Version management tips for creative businesses

[Amy]

Making sure you’re working on the most up to date version of a file is super important. There is no heartbreak quite like working on a video edit, or image for an hour and then finding out that V2_final has been usurped by V2_final_final and you’ve wasted that time. 

Here are a few tips on how to manage your files and make sure everyone has access to the right files at the right time. 

Naming Conventions

Having your team on the same page about whether you customise a filename file by including the project name, file name, date or version can save a lot of searching down the line. 

Whether you go with a content, date or number based file naming system, just make sure it is consistent.

How to organize your files

Once your files are correctly named, the next step it so make sure they’re saved in the right places. The layout of folders and files you use to store information is important, so make sure folders are labelled correctly, and the right people have the right permissions. By assigning specific teams within Dropbox, you can then create repositories for their work with specific access permissions for people inside and outside the team. 

Keep a copy of every file 

With version control you keep access to every single version of a file throughout a project, from start to finish. You can check for differences between versions and ensure that all changes made are settled. You should be certain that what makes it into the final version is final and that it wasn’t added at 1am the night before.

Once a project is complete, version history can also be crucial when reviewing your team’s work in hindsight. In this case, document version control can serve as an audit trail of your teams’ work during a project, detailing their progress at every stage. Armed with that info, you can better diagnose issues in your processes, especially when it comes to how you can streamline your work in future.

These are just a few tips, and you can find a few more here, but different things work for different people. 

What do you do to ensure you have the most up to date files? Share your file management tips below.