A quick question - how do you handle correspondance with a third party when their naming convention is all over the place? I suffer from receiving lots of poorly named documents that the sender expects in their ‘naming’ when I respond/update/ add to.
You could save me a lot of pain!
Naming conventions are important, but my experience with DEVONthink over the more than a decade in active use … file names not that important any more. I try to make them “presentable” but don’t worry about making them perfect to enable finding them.
That is because I mostly rely on DEVONthink’s ability to auto-classify, which mostly is correct, into groups which hold lots of files and not overly disected into precise groups. Then, 9 times out of 10, when I want something I do a search everywhere, and if not found I go to one of those groups and do a better search.
In other words, I rely on DEVONthink to help rather than rely on “paper file cabinet” thinking that I grew up with.
Great question out of the gate!
Simply, I name files as I wish for my local filesystem/usage, and if I send something back to someone, it is usually (almost always) as per my own naming convention.
There have been a few (very few) times I have utilised others’ naming conventions for files I have created/modified and sent back, but I try and avoid that wherever possible for my own sanity*! 
Sean
*Why is their naming convention any better than mine?!
I get that, and I may well achieve that level of disregard for filenames once I fully “grok” the auto-classification/searching abilities of DEVONthink.
Until then, my convention helps me to navigate on known grounds while I learn new ones 
Sean
And sometimes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 
Thank you. A very comprehensive response. It gives me some ideas for my own system as well.
I used the same date format, except I put them at the beginning of the file name. But I’m thinking end is better because then the items is sorted by type rather than by date.
What are you thoughts about separating the components of the filename with ‘-‘s? I am confused about them. Sometimes I add them sometimes I don’t.
In the interests of making things as quick as possible within the constraints of having a semi-complicated scheme, I don’t find utility in dividers.
If, at some point, you decide to remove them, a batch process to search for them and remove them would be straightforward, but might not be felt useful.
Sean