It never ceases to amaze me, the number of people that are oblivious to file naming conventions and their ramifications.

We have mostly Microsoft to blame for this… Since Windows 3.1 came on the scene in 1992 (previous versions 1 through 3.0 were almost invisible to the world) PC users everywhere have been able to click file/save then type ‘my file name.ext‘ and click the save button.

There’s a problem with that, it doesn’t follow the conventions the rest of the computing world follows, and of course, like your mom always told you ‘play well with others’. Well Windows never did, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t.

Often, when I explain to someone that filenames are case sensitive, they’ll respond no their not and proceed to show me an example of a file named ‘my File.htm‘ and how you can access this file on a browser online using ‘my file.htm‘. So the answer is yes, if you are using windows, and the site you’re visiting happens to be hosted on a windows server you can get away with that.

But…

In the great world wide web the majority of servers are unix based, not windows! and unix (linux) and macintosh are caSe SeNsitiVe!

So rule number 1.
Always remember filenames are case sensitive. It doesn’t matter if you use upper or lower case or a combination (though all upper case filenames is considered bad form) just be consistent. If you want to name your file ‘MyFile.htm’ that’s great just name all the files on that site using the same pattern.

Next, lets talk about spaces in file names.. Windows allows you to do it without issue so what’s the problem?

The problem again has to do with the web in general. File names are transferred over the web in ascii format, this means that ‘my file.htm’ ends up coded like ‘my%20file.htm’ and depending on how that file has been linked to, the server the site is hosted on, the network, your operating system and browser it my or may not work right.

Rule number 2.
Never use spaces in file names. Never, ever, ever. either remove them totally: ‘myfile.htm’, or use the underscore or dash: ‘my_file.htm’. Most Internet professionals recommend never using capitals in file names, but whatever you decide to do make sure you are consistent in all your file naming.

Quite a few people have mentioned to me that they don’t intend on designing websites so why bother?

More and more our society and technology is moving towards some degree of integration. People access their work computers from home, you can watch TV online, on your cell phone, or access the Internet via your television in the family room.

Macintosh and Linux are making incredible dents into Window’s market you never know a couple of years from now you might want to get a Mac!

The simple fact is that no one knows where the future will lead. You are better to begin using accepted standards now rather than have to go back and change everything down the road.