How to link & select related files, based on similar naming conventions?

[jprint714]

I use naming conventions for files that roughly follow this formulation…

QTS_2021_07_02-[Name]_[Subject] – the “QTS” prefix refers to a file that’s set up for a list a of questions (e.g., QTS_2021_07_02-Babe Ruth-New York Yankees).

The thing is, sometimes I just change the prefix so that the there are different files types, for different purposes, that relate to the same name / subject material. I’ve NTS for notes, TRA for transcript, MMO for memo, etc. Applied, it would look like…

QTS_2021_07_02-Babe Ruth-New York Yankees – for the question for Babe Ruth

TRA_2021_07_02-Babe Ruth-New York Yankees – for the transcript of the interview

NTS_2021_07_02-Babe Ruth-New York Yankees – for a summary of notes of the interview

MMO_2021_07_02-Babe Ruth-New York Yankees – a memo based on the interview

I’m wondering if there’s a way to somehow link these files together, so that (a) I know if a file is related to another file, based on the date, name, and subject, and (b) if there’s a way to, say, right click on one of the files to show the other, related files – and have the ability to select one of those files.

Hope this makes sense… And thanks for everyone’s help with this!

[ashish]

I use custom metadata. It shows the relationships but takes a some effort to maintain/update.

[brookter]

I may be misunderstanding what you’re after (for which, apologies…) but for point b), doesn’t the Documents section of the Inspector: See Also & Classify panel do what you want? i.e. It shows related documents based on name and contents (and no doubt a lot of other clever stuff…).

It doesn’t show a list restricted only to the files you want, but it is sorted by relevance so in your example, if you selected the QTS document, you’d expect the other three to be high in the list, because the names are close and the contents likely to share vocabulary. A quick visual search will show you which conform to your naming convention.

Clicking on any one of the listed files will move to it (and the list will continue to show your related files.)

If you wanted to then insert a more formal link, then select your relevant related files and choose ‘Copy Item Link’, and copy and paste in the ‘source’ document.

Sorry if I’ve misunderstood your requirements…

[DTLow]

I use tags to link the notes