How one little dash can throw your automations, templates, and filenames into chaos

During our most recent First Friday Virtual Coffee, a seemingly simple question kicked off a surprisingly lively debate:

“How do you name your project files—year/month/day, year/day/month, or month/day/year?”

As members compared formats, the conversation turned to punctuation. One person said their firm was told not to use periods (.) in filenames. Another said they always use underscores (_). Someone else swore by hyphens (-).

And then someone asked, “Wait—does it matter which dash we use?” That question stopped us in our tracks.

Because as it turns out, yes—it matters a lot more than most of us realize.

Why It Matters

Your computer sees a world of difference between a hyphen (-), an en dash (–), and an em dash (—)—even if your eyes don’t. Smart punctuation settings in Word, Google Docs, or macOS can “helpfully” replace a plain hyphen with one of the longer versions.

Those subtle swaps look harmless in text—but when used in filenames, automations, or templates, they can quietly break things.

An en dash or em dash in a file or field name can cause integrations to fail, automations to stop working, or exports to misread the label entirely. So if your workflow ever breaks for no apparent reason… your punctuation might be the hidden culprit.

Quick Fixes That Actually Work

• Hyphen (-) → ✅ Safe for file names and automations. Use it for joining short words or labels.
• Underscore (_) → ✅ Also safe. Common in code or legacy systems.
• En dash (–) / Em dash (—) → ❌ Save these for writing, not for filenames or templates.
• Periods and spaces → ⚠️ Avoid when possible; they can break URLs, links, or scripts.

Bottom line: boring punctuation is reliable punctuation. The plain hyphen will almost always win.

A Member-to-Member Tip

This entire post came out of SDA members sharing real experiences during First Friday Coffee—the kind of everyday troubleshooting that makes our community so valuable.

So if you’ve ever spent hours rebuilding an automation that “mysteriously stopped working,” double-check your punctuation before you panic. Sometimes, one tiny line is the whole problem.

Want to Dig Deeper?

If this kind of detail makes your inner systems nerd light up, you’ll love SDA member, Elizabeth Harris’s full guide on Substack.

The Extremely Niche, Mildly Unhinged Guide to Dashes (for Substack, Notion, and Zapier People)

It’s an entertaining deep dive into the world of dashes, underscores, and invisible formatting gremlins—with screenshots, examples, and even a “dash decoder” visual to help you spot the difference.

Keep the Conversation Going

Join us for our next First Friday Virtual Coffee to share what’s working in your firm—or to pick up a few new tricks from fellow members. You never know which casual question will spark your next great “aha” moment.