Earlier this week, I was on a "60 tips in 60 minutes" panel for Minnesota CLE. We actually delivered the promised number. (More, in the written materials, as each presenter tucked in some "extra.")
An attendee asked "in Windows Vista, is the maximum length for file names the same as XP or longer?" Live, I didn't know whether it was only the same (256 characters), or in fact longer. Nor did the other panelists.
It turns out that for most users' situations it's the same in theory, but slightly longer in practice. The Microsoft FAQ gives the same maximum length: 260 bytes (or English characters). But that's a maximum path length and includes a null. So "c:\" takes up three of the characters, and the null takes a fourth, leaving 256 bytes left for any combination of folder names and file name. That produces the potentially longer names in practice in Vista: instead of losing characters to
C:\Documents and Settings\Michael Trittipo\My Documents\Litigation\Mom and Pop vs. Goliath Enterprises\Discovery\Spring 2007\filename.txt (138 characters)
Vista has shortened the default document path to
C:\Users\Michael Trittipo\Documents\Litigation\Mom and Pop vs. Goliath Enterprises\Discovery\Spring 2007\filename.txt (117 characters).
The 21-byte savings comes from shortening the "special folder" names: turning "\Documents and Settings" into "\Users" and killing the pointless "My " cuteness. "\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft" becomes "\Users\All Users\Microsoft" and so on, as Michael Kaplan discusses. Also, some path names are reportedly being shortened behind the scenes.
The examples show why lawyers might sometimes care: it's easy for lawyers to give long names to folders and files, and to nest folders fairly deeply. But in general, here's a 61st tip: don't give a letter the name
Letter Demanding That Michael Trittipo or Any Other Blogger or Bloggers at Technically Legal URL used by Minnesota State Bar Association Cease and Desist Linking, Copyright Infringement, or Passing Off of Information Viewed on April 1, 2007 as Accurate on Any Other Date.doc
That's 275 characters right there: and that's without the necessary leading characters for whatever path it might be put in. There are still good reasons to rely on folder paths (metadata, in a sense) to organize things, rather than try to put every bit of description in the file name itself. "Demand letter of 4/1" will do fine, if the folder path does the rest. One advantage to document or case management systems is that they will take care of path names, without you having to do so (and without the risks of accidents that come from using Windows Explorer directly).
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