Use Filenames That Sort Properly

It is not uncommon to work on projects that require several workbooks. When you are naming files for your project, you should use names which will later sort properly when you use various functions of Excel. For instance, the Open dialog box shows the files in the current directory. If your files are named properly, they will always appear in order on the list.

I ensure this by starting all files related to a project with a number of digits that represent the order in which the workbook appears in the project. For instance, if the project entails workbooks from the last quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006, then the files may be named as follows:

200510 Actual Figures.wks
200511 Actual Figures.wks
200512 Actual Figures.wks
200601 Actual Figures.wks
200602 Actual Figures.wks
200603 Actual Figures.wks

The files sort properly because they beginning with the year. If they began with the month, then the first quarter of 2006 would sort before the last quarter of 2005, which is not nearly as helpful an order.