Whenever you create a column in a SharePoint list or library, use these best practices to ensure high quality. It will help you in the future, when you want to automate things in the background.
In case you wonder why you would do this, it's important to understand that the first name used in a column stays "forever". So it must be done right, renaming it later is no problem, but will never change the underlying name.
General Best Practices
The first column name is very important, and stays in use even if you rename it. So the first name must always adhere to the rules below. You can always rename it later to whatever you want displayed on the screen.
- Column Names should not have spaces or special characters
- Use Pascal casing in the first/original name, so FirstName, QualityManager etc.
- In the first name, if reasonably possible, use short field names...
- ...but avoid using special abreviations - don't use things like SQM, rather use SiteQualityManager
- Never re-purpose a column - so don't ever rename a yes/no field from "Archive" to "HasManager".
Background: often users do this, feeling like they are saving resources. In reality, you will then have a column called "Manager", whose internal name is still "Archive".
If the Column should be labeled in a non-english language
- Always first give it the english name, save, then rename to the local language
If the Column should be labeld with spaces or other text
- First give it the "technical" first name, like "IsArchive", save, then rename to nice name, like "This product has been archived"