Microsoft Windows (tm) can be really great for filing information. You can have long filenames, filenames with spaces, filenames with characters, upper case and lower case... WOW! all kinds of options.
HERE IS THE GOTCHA!
Most non-Microsoft web hosting servers (Linux, Unix...) play under a different set of rules:
- Case sensitive - in the Microsoft world, the filename MyDogPic.jpg and mydogpic.jpg are exactly the same. In Unix/Linux, they are NOT! If your page hyperlink is to mydogpic.jpg, and your uploaded picture is MyDogPic.jpg, you will get one of those little red 'X's instead of a picture when your page is browsed.
- Spaces - Microsoft allows spaces in filenames. Hosting computers handle them differently. Many Linux/Unix hosts will insert the characters %20 in the filename to replace the space. (my new house.jpg becomes my%20new%20house.jpg) Others will truncate (cut off) the filename at the first space (my new house.jpg becomes my.jpg). Microsoft FrontPage will sometimes, but not always depending on site properties, replace spaces with underscores (my_new_house.jpg). Last, but not least, some will simply FAIL to upload a file with a space in the filename. The end result is the same a broken hyperlink. The page or picture you want to display will NOT be there.
OK, you think. No problem. Before I publish, I'll just rename all my files that have either spaces or capital letters. NOT AS EASY AS IT SOUNDS. Some web design tools (like FrontPage) will automatically change the hyperlinks when you rename a file others will not. You have to change the links manually. There is one other GOTCHA! In Microsoft Windows, you select a file named MyDogPic.jpg (good for you, no spaces) and press F2 to rename the file. You type in mydogpic.jpg and press enter.... The file is still named MyDogPic.jpg... because to Windows the capital letters don't make any difference... Sometimes I have even gotten the message "Can't rename. Filename already exists". OUCH!
However, YOU CAN BE TRICKY!
Select MyDogPic.jpg and press F2 to rename. Type mydogpic1.jpg and the capital letters will go away. The '1' makes it a completely different filename. If you want, you can rename again and remove the 1... the lower case letters will STAY. Cool, Huh???
This is the first of several Oh, Sh*ts on filenames.... stay tuned and come back often.
Ron
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