File Naming / Organization Methods?

Todd, I keep basically the same organization structure as you. I am continually getting confused when I go back to a previous job to make some quick changes only to find that I have 3 version of a template layout and 3 more versions of a production art piece that I pulled from one of those templates. I have also tried to be as descriptive as possible and break everything into subfolders, but I still have a problem with duplicate files.

I think it all starts at the beginning of the job. You have to stay organized from the beginning. I have gotten to the point where I do keep completely different concepts in a separate folder, but if I make a design change to the final template I don't keep a copy of the template before changes. I write down the change and keep it in the job folder.

I think to organize it more than it is now you have to simplify your files from the beginning. Keep fewer copies of the little changes and combine like elements in production art files. The latter is especially true with Pshop's slicing and batching tools.

Not exactly what you were asking for there, but I haven't found a good way to name files either. Just subfolders for my templates / illustrator docs / production art / and html if warranted.

My 3 cents:

1. I use underscores and hyphens for different and strict purposes. A hyphen separates a multi-word descriptor, an underscore separates categories of defenition. For example: nav_home.gif, nav_phone-book.gif, nav_my-resume_on.gif

2. I'm not shy about name length. I always include info relevant to the function of the image and/or the section it belongs to. For example: home_nav_my-resume.gif, footer_nav_email_on.gif, widget_bullet_green-arrow.gif

meant 3 cents, but was only 2. sry.

The system you've described is likely to be what most of us use, as it is for me.

What I take advantage of is the 'Comment' area of the file/folder's 'Get Info' dialog box. I find this to be extremely powerful, especially since Sherlock returns better results when this info has been entered in.

It may be a bit time-consuming during the task, but it's a huge time-saver any time you have to return to a project.

My typical job stucture looks like this:

Client>Jobname, inside I job I usually have folders like: dev_design, raw_assets, docs, and then depending on the project more folders like: mechs, images, logos, flash, html, etc. On huge projects I often will download a clean "live site" copy to a new folder once a project has gone live and keep that separated from all the dev files. Ditto with big print jobs that get "collected" for output. I name likethis_1, and likethis_2, and everything usually works out pretty well.

t,

i've got things set up (in os x) under a "mathew" folder - my wife and i share the machine. clicking that, you come to a few folders:

documents
inspiration
jobs - corporate
jobs - personal

viewing that in list format will show the job folders easier.

next, inside the folders (jobs - personal, for instance) i have:

web - graphics
web - html
web - scripts

inside html, i then org things by date:

2002.08.27 - project a
2002.08.26 - project b

etc.

it's pretty confusing sometimes though. i need a better way too. can't wait to see what people say.

hope mine helps you. i'm not too shy re: files names either, but i'm also not shy about folder numbers. if i've got a folder that's too buried or it's vital and it's in:

home/documents/mathew/jobs-personal/etc..

i'll just drag it to the dock until i'm done with it.

-mathew

Here's how it's works at my ad agency (I do it pretty much the same way at home):
Each client has it's own folder. Within that, each project has it's own folder, named with a 3 letter client ID code, then the job number. Every file in that folder starts the same (client ID + job number). After that, I do a short description of the document, a version code and then the extension:
WCC-798 HOME PAGE v1.psd

I only use a version number if I'm in the initial stages of presenting, after that, I just keep one master file and save over changes.

I also keep a separate folder outside the job folder for all my initial comps and layouts. That way I keep the job folder clean.

I usually also have a "Hamburger Helper" illustrator document for web stuff that contains all the needed gizmos and what-not that I cut and paste into P-shop. Then each page only has one file to deal with because all the associated doo-dads are on the same AI file.

k,

that's a pretty damn good idea.

