Distinguish between folders and files, names and titles.
How best to name your files and title your pages.
This image shows the panels on the right of the DW screen with the File Panel open.
This is the site name
Below, the Local Files panel shows the Site Folder and two other sub-folders. Note that the index.html file is not in a sub-folder. |
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Folders
Folders are containers within the storage area of your computer that hold sub-folders, files (documents), images, etc.
You start with a Site Folder that will contain your whole site, mostly in sub-folders.
Folder names can have spaces and should be explanatory to you.
If folders have contents a +sign will appear to the left of the icon to show this. Click on the folder icon to show its contents when a -sign will show. Click on the -sign to collapse the folder tree:
Example showing folders, sub-folders and files (the file names are not showing fully in this example):
You should have separate folders for images, sounds, etc. DW will make folders for galleries, templates, library items, etc.
to make a new folder:
[Mac: Ctrl+click] [Windows: right click] on site folder, (or other folder) > New Folder. DW will create a folder named
untitled. Change this to a suitable name.
Files
Each page of your site will be a separate file, with a name. The page may contain elements such as images or sounds (with their own names). When you insert them on the page DW will link them to the folders that contain them.
I think it is useful to keep all page files in folders, especially on a large site. This will reduce the length of the list of files in the files panel and make then easier to find. See a list of some icons and suffixes at the bottom of this page.
To make a new file:
[Mac: Ctrl+click] [Windows: right click] on site folder, (or other folder) > New File. A new file will appear named untitled.html. Change this to a suitable name, keeping the suffix .html.
Names
Names are given to folders and files so that you can find them.
Folder names can have spaces and should be explanatory to you. They do not have a suffix. They do appear in the url of the page.
File names should not have spaces but can have underscore marks to separate words like_this. They should not start with a numeral nor have special characters. If you have many pages it will be important to you that the file names distinguish which page is which. Do not name your files page1, page2, etc.
Files of your pages will have the suffix .html or .htm
Other parts of your site such as templates, images etc will have other suffixes, see below for some examples.
Folder and file names are also recognised by search engines and are what is saved when site visitors bookmark pages. Do not change them after publishing your site. see modifying your site
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
This is the full address of your site and of each of your pages and will contain the folder and file names.
example: the url of this page is:
http://www.sandrasmithgordon.co.uk/completed%20pages/files_names.html
Index (Home) Page
This is special and is treated differently from your other pages.
The file name of the home page of your web site must be: index.html
The file must be inside your Site Folder but not within any other folders.
The title of your index page is important - see below.
Titles
Titles are brief page descriptions, written in plain English with usual word spacing, about 60 characters maximum. They are written in the title space in the Common section of the Insert menu bar. (see image below: the title box is highlighted in yellow). Each page of your site will have its own title. Titles are found by search engines so make sure they describe your site or pages well. Dreamweaver starts each new page called Untitled Document: do not leave it called that. Page titles appear at the top of each page when they are displayed on the web.
Your home (index) page should have a title that describes your site so that people will want to visit it. Do not title it Home: it will never be found amongst the 4.6 billion others out there, or Index (there are already 3.1 billion)
To check for untitled files in your site: Site > Reports.... > Untitled Documents
Icons and Suffixes
here are some examples of icons used in the files panel and some suffixes:
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folder icon | |
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DW file icon | .html or .htm |
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css style sheet icon | .css |
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Fireworks picture icon | .png or .jpeg |
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Fireworks gif icon | .gif |
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Photoshop image icon | .psd or .jpeg |
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sound icon | .wav or .mp3 |
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cloaked folder icon | |
| DW template | .dwt | |
| DW library item | .lbi |
page updated 23/August/10