Naming Your Files for the Web

Browsers and web servers have their own set of rules when they try to read the webpages you create for your site. By following the suggestions below, your site visitors will be able to find your information.

Suggestion

 Valid Valid Invalid Invalid
Never use spaces within, before or after the name of any file that is destined to go on a web server.contactus.html
contact us.html
Never use unusual characters within a file name. Avoid punctuation marks other than dot (.) dash ( - ) and underscore ( _ ).  The dot/period is reserved for use between the file name and the file extension (only one per file).  All other special characters such as # " & % , etc., are reserved for the HTML code itself. Using them in a web file name will usually result in an HTTP 404 - File Not Found error.  Avoid accented vowels.

Note: It is good practice to avoid use of the underscore (_).  As most URLs are underlined by default, an underscore may be mistaken for a space ( ).
 gmunoz.html
oceanvolcano.gif		 gmuñoz.html
ocean/volcano.gif
Keep your file names short (under 27 characters) but meaningful. contactus.html
dean-photo.jpg
 contactourdepartmentnow.html
IMG25257.jpg
Use a valid file extension.  All web page files must end in .html or .htm.  All graphic files must end in .gif, .jpg or .jpeg.

Note: To make your files equally acceptable to both Mac and Windows-based editors and web servers, you may want to use the least common denominator which is the 3-letter versions of all extensions.

Warning
ACM Users: When creating web pages through ACM, the file extensions are added for you automatically.  Do not add the .html or .htm extension in the URL Title.  When uploading images to the Digital Asset Library, ensure you are uploading either .gif or .jpg images.
 contactus.html
dean-photo.jpg
 contactus
dean-photo
Some servers are case-sensitive. That is, the file hello.htm is regarded as a different file than Hello.htm If you use upper case, you need to be consistent in all your links to that file.

Note: The safest course is to keep everything in lower case.
theend.htmlTheEnd.Html

to top

Last reviewed7/28/2008 10:50:49 AM

a place of mind, The University of British Columbia