-mathew

Organization has always been a huge problem, especially when working with several other people. I have been using this structure for a while.

client
- ia
- build (standard build structure)
- design
- psd_workers
client_home_v01a.psd
client_about_v01a.psd
client_contact_v01a.psd
- old_psd_workers (for safety reasons)
- ai_workers
client_objects_v01a.ai (all the little things I end up drawing for the site or flash, I keep in here)
client_home_v01a.ai
- fla_workers
client_homeheader_v01a.fla
- imports
- images
- sound
- sound_dev
- mgmt
client_cb.doc (creative brief)
client_proposal.doc (proposal/assumptions)
client_milestone.xls (timeline)
client_quote.xls (quote)
- research (any research associated with the project)
- invoice_billing
- client provided (all the documents provided by the client)

all,

i posted a thread over at yayhooray re: this to get some info. check here:
http://www.yayhooray.com/s-forums.cfm?action=read&id=116752

here is my setup. not always this clean though. where i ususally run into problems is saving files to the desktop for ease of access, and then not putting them away later. then i have no idea what version they are. espcially since you can save to the same exact file name as a previous version this way. trying to ween myself from this very bad habit.

jobName:
billing
client materials
photos
copy
reference
design
MECH [html or print]
proofs
proposal

has anyone tried site spring? or similar?

robrhyne, I noticed that Macromedia is going to discontinue support for SiteSpring. I haven't tried it.

This is a pretty salient topic for me. I've always got way too much stuff on my desktop. And I'm starting to do more work from home, which means I need to be more organized in terms of synchronizing my files. Donnie O'Quinn, who wrote a pretty heavy-duty book on Photoshop 6, also wrote a great overview of the print world from the perspective of designers and prepress operators: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789721023. He has a chapter in there that deals with file management (too long to describe here). I'd disagree with a couple of his suggestions, but in general it's pretty solid.

I have the following setup (all webdevelopment work).
Client
____JobName
________Work
____________Design
____________Data
____________Copy
________Build/Final
____________Design
____________Data
____________Copy
________Site
____________HTML
________Archive
____________ArchiveDate/Version#
________Admin
____________Proposals/Quotes
____________Billing/Sign Off
____________Correspondence/Meeting Notes
________Notes

Under each lowest-level folder, these are generally divided by section on the site. The Build/Final are the PSDs, etc that use to build the site from - this folder always only contains the files currently used to layout the site, whereas in the work section there may be all sorts of versions of things (each with a _Vx attached to the end of them).

This has so far worked very well for me, keeping my ideas/dev work seperate from the final version of any files. I also can this way tell at a glance if I need to make edits once a site has been built which file to edit and where. Obviously, under HTML is whole other hierarchy of how I organise my sites, but this tends to change depending on the size of the site I'm working on.

The big advancement for me was to create and organise my Admin, as those were the files I was always losing, not knowing which one to look at, etc.

You've probably already thought of this, but make one main folder, entitled "ps", or something. make a bunch of sub folders entitled "finnal", "project", etc. etc.

Ya know, something like that. It might help. That's at least what I do

My dad who is a furniture builder and doesn't understand much about what I do for a job, taught me a everything I know about organizational work flow. I'll try to describe this as an analogy.

If you're building a piece of furniture on a work bench it's important to keep the work bench relatively clear of debris and tools while you work. Every so often you stop and do a more thorough clean up. At the very end you pick everything up and clean off the tools as needed.

I find the same is true working at my digital "workbench" (Pismo or Quicksilver). As I work throughout the day or week I move older files out of the way and make sure I'm working with the most current files. Older files get moved into other folders. Usually this involves paring down excess files then backing them up to CD or other media. The main fact is that they are off the main hard drive and not creating confusion or a general mess.

I have a naming convention for my files and folders but I find this is somewhat a personal thing and dependent on thought processes. What I consider obvious, may not be to someone else. And as others have said donít be cryptic with naming conventions. Chances are if someone else doesnít get it you might not either later on. Working styles can change and so can naming conventions.

For my projects I create a folder for the specific client and everything except invoices goes in there. Generally the structure follows that of a typical web site: html and css folders, image folder with file type(ai, png, gif, etc) sub folders. During the process of building both finished and unfinished files are stored in the same folder but as I said earlier older files are culled.

To keep the desktop clear and have my files where I need/want them I create keyboard shortcuts using Dragthing.

http://www.dragthing.com

Any heavily accessed file or folder is dropped onto Dragthing to create an alias. Then to the alias is assigned a keyboard shortcut. So, with a simple keystroke I bring up the folder Iím working in. There are other utilities that allow for the same function, Dragthing works well for me though.

