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Participant
May 30, 2024
Question

PDF files – should they be contained in the images folder... or not?

  • May 30, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 822 views

I have googled this question in just about every form possible and I can't find an answer. Are .pdf files considered images, and stored in the images folder? Or are there fewer issues by locating them in the site root folder? I don't want to sound like an absolute newb, but this is one of those questions that just lingers...

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    2 replies

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2024

    PDF are media files (interactive forms, e-books, portfolios, video, audio, etc...). 

    They require a special viewer like Acrobat or Free Acrobat Reader to view & