Following on my recent post on document-comparison etiquette, longtime reader Jim Brashear sent me the following:
I’d be interested in reading others’ thoughts and comments on document filename conventions and etiquette. For example, one distributes a set of draft documents with filenames (descriptive or otherwise), and one receives back from various counterparties their edits in documents with completely different filenames (sometimes merely a number randomly generated by their document management system).
When I am not controlling the drafting process, I generally return comments in a file using the original filename with my initials and edit date appended in parentheses, e.g., “originalfilename (JFB edits 15Jul2010).doc.”
When entering into my document management system a file that someone else is controlling, I input the document name followed by their filename in parenthesis. I also set my system so that exported files sent to the counterparties are named using the full document name (with the original filename in parenthesis) rather than merely a document number generated by my document management system.
As with document comparison, this issue doesn’t come up in what I do. I leave it to you, readers, to offer your thoughts.
