Naming convention ideas: Templates, Library Items, and Documents

By: Liz Hobbs

PandaDoc users mostly use naming conventions to organize Templates and Content Library items. This makes the documents easy to locate and identify when the end users need them. 

There are a few things you can do when naming a document that will help make the process easier for your teammates when they are looking for them.

This isn't a time for creativity: Clarity, simplicity, and consistency are the key in creating document names. 

Determine early on what you want to include in the name and what order to include them in. Is the date it was created important? If so determine the format you will use for dating and stay consistent. Other factors to consider are the type of data or document (proposal, contract, NDA, etc.), location (state or country), and currency. 

When creating a name here are a few best practices to keep in mind. 

• Document your naming convention so others can easily interpret
• Reinforce and enforce the naming convention with your teams often 
• Don’t ever let document naming turn into the wild wild west
• Make the names descriptive but use less than 25 characters.
• Avoid unintuitive special characters 
• Archive outdated files so users know everything active is good to go.

While all of this may sound pretty straightforward, many of us realize that our document names are a mess when it’s already too late. The manual work to correct poorly named documents is no fun, so set yourself up for success early. 

Your Turn

What does your naming convention look like?