This is a list of thing to keep in mind when naming files and folders. If you do not follow these rules, Windows users might not be able to open your files, or the files may not work on a file share or Sharepoint site.
The basic rule is keep it simple.
Keep file and folder names under 50 characters (closer to 32 is better). A sentence describing the file contents is NOT ok, figure out how to be brief.
Do not use special characters, only letters and numbers and spaces. If you must, a dash or underscore is fine, but nothing else. No punctuation. No special characters. Nothing you need to press the Shift key to make other than capital letters.
Do not use "tab" in a file or folder name. If you need a space, use a space, not a tab.
Do not use periods in file or folder names other than the one designating the extension (i.e. mydocument.doc) Many people will have extensions hidden, do not add an extra one.
Do not put a double period before the file extension (i.e. "mydocument..doc")
Do not put anything after the file extension (i.e. "mydocument.doc new")
Do not start a file or folder name with a space (and though covered by #2, anything other than a letter or number).
Already covered above, but do NOT use "&" in file names. Even for A&A and P&T, it's an illegal character. Please write out "and" if needed.
Already covered above, but NEVER use a slash in a file name, it will break Windows.
Already covered above but a letter, number or space is a special character. Don't use # in file or folder names. If it's number 2, write no2 or num2, NOT #2.
In addition, do not make shortcuts on file shares. Ever. For any reason!
Always quit applications and close connections properly. If you see files that start with ~$ that is a temp file and someone did something wrong to make that get stuck there.