Also to consider are the new features being included in Adobe Golive, Livemotion, and InDesign and the whole new Macromedia MX line. When working inside the same product families, there are features that allow for ìliveî editing of a graphic inside a web or print document. This can also help reduce the amount of duplicate files.

When my projects are done and burned to CD I then use a utility called Disk Tracker to index the contents of the disk. If all I can remember is the name of the client, thatís fine. I launch Disk Tracker and search its index for the folder and then I can browse the folder without having the disk in the drive.

http://www.disktracker.com

Perhaps all of this is obvious but it works for me. It seems to me keeping things organized is more of a work methodology than exact steps .

We use a system pretty similar to stv's so I won't really go into the overall folder structure - we've got an empty template folder that we duplicate at the start of each job. I'd say the handiest thing we do is tag our photoshop files.

Each file is versioned in the filename, eg Homepage(01sw).psd and every time a designer edits the file, they increment up the version, and put their initials on. That way we all know which version is latest, and who last touched it.

And if for some reason we need to step back a redesign or two (and how many times has a client requested a change, then changed their mind?) we just grab the previous version number and we're there.

Within our Photoshop folder, we've also got a subfolder called 'Visual Dialogue' which we use to store all the old versions of psd's, so the main working folder never gets too cluttered with old concepts and old versions.

http://www.thebrain.com
is a cool tool i use to create "beyond the standard" type heirarchy and relationships between files. Hard to use a 3rd party tool instead of just the finder or explorer, but much more fun at the same time.

Other than that, Stv. had some great ideas i will start to implement.

Someone mentioned sitespring? While the official product has been discontinued, I am a user of PHPcollab (www.phpcollab.com). It was heavily based on sitespring and is under active dev. It now actually surpasses the original. Its new versioning tracker may be of interest, it also supports cvs. There is a small Mac OSX prob that I'm working on for Nate but otherwise its fairly solid. Oh, and I did a theme thats included called Ordinarylife ;)

My system is also very similar to Stv.'s ... waitaminnit - that's because i work with Steve! Doh.

I would add to that that I'm merciless with old versions of things (clearing them out), but just in case, I use a folder called /working/junk. Here's where I throw everything I don't need any more, and if I'm wrong, i can retrieve it, and if I'm right, when the site is finalized i can throw everything in /junk out.

We also have a /working/comps folder and that's where everything goes (usually sorted by designer-named subfolders) before the site concept is signed off.

Other than that my naming structure is pretty standard from job to job. homepage.psd
sub-about.psd
sub-contact.psd
nav-top.psd
nav-bottom.psd
etc.

It doesn't bother me that I have that same-named file in other job folders.

I do most of my versioning in layers in the psd file, and i name those layers.

I also put all those bitty .ai doodads in one file where possible.

/work, /working ... whatever

Each client gets its own folder. In that folder, each job gets its own folder (I'm not organised enough to remember the job numbers, so they're just 'web', 'Conf Poster', and whatnot). In each job folder, there's a folder called 'src' (for 'source') which contains my original comps, photos, etc. That's generally subdivided as necessary ('Layout-Preliminary', 'Layout-Final', etc--NEVER throw out a rejected comp!).

It hasn't been perfect--in particular, it's a bear to retrospectively search for the right thing--but in general it's worked well for me.

The method below has worked very well for me. Although I'm a one-man band and I don't have to worry about collaborators.

I group my projects together by year, then number them in the order they came in the door.

Jobs
_Jobs 02
___02-001 Client Name, Brief Project Description
_____from client (copy, images)
_____v1
________designs
___________v1a
___________v1b
___________v1c
________src (images, illustrator files, etc)
________images (flattened TIFFs, EPS)
_____v2
________designs
___________v2c (assuming v1c was approved)
___________v2d
___________v2e
________src
________images
_____v3
________designs
___________v3d
________html
___________v3a.html
___________v3b.html
___________v3c.html
___________css_v3a.css
___________css_v3b.css
________src
________images
_____final
________css.css
________employee.html
________home.html
________index.html
________images

When I'm naming GIFs, I try to do it in a way that makes them group together in the directory:

nav_bottom_employees.gif
nav_bottom_home.gif
nav_bottom_safety.gif
nav_top_employees.gif
nav_top_home.gif
nav_top_safety.gif

I usually keep about 12 months of projects on my hard-drive and I've got two years worth on my 80 gig firewire external hard drive. Every night at shut-down I use Silverkeeper (recommended by Todd, thanks!) to back up that day's work to the firewire drive. So everything's in easy reach.

