Media items and files naming guide

Thoughtful naming practices will help you to find and manage your media items.

There are two naming considerations:

File name - what your image or document is saved as on your computer (e.g. premier-headshot12345.jpg or annual-report-2024-final-version.docx). Users will see this name when they download a PDF, Word doc or Zip file onto their device. Ideally the file name gives a clear indication of the content and version or date.
Media item name - what you assign to the CMS ‘item’. Media items contain a file as well as other information, such as the alt text, copyright and what site and department the file belongs to.

Media item name guidelines

When adding an item in the media library:

Use spaces: Unlike file names, use spaces between words in the media item name.
Be detailed but concise: Ensure that the name is descriptive enough for easy searching when you need to locate items. Your items will be tagged to site sections and departments, and thus you can use these filters on the Media screen, but additional owner or project information can be helpful.
Include important specifics:
- If an image features a specific person, include their name and relevance position in the media item name (e.g. 'Associate Professor Jun Yang - Women's Honour Roll 2024').
- If your images belong together in a series, such as council members or honor roll inductees, give consistent names to all items in the series.

The only place a media item name is visible to the public is when an image is used in an image gallery.