What name should I give to a file that I want to publish on my web site? What characters should I not use in a file name? Is it OK to put blank spaces in a file name?

Here are a few guidelines for naming files that you intend to publish on your web site.

• Choose a simple and descriptive name for the document. "Mary-Smith-School-Report-11-2-2007.pdf" is better than "Smith.final.updated.JM 11-2.pdf". The first file name is simple and descriptive and provides visible MM-DD-YYYY date stamp, while the second is cryptic and reveals perhaps too much of the internal editing process.
• These days it is possible to use spaces in file names, but I recommend against it, because a web browser will fill in a space with the characters "%20", so that a file named Education Report April 2007.doc becomes Education%20Report%20April%202007.doc. That file name is hard to read and recognize.
• Uses dashes between words in a file name, rather than spaces. This will help search tools key on your file and could boost its rank in search results.
• Omit these RFC 3986 characters, because they confuse web browsers:

  ! * ' ( ) ; : @ & = + $ , / ? # [ ]

• To reiterate, never use the above characters in a file name!
• Create a file name that indicates the document title, so you can easily deduce a document's full title from its file name. If you have ever tried to compare, in a web access report, cryptic filenames with real document titles, then you will understand how important it is to give a document a "transparent" file name.
• To summarize, keep a file name simple and descriptive, add a publication date in the file name itself, and omit spaces. Use dashes between words instead of spaces. Give each file a transparent name that indicates the full title of the document contained in the file. These practices will help you, your web site visitors, and search tools locate your documents.

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