Do your filenames look like this:

Thesis Final, Revised FINAL
Thesis Final, BC revised Final Corrected
Thesis, 20 Dec, TJ commented, PJ comments
Thesis FINAL EVALUATED corrected – Editor to review
Digital Platforms vFINALPre-editDRAFT (002)

Remarkably, the last of these comes from an actual document submitted for editing.

The reality is that it is virtually impossible to know for certain a document will not be further changed. Each of the above filenames is subject to having yet another Corrected or Final added.

Long ago I developed a naming system that fixes this. The system is simply to give files a version number and to repeatedly increment the version number. Thus, your filename takes the form:

Filename v01.docx

And then you simply keep incrementing the version number:

Filename v02.docx
Filename v03.docx

… and so on.

The “final” version of the file is simply the one with the highest version number. You do not add words like Final, Edited, Reviewed, Marked, someone’s initials or the date.

Increment the version number each time the file changes hands.

The system also makes it easy to see which file is the most recent active document. It is quick because the most recent file will always be the last one in the list (since, by default, Windows and Office sort files alphabetically by filename).

A final point: if the history of changes is important to you, you can still use my recommended system and keep a research or writing log. Your log will look like this:

2022/04/04: v56 sent to The Research Faculty for proofreading.
2022/04/10: v99 received from The Research Faculty. Brilliant work!
2022/04/10: Decision made to double The Research Faculty’s fee! No, I should triple it!

Note: This system does not use the AutoSave feature introduced with Office 365.