AdFast now delivers over 20,000 files per week, with some major pre-press centres receiving hundreds of files every day. Please follow these simple guidelines when naming your files prior to uploading. This will help avoid confusion, and greatly assist personnel at advertisement reception desks to identify your job.

File names must be limited to 31 characters, which must include the suffix .pdf, leaving 27 characters for description purposes. Please use alpha numeric characters only, and the underscore _ where necessary as a field separator. Do not use hyphens or spaces in file names.

Please note that these characters must NOT be used:

\ / : * ? " > < |

If you attempt to upload a file with a name containing any of these characters, it will not transmit successfully.

The Mac OS has always allowed this character in filenames, and OS X continues to do this. However, OS X users must take special care not to use this character in filenames for transmission over the Internet as only the part of the name after the '/' will be used by the OS when transmitting the file. The OS considers the rest of the name to be the path (as in MS Windows).

The problem is best illustrated by an example. If you attempt to send a file called 660231_TDS_SWAY_19/01.pdf, the file will be sent successfully, but with the name 01.pdf (the bit after the forward slash). This can be extremely confusing for advertisement reception desks, and could result in your file not being recognised.

A file name cannot contain consecutive full points (full stops). A file named 123455..pdf will not upload, and will generate an error page during the upload process.

When a URN has been issued and is known, it should appear in the filename. Most titles like the filename to be simply the URN.pdf, but you can add some further details if desired. For example, say the title 'Tavistock Daily Star' has issued the URN: 660231 for an advertisement for Safeway to appear in an edition publishing on 19 January. Examples of good filenames are:

660231.pdf
660231_TDS.pdf
660231_TDS_SWAY_19jan.pdf

Sometimes it is necessary to resubmit copy. In such cases, you must contact the title by telephone to inform them that new copy is arriving to replace that which you have previously sent, whether or not it has been already downloaded.

It is also helpful to identify the file as new copy in its name. If you amend the file and send it with the same name, the system will rename the later file to prevent a conflict with the file sent earlier. This will take the form of ACF122B.pdf. While ensuring the file is unique, the name is not obvious from the recipient's point of view. To avoid this, rename your new copy as below, or similar:

AMEND_660231.pdf
NEW_660231_TDS_SWAY_19jan.pdf

Please avoid the temptation to send a file with the same name to more than one title. Each file sent should be individually and correctly named according to the basic rules and guidelines above.