Naming Your Files

Your web files will be viewed by numerous users who use a wide variety of operating systems (Mac, PC, and Linux for instance) and devices (desktops, tablets, and smartphones are some examples). Therefore, it is essential to play it safe and avoid common illegal directory and filename characters.

Keep these common rules/guidelines in mind as you name your pdfs, images, documents:

• Most operating systems are case sensitive; use lowercase if you can.
• Must not contain
  • Ç or any other french (other language special characters)
  • spaces 
  • punctuation
  • special character or symbols (use dashes for spaces)
• Using underscores and hyphens is acceptable and can help make a filename make more sense. There is an ongoing Hyphen versus Underscore debate but both will work. Typically IPAC uses underscores, but you may use hyphens.
• Be as short as possible, using keywords that make it clear what the page is
• If your file has a space in it, the published URL will turn that space into a "%20" so you'd end up with a URL like "www.demo.ipac-canada.org/contact%20us.pdf"

Examples