HTML Basics

Jeff Williamson
Northern Virginia Community College
www.nvcc.edu/home/nvwillj/html-basics/
nvwillj@nvcc.edu

File management

These are just some ideas and lessons learned over the years, for what they're worth

Filenames

Use filenames that describe content (edible_parts.htm), not order (p2.htm)
Why? Because you're likely to change the order - if you decide that a section needs to go between page2.htm and page3.htm, you will have to renumber page4.htm and page5.htm, too.
Also - For sites without folders, think about the beginnings of filenames - filenames with consistent beginnings will be displayed together, e.g.
home.htm
home_mailme.gif
home_mypic.gif
toc.htm
toc_icon.gif
toc_search_icon.gif

Also - graphics from clipart sources usually have unintelligible names (1411.gif) that you might to change (sm_blu_button.gif).

Use long filenames (i.e. longer than the DOS-limit of 8 characters) - but not too long
Why? The number of uses with operating systems that can't accomodate long filenames (mostly Windows 3.1) is pretty low now, and even they only need long filenames when they save pages.
Too-long filenames (e.g. my_first_page_on_the_internet.html) won't display well in views of your directories, such as open dialog boxes, Windows Explorer, and FTP programs.
And you know not to leave spaces in your filenames, right? Watch out particularly when you are converting MS-Office documents - users often tend to use spaces in filenames for these.

Use consistent extensions - .htm or .html, but not both.
Why? If you mix extensions, it's easy to lose version control of your pages, e.g. both mypage.htm and mypage.html are on your site - but which one did you update last? And which one did you link to?

Folders (also called directories)

Separate related content into folders with clear names
Why? For the same reasons you create folders on your personal computer - just to keep stuff organized and manageable.
Folders with clear names offer orientation cues that users do notice. Which name has clearer meaning?
mason.gmu.edu/~jdoe/edit772/finalproject/
mason.gmu.edu/~jdoe/edit772/may15_1stdrft/

Go easy on sub-folders
Why? Because you can't see them as easily and they're slightly more difficult to link to.
If you limit yourself to, say, just one group of folders for your whole site, it's also easier to write links between parts of your site, because you know everything is one folder down.
With subfolders, though, there doesn't seem to be a natural limit - if you make one sub-folder, then why not a sub-sub folder?

Make the first page of any folder the default page of your server, such as index.html or default.htm
Why? To take advantage of your clear folder names, so users don't have to type the filename:
mason.gmu.edu/~jdoe/edit772/finalproject/
mason.gmu.edu/~jdoe/edit772/finalproject/startpage.htm
Big company sites make great use of this, to where you can generally type a company's address - slash - product name and go straight to the page for that product, e.g.
adobe.com/photoshop/

Store graphics consistently -either together or with their HTML pages.
Why? Because graphics are hard to keep track of. Some folks use a separate image folder for the whole site, so that all the graphics are in one place and can be easily viewed with a thumbnail viewer.
I tried this, and decided it was too confusing to have all of the graphics for a large site mushed together into one folder. So I keep my few overall site graphics at the root level, and the majority of graphics for my content pages in folders with the content html files.

Consider keeping a "graphics originals" file outside of your site with subfolders for the sources of your graphics (e.g. c:\graphics_originals\aplusart\)
Why? Because you may need to check the copyright or give credit for a graphic, and it's very hard to retrace the source without the original filename.
This also keeps the raw graphics files (not .GIF or .JPG, or files that need editing) away from your finished web graphics. One big non-web ready file stored in your web site can signficantly eat up your server space and slow your upload times.

Uploading

Upload folders, files, everything, every time you make any changes. Don't try to pick just the files you modified
Why? You want the assurance that your remote site looks exactly like your local site. Trying to pick indiviual files takes time and introduces errors, since it is very easy to upload the wrong files or forget about a needed graphic.

Archiving

Keep one or more backup copies of your sites - on your hard drive (c:\homepage_bu\ ) or on a separate disk
Keep a backup copy of your site somewhere else on the web, too - in case your need to teach or present from it and your site is down
Keep historical copies of your sites, too - c:\homepage_99fall\
For official and other important pages, leave markers when you change site structure - so users and search engines who have the old pages marked can find their way to the new pages. E.g. if you change a foldername from
our_company_info/ to
info/

don't delete the old foldername - instead put a page or script there to get users to the new folder.

HTML Basics

Jeff Williamson Northern Virginia Community College www.nvcc.edu/home/nvwillj/html-basics/ nvwillj@nvcc.edu

File management

Jeff Williamson
Northern Virginia Community College
www.nvcc.edu/home/nvwillj/html-basics/
nvwillj@nvcc.edu