# IDs go with files or folders or items?

**URL:** <https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/ids-go-with-files-or-folders-or-items/750>\
**Category:** The Johnny.Decimal system\
**Created:** [May 21, 2023, 7:34am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/ids-go-with-files-or-folders-or-items/750 "2023-05-21T07:34:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2023, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/ids-go-with-files-or-folders-or-items/750/2 "2023-05-21T10:49:30Z")

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99.9% of the time you want your IDs to be folders that then contain a bunch of files. Category 12, in your example.

Some of my folders do only include a single file. I usually don’t know this when I create it, it just turns out that way.

[This thread](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/individual-files-dont-get-jd-numbers-right/15/6) also discusses this idea, and an exception. @Heloise has a category which is ‘sewing patterns’, and in this case one ID = one sewing pattern.

In this case she did _not_ bother creating the folder, as she knew 100% that there would only ever be one file in it. This is definitely an edge case though, just for your information.

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