There are many issues with default alphabetical ordering, but it's the system we have for basically everything. Even sorts which use other metrics first have a fallback to alphabetical.
You may as well work with it.
- Add leading zeros to numbered files. Alphabetically 02 is before 10 is before 2 Some apps try to "smart sort" this problem away, but they cause other issues.
- Use consistent casing. Title Case, lowercase, or even UPPER CASE, as long as it's the same. Some systems will sort regardless of case, but most are case-sensitive.
- Order dates as year month day, with numeric months. It's the only format that sorts dates correctly alphabetically.
- Put numbers, dates, or other indicies at the start of the file name, not the end. An indexed list is useless if it doesn't sort by default in most tools.
- Similarly, put the broadest classifier first. You probably want FOOv1 next to FOOv2, not v1FOO next to v1BAR
Lastly, you don't need to rename everything at once. Keep it consistent for new things as they come in and rename old things as you use them, and it'll sort itself out over time.
- Rew
Nightly Notes
The internet is the closest we got to standardizing on file names, but even that's not reliable these days. I miss when we had articles instructing webmasters on best practices for URI schemas. The number of times I've followed a dead link which redirects to a major website's homepage because of a sloppy reorganization...
There's been official recommendations from the people who maintain the internet for decades. Do better.
- Rew