Organizing Files and Directories
Most of you are undoubtedly familiar with "Explorer"
on Windows or the "Finder" on the Macintosh. These programs
allow you to view the contents of your hard drive. Your hard drive
contains folders, and most folders have other folders inside them.
This is the way you organize your files so you can find a file
on your computer when you need to access it.
When you begin building a Web site, you will want to organize your
files and folders in a similar fashion. Start with a home page (index.html)
in your home directory, and create folders inside this directory
to store your content pages.
Here are some good tips for organizing your files and folders:
- Organize files and folders in a logical manner. A good place
to start is thinking about how many main links you want on your
home page. It depends on your content, but you probably want at
least four and probably 12 at the very most. These topics would
be good candidates for folder names inside you Web site.
- You can create additional folders inside the folders you already
created. This is the best way to keep large Web sites organized.
- When creating folders inside of folders, follow a logical progression
of the type of information contained in each. Typically, work
from general concepts --> general topics --> specific topics
--> specific details.
- Avoid redundant use of words in your folders and filenames.
Consider these two examples:
BAD:
BETTER:
Your folder and file names become the Web addresses for your pages.
Make them easy to say, easy to write down, and easy to remember.
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