that while spaces look very nice to human eyes, they make life impossibly difficult for automated scripts used in many CAD and design packages, not to mention making file-exchange between platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux) difficult and sometimes dangerous. Just repeat it over and over: ‘Letters, Numbers, Underscores’.
Keep Backups
Keep backups. I’ll be doing a separate post on backing up your files, but know this: you WILL lose data. And when that happens, will you be ready? Don’t be a sucker. Spend the money to set up a good backup system. If you don’t, you’ll be sorry. 100% guaranteed.