Over the years, Microsoft Windows has gotten much more forgiving, in terms of the characters it will allow for file names, and the Mac OS has always been a bit more flexible than Windows, allowing spaces in file names (for example) well before Windows users could successfully save a file that had spaces in its name. Some characters (punctuation marks in particular) still cause problems for Windows and Mac computers. Most punctuation marks will cause problems for Unix-based Web servers, which includes our Blackboard server.
If you are uploading a file into Blackboard – for example, as an assignment that you are submitting to your instructor – remember to avoid using the following characters when you are saving your file to your hard drive or to some other storage location (flash drive, Netspace private space, etc.):
In general, we recommend using simple file names, as the table below makes clear:
“Illegal” or Ill-advised File Name | Suggested Alternative Name |
---|---|
John’s Brilliant Paper #1 | john_smith_paper1.docx |
John + Paul + George + Ringo: Why Their Music is Great | the_Beatles_explained.docx |
The 10% Solution | tenpercentsolution.docx |
We used “dot extensions” in the right-hand column (as in .docx), since such extensions are common for Windows computers.
Although you don’t have to use just one word (or multiple words joined by the underscore character) in your file name, it’s best to use short and simple names when saving your file.
Please note that Moodle will end up stripping away these illegal characters and replacing them with the “underscore” character ( _ ), but the best solution is not to use illegal characters for file names, and instead, to name your files as simply as possible, whether you will eventually upload them to Blackboard or to Moodle.