How to make Web filenames
When you tell a Windows program and hosting to saveyour file as a text document, it saves just the
actual text characters that you see onscreen, without any formatting commands.
The Windows program also assigns the suffix
.txtto the file, unless you tell it otherwise and web database .
The filename’s suffix, which is usually
hidden from you by Windows, helps
Windows figure out what kinds of programs
the file “belongs” to. When you name your
file with the suffix .htm, it overrides the
.txtsuffix that Windows would otherwise
assign to a file that’s saved as text.
When your file ends in .htm, Windows recognizes it as an HTML file. This extension
allows you to easily open the file from a Web
browser program such as Internet Explorer.
By doing this, you can preview your file as
you work on it — and, more importantly,
other people can open your file as a Web
page when you put it on a Web server.
You may also see some Web pages with filenames ending in .html; this suffix works
on most Web servers. However, you should
not end the filenames of your Web pages
with .html.
Not putting spaces in your Web filenames
and using only lowercase letters in the filenames is also important. Why? Because
your Web page may be published on a UNIX
server, or on a server that runs an old version
of Windows. Different servers have different
filename rules. Only a filename with a main
part of eight characters or less, with .htm
as its suffix, and with no uppercase characters, spaces, or other special characters is
sure to stay intact and accessible when you
publish your Web page onto a Web server.
You should also keep your folder names all lowercase, for the same reasons. If your folder name
changes when you transfer your Web page to a
server for publication, links to the Web pages
and graphics files in the folder can be broken.
Nothing is more frustrating — or embarrassing,
especially if you’re creating a Web page for a
company or other organization — than having
your hyperlinks break when you move your Web
site from your own machine to a Web server.
