Name | Title | |
General | Name is the file name as uploaded from your hard drive, or the name you specify when you save directly from a native application to the SharePoint document library. | Title is meaningful name given to the document by the person who uploads or saves it. In PowerPoint, the Title of the presentation or first slide in the presentation is pulled in as this property. |
Ability to change/edit | Can be changed at time of upload or edited at any time. | Can be filled in at time of upload, but is not required. If not filled in, is left blank by the system. Can be edited at any time. |
Where it appears | Shows at the top of the window when the file is open in the native application. | Shows at the top of the window when the document is open in a browser. |
Where the property is stored | Document | Server |
Ability to modify the column settings in SharePoint document library settings | No – the "Name" field is not accessible from the doc lib settings. | The label can be changed (i.e. to "Title of Document" instead of "Title") but the field cannot be deleted. Must be single line of text. |
Views | Can be included in a view, 3 flavors – Name (for use in forms) Name (linked to file with edit menu) Name (linked to file) | Can be included in view, not as link to document. |
Document Properties | Appears on the General tab, and in the File section | Appears in the Description section |
Search (SharePoint default) | If no Title exists, Name will appear first in the search results:
| If a Title exists, it will appear in the search results instead of the filename:
|
Best Practices | The following characters are not allowed in SharePoint document libraries: / \ : * ? " < > | # <TAB> { } % ~ & For cleaner URLs, use no spaces, or underscores instead of spaces. Spaces are rendered as "%20" in the URL:
| Ensure that your title doesn't reflect anything inappropriate, especially if it has been filled in automatically (i.e. a PowerPoint presentation prepared for a particular customer being shown to a competitor). |
Resources I used when researching this information:
Title vs Name in Document Libraries (a discussion thread on Google Groups):
Setting up Windows SharePoint Services as a Collaborative File Store:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/V2/fsdoclib.mspx
