File Naming Tips for Digital Asset Management Systems

CUPERTINO, Calif. - April 20, 2013 - PRLog -- Your digital asset management (DAM) system may be home to thousands of different types of assets: Video, photographs, logos, illustrations, audio, presentations, and more. All are unique, and they must be easily searchable, and convertible to alternative formats. They should also be quickly transferrable to both internal and third-party users, regardless of computer environment. Key to this entire process are smart, intuitive file names. They can be number-, date-, or subject-based, but they should all adhere to a few simple guidelines.

At a minimum, file names should be:

Unique - Providing distinct identification for a file (this also prevents inadvertent overwriting)
Clean - Short in length, and free from unusual characters and symbols
Platform-agnostic - They can be received from, sent to, or used by a variety of other computer systems
Content-indicative – Including a 3-4 character extension denoting the type of content in the file

But all this raises a question. If you receive a file from another organization, user, or platform, should you immediately rename it for use in your DAM system (http://www.iointegration.com/solutions/digital-asset-mana...)? In order to standardize your filenames, yes—but consider retaining the original file name as metadata attached to the file, so that the previous owner can still locate it using the original name.

With the little forethought and some crisp filenames, your DAM can continue to easily and efficiently manage all of your digital assets as your organization grows, regardless of the origin or destination of the files. Add in some custom scripting for automatic metadata application, and you can create anything from assets ready in real-time for specific channels to automatic archival and rights-management workflows. The possibilities are endless with the right naming and metadata conventions.

About IO Integration

IO Integration is a global leader in marketing technology and provides brand management software (http://www.iointegration.com/solutions/brand-management) and digital asset management solutions that help companies easily and efficiently share, manage, and control digital assets for the world’s top brands, agencies, and publishers.