File Name and Extension
The full name that a page's HTML is published under consists of the file name, with a file extension tacked on. As is universally true for web pages and sites, file names are limited to allow the use of only the following characters:
- ASCII letters (a-z)
- numbers (0-9)
- underscores and hyphens (dashes)
This is because many hosts have issues with file names using characters other than these.
File Name
Sandvox automatically sets a page's file name from its title. The file name is the page title with any characters not in the list above removed and with spaces or punctuation replaced by dashes. So for example, if you title a page Is my site great? Sandvox will provide is-my-site-great as the file name.
If the page title consists solely of characters not in the list (for example a title in Japanese), Sandvox sets the file name to be a random-looking, unique string of letters and numbers.
If you change the title of the page, the automatically generated file name will also update itself to match the page title. Once that page has been published, however, the name no longer changes automatically. This allows you to update a title without losing any links to that published page. (You may change the file name after publication, but keep in mind that there may be links to the old page with the old file name; this file will still exist on your host.)
You can also set a page's file name manually yourself. There are several advantages for this:
- If your page has a long title, the automatically generated name may truncate the middle of a word.
- You can create much more attractive and easy to type URLs by choosing a shorter file name.
- Your host may require a certain page to have a particular file name.
- You may want to use keywords that people may be searching for, in order to improve likelihood of being found by search engines.
To set a page's file name:
- Select the page in the Site Navigator.
- Edit the file name in the Page Details area.
You cannot change the file name of a site's Home Page. If you could and did, web browsers would not be able to properly locate the Home Page when visiting the site.
File Extensions
Normally, all pages are published with a file extension of html. You might want to change this for:
- Compatibility with an unusual web server
- Constructing a special page type like PHP.
A page's file extension can be changed, like the file name, from the bottom of the Page Details area.
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