File management: The basics
Before you create a single file
or directory, you have to consider what sort of file naming system and
directory structure you are going to use. If you don't get things
right in the beginning, it will cause problems for you later.
File naming
- File and directory names must not include
spaces. Each file and directory name must be an unbroken string
of letters and/or numbers. NO: my diary.html YES: mydiary.html.
If you created a file in Word or some other program, and you want
to convert it to html, that's fine (though not recommended.) Just
be sure the file name is an unbroken string.
- File and folder names may include an underscore: my_diary.html
- File names should be short and descriptive.
For example, this file is named fileman.shtml, for 'file management'.
- It is best for a number of reasons to only use lowercase letters.
Directory naming and structure
- As with file names, directory names should
be short, descriptive, and made up of letters and/or numbers only.
There can be no spaces in directory names.
- Organize files in directories according to
a logical plan. Most website designers put their media, such as sounds and images,
in one folder, and their html files in different folders. For my website
here at NPUE, I have all my html files organized according to class.
So, for example, all my files for this class, CAI, are in one directory,
while all the files for the English 400 class are in another.
- If in doubt, stop! Don't go wild creating
numerous files and folders until you've given it some serious consideration.
Once you've created a website with 100 pages and 10 directories,
it's very difficult and time consuming to change the filenames
and directory names, not to mention what directories the files are
in.
