Only One Dot in a File Name. Period.

While helping a client with an online entry recently, I was reminded about the use of special characters in file names and one rule in particular ... to use only one dot (the period character) right before the extension in a file name.

For this particular entry, the gallery asked that images be submitted with LastName.FirstName.1.jpg as the format for the file name. Although the dot is allowed as a character, its use is generally restricted to the end of the name as part of the file extension (.jpg for example) because older software may have trouble interpreting more than one dot in a file name. Other special characters, such as /\?%*:|"<> are reserved and can never be used without causing a problem.

If you want to improve the readability of a file name and, for example, separate the artist's name from the title of the work, the _ or - characters are always safe choices. Otherwise, stay away from multiple dots and special characters in file names.