A reading name must be no longer than 16 characters. It should not contain spaces or slashes. As reading names are closely related to files on the disk, experiment file names should also be less than 17 letter long with no spaces.
As each reading is entered into a project database it is given a unique number. The first is numbered 1, the second 2 and so on. Their reading names are read from the ID line in the experiment files and copied into the database. As new readings are created and existing ones remove the reading numbers change in an unpredictable fashion. Hence when taking notes on a project always record the reading name instead of the reading number.
Many options ask for a reading or contig identifier. A contig identifier is
simply any reading name or number within that contig. A reading
identifier is either the reading name or the hash ("#") character
followed by the number. For example, if the reading name is
fred.gel with number 99 users could type "fred.gel" or
"#99" when asked to identify the contig.
Generally when prompting for a contig or reading name a default is supplied. This is the last name you used, or if you've only just opened the database, the longest name of the longest contig in the database.