I wonder why people are so reluctant to use file names?

I run into this quite frequently in my role as file librarian. Someone will ask for some change or other and tell me to do it to "their file" or some such vague description. Or they will tell me the FID number, which is not very useful; check our search pages and you'll see there is no way to search on FID. Or they'll give me the URL of a search result they did; again not useful since that search result only works for the person who did the search and not for anyone else.

There's such a simple solution: just tell me the file name.

I see the same sort of trouble in the forums and in file docs. Someone will say "go find so-and-so's such-and-such airplane..." which may (or may not) allow you to do a search and find it (but can you really be sure you found the right file?).

There's such a simple solution: just tell people the file name.

This works in our file library too. If you write a description for a file that requires another file, just include the file name of that file; the library software will automatically create the complete link, making it easy for people to find the correct file.

We may have some 170,000 files in our library but each and every one has a unique file name so it's quite easy to uniquely identify which file you want to refer people to. Our basic search form lets people just plug in that file name and then be sure that the file found really is the one intended.

So please: use the file name.