Rule #28

Never blindly trust a file sent to you by another source.

This one still trips me up from time to time.

When working on collaborative projects—managing content from multiple sources like photography, ads, page layouts, and copy—you’re bound to encounter production quirks unique to each source. Maybe it’s a difference in file naming conventions, inconsistencies in typographic styles within a Word document, or the way an ad or other design component is built.

I tend to get caught when I’m moving fast, especially on a catalog or magazine project. If I don’t take the time to preflight a file or check the export to ensure it’s in a usable format, I run the risk of unexpected issues. It’s easy to assume everything will work smoothly when placed into the master document—but that assumption can lead to press delays or upload failures.

And when the software spits out an error code, suddenly, you’re dropping everything to troubleshoot, experiment, and possibly recreate a file just to keep the project moving. It’s a frustrating but valuable lesson: always check the files before you assume they’re good to go.