Naming Files
Filename space: Uploading a file with spaces in its name (e.g. "Week 1 Reading.doc") can cause problems when students try to view it. For best results, be sure there are no spaces in a file's name (e.g. “week_1_reading.doc”) before you uploaded it to Blackboard.Note: The same no-space naming convention for files should be used in all other areas of Blackboard, such as content area folders, discussion board attachments, documents posted to the group exchange and files posted in the Digital Drop Box.
Filename length: Files uploaded to Blackboard should not have a length of more than 30 characters, including the "." and the extension.
Mac users must use proper file extensions when uploading files to Blackboard courses.
File extensions are the letters that appear after the period near the end of a document name that indicate the file's format, e.g. a Microsoft Word document called "History_Lesson" will have a file name of "History_Lesson.doc", where ".doc" indicates it is a Word document. Failing to provide a file extension can cause a file to appear as gibberish when downloaded from Blackboard.
Note: Some operating systems do not show file extensions unless you select the show extensions option.
A Partial List of File Extentions
| File Type | Extension |
|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) | |
| Adobe Scalable Vector Graphics file (SVG) | .svg |
| Apple QuickTime movie | .mov |
| Graphics Interchange Format file (GIF graphic) | .gif |
| Joint Photographic Expert Group file (JPEG graphic) | .jpg |
| Macromedia Flash movie | .swf |
| Macromedia Streamable Shockwave Audio file | .swa |
| Microsoft Access database | .mdb |
| Microsoft Excel workbook | .xls |
| Microsoft Excel template | .xlt |
| Microsoft PowerPoint presentation | .ppt |
| Microsoft PowerPoint template | .pot |
| Microsoft Word document | .doc |
| Microsoft Word template | .dot |
| Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) movie | .mpg |
| Moving Pictures Expert Group 3 (MP3) file | .mp3 |
| Plain text document | .txt |
| PostScript file | .ps |
| Real Audio media file | .ram |
| Rich Text Format (RTF) document | .rtf |
| Tagged Image File Format file (TIFF graphic) | .tif |
| Wave sound file | .wav |
| Web page (HTML) | .html |
| Windows Media file | .wma |
| Zip-compressed archive | .zip |