About once a month I burn completed projects to CD. I make two copies of everything. One set goes in a CD album in the studio. The other copy goes to a friend's house 15 miles away. I also have backup copies of my application CDs at my friend's house.

And, just in case I'm not being anal-retentive enough, I use the mac.com storage area to back up my Palm files, my QuickBooks accounting file and sometimes my daily files. That way if my house burns down, taking my Mac and firewire disk with it, I'm not totally hosed.

If I could figure out a way to easily back up my daily files to mac.com, while deleting the previous day's files, I'd do that. But I haven't figured out a way to automate that, so it doesn't get done.

Most of what everyone has said so far has been the case at my company...but we've done away with a few things:

1. Each new project for a client gets a human-readable name, not a number. For us, we use cities that have an international airport, and this name, once used, is not used again. We also try to choose in alphabetical order, i.e. the first project for a client will begin with an A, such as Aachen or Atlanta, etc.

2. I've been moving towards the use of periods as a delimiter as opposed to underscores or dashes. Every web browser understands them, as well as most OSes (haven't had a problem anywhere, but I don't have access to a Mac so I can't be totally sure).

Inside the project folder, we will create 4 directories: assets (from the client), doc (for documentation ;), design (for visual production), and src (for the actual code).

This system seems to work pretty well. In addition, more often than not we'll incorporate the date into the filename (menu.bottom.20020824.psd). It helps with the versioning, although it's not flawless. Once a particular comp is decided on, we'll create a working copy that no longer has the date in it.

There's probably more, but I can't think of it right now...

I've worked with many variations on the above and, still, I find myself hunting around for that one .psd -- know what I mean? I find myself dragging file after file into Picture Viewer just to see/remember what's in it. Note: Since I do so much freelancing and other collaboration, I'm always having to work with other people's idea of logical file structure.

Anyway, I started using iView to catalog my files since it can collect any graphics, sound, text, movie or .swf file. When working on a complex flash piece or web site, it's a god-send. I heartily recommend it -- and read the manual, there's a lot this program can do.

Wow! Lot's of good ideas here!

I have worked for years in production (manuals, art, multimedia, CBT...) in a large group, and the safest thing I've ever found is to simply label things with a sequential alphnumeric string, that may or may not include some human-parsable information.

This can be combined with a logical folder structure and perhaps some suffixes.

For instance:

s0001_edit.snd - the working copy of a sound file
s0001.snd - the final product
s0001a01.snd - a derivative or piece of that sound

For job "ABC",
ABC_0001_edit.psd - source/working art file
ABC_0001.jpg - output base file
ABC_0001a01.jpg - output overlay file a01
ABC_0001a02.jpg - output overlay file a01

This doesn't tell you what file ABC_0001 actually is, but it's easy to see/sort in a list, absolutely avoids confusion, and even if files end up in the wrong folder, they won't overwrite or be confused with another file.

This even works in groupd development environments, in that you hand out a block of numbers to each member - 0001-0125 for Joe Developer, 0126-0200 for Donna Developer, etc. If more numbers are needed, hand out a new block.

One small thing that has helped me maintain order on development servers is creating a folder called "bucket" or something that can be a temporary holding space for iterations, tests, images posted for the client to see, etc. When the job is finished, throw the bucket out the window. Saves from having "orphan" files mixed in with the real ones. Also I'm quite anal about file naming consistency and subdirectories for the includes and images folders... If you are disciplined with these things, navigating your own work months later won't seem like a trip to a foreign country.

At my last agency, somebody had an Applescript applet that you would run for every new project. You would run it on the desktop and title the top folder with the job number, which would identify client and unique project, regardless where it got moved. Once you had done that, you had folder structures similar to what has already been mentioned. Once you were done, you copied that folder to the server under the Client name directory. File names of presented work all had the same project number with a brief descriptor and usually pixel dimensions. I've never been more organized.

Does anyone have some good recommendations for project management/contact manager systems? I need something web based that we can run off of our server here (or elseware). It needs to be able to be expandable and the following features would be nice:

Calendar
Tasks/Projects
People
Knowledge Base
Documents
Work Requests
Staging Server
Admin
Search
Email
Reports

Obviously I'm asking for a lot. So I'm thinking I have to build it. But I wouldn't mind starting with something somebody else has, or a monthly package.

For file naming conventions we use about what everyone else is saying except sometimes to prevent confusion I just make an ARCHIVE folder where I dump stuff I know I won't need but want to hang on to.

I'll also name files with a date at the end (e.g. 082802) or with a _2, _3, etc. Even more confusing I'll make a PSD called MovingForward_v11 or something like that.

Ok.

At the risk of being long-winded, here are some notes about filenaming I wrote some time ago (the notes on file organisation are even longer):

1. What makes a good filename?

1.1 A good filename minimises confusion about what the graphic is, without having to open it
1.2 A good filename provides information about where it belongs in the siteís info architecture (in some cases)
1.3 It aids alphanumeric grouping of related files
1.4 It is free of temporal information (ìnewî, ìfinalî, ìupdatedî, etc.) that has no absolute meaning
1.5 No mix of upper/lower case, no characters that can cause technical problems (e.g. spaces and certain punctuation marks)
1.6 It upholds the siteís professional standards: correct spelling, no inappropriate humour, etc.
1.7 Brevity is important, but less so than avoiding production hitches

2. What are the benefits of filenaming standards?

2.1 Predictable naming make finding files easier
2.2 A standard, well-documented naming scheme will reduce the dangers of duplicate files with different names lying around
2.3 Alphanumeric grouping makes it easier for all to visually scan lists of filenames
2.4 Alphanumeric grouping speeds up image browsing, e.g. in Photoshopís File Open dialog box, and quick image viewers like Irfanview
2.5 Standards speed up decisionmaking when naming a file

3. What do I suggest?

3.1 Firstly, standardise nomenclature:
3.1.1 Clarify what is meant by certain oft-used words and sometimes synonomous words, like ìheadingî, ìtitleî, ìbannerî, ìstraplineî, ìbuttonî, ìiconî, ìanimationî, ìdiagramî, ìchartî, ìlogoî, ìbackgroundî
3.1.2 standardise rollover state naming conventions (high, low, up, down, over, etc.)
3.1.3 agree on acceptable abbreviations (e.g. ìnavî, ìhiî, ìloî, "but", "px", etc.).

3.2 Standardise conventions like underscores (ì_î) or hyphens (ì-ì), version indication ìv1î, ìaltî, etc. and datestamping (if used)

3.3 Back-to-front naming: ìwidestcontext_context_nameî. Examples:
3.3.1 ìicon_help.gifî, ìicon_search.gifî, etc.
3.3.2 ìtemplate3_background_uk.jpgî, ìtemplate4_background_singapore.jpgî, etc.
3.3.3 ìbut_news_u.gifî, ìbut_news_o.gifî, ìbut_news_dî.gif (for up, over and down states)
3.3.4 010403 representing 3 April 2001. A list of dates in this format automatically sorts itself chronologically

I suggest minimising abbreviations as one cannot count on different people abbreviating in the same way, which can cause nightmares when searching for a file. The only tradeoff of long filenames is slightly increased HTML file size.

Sorry for clogging up your comments page, Todd! I guess I better blog my thoughts instead.

^ smart, that.

Well i have a very strange way to organize my self.

First, I'am a devote Illustrator and Photoshop user but i just discover a few years ago a way to optimize all my organization and files.

I use Fireworks, that's it, Fireworks, for layout... and i mean every layout.

I know the fantastic powers of Illustrator and Photoshop and i use both app but... the fact is that you can mix both using fireworks unless you really really really want o need to use any other applications.

I use too a kind of organization, some like this, one png file for basic layout with all the sections. Then i just separate every layout in a new file for constant changes, this is good way i think to keep organized and with less files, some of the advantages of fireworks.

Sorry for bad grammar or spelling, I'm from Mexico City.

I have found that no matter what, after a project a finished, you will go back to those files and ask yourself 'what is this?'

I have a few practices that minimize some of the confusion though. I do most of my comping in Photoshop for web sites. The PSD's always get saved into the clients folder, into another foder names PSDComps. There can be anywhere from one to 100 comps in there. Once I reach a solution that is approved it gets resaved into another folder named FINALS. Those files will go to Fireworks for a little slice n dice, or flattened and saved as jpgs/gifs to be put into the site folders. Of course, the main folder for the site is in the Clients directory named SITE_FILES.

I guess what I'm getting at is to have a series of folders for a given project that reflect the different stages of development. If something gets changed you just save it back to the PSDComps folder and then make the changes, and resave to the FINALS folder. It's a little overkill, but I can always locate the correct PSD's when I need to go back for revisions. So, COMPS, FINALS, SITEFILES are the main three folders for a given client project, and those folders would have whatever subfolders you might want (ie: in the sitefiles folder there would be a CSS folder, a PICS folder, a BKGROUNDS folder, a PHP folder, etc...).

Works for me. Your mileage may vary.

Hello all. I have an AppleScript for OS X that I wrote which does two things when you launch it (in the 'Documents' folder, I have an folder called 'Active Projects'):

1. Gives you the option to create a 'New Client'
2. Gives you the option to create a 'New Project'

If you click on 'New Client', you'll be asked to name the client folder. For example: A client named 'Top Drawer Co.' would be named 'Top Drawer Co (TDC)'

Each client has a 3-digit indentifier (i.e., 'TDC').

Inside the client folder, you'd get the following folders:

-Agreements
-Correspondence
-Documents-Misc
-Notes
-Projects
-Proposals

f you click on 'New Project', you'll be asked to select the client's folder (note: you must create a 'new client' before creating a 'new project').

Eacj new project would be named with the 3-digit identifier, along with a date-code, and project code. For example:

TDC.021903.P

Here's the break-down:

TDC = Client 3-digit code
021903 = mm/dd/yy
P = Print (or W for Web, A for Advert, etc.)

Inside the project folder, you'd get the following folders:

-Assets-Agency
-Assets-Client
-Assets-Copy
-Comp-Prelims
-Comp-Final
-S+M (which stands for 'Schedules + Milestones')
-Timesheets (per project)

If you're interested in using this AppleScript, I'd be happy to share it. I can customize the folder set up for you to fit your needs. This seems to work pretty well for us. I'll be interested in hearing your feedback.

Best of luck.

I forgot to mention:

For folders (directories), we delimit each group (see previous post) with a period ( . ).

With file names, we delimit categories with an underscore, and hyphens for compound words (or potential ones) or names we can't boil down to one word, version number, and file extension:

3-digit + file-name* + version-number.extension

* For file names, we try to make them meaningful, but abbreviate as best we can while trying to be consistent.

Example:

tdc_wcp-ad_logo.ai

This file name tells us:

1. It's a 'Top Drawer Client' project ('tdc')
2. It's an advertisement for 'The Washington City Paper' ('wcp_ad'), and
3. It's the Adobe Illustrator logo we'll use in the ad (logo.ai)

Another example:

tdc_ecomm_inc_navbar.htm

This file name tells us:

1. It's a 'Top Drawer Client' project ('tdc')
2. It's an asset for the e-commerce section of their website ('ecomm')
3. It's an 'include' so it should be in the 'includes' directory (if code), or 'images>includes' if it's a graphic asset ('inc')
4. It's the navigation bar ('navbar')
5. File's extension

We always keep the same order (*very strict*). This is especially important for websites because the number of files can really become rather large. Keeping the same order, i.e., 'tdc_ecomm' will ensure that all of TDC's E-Commerce related assets will be grouped together.

Hope this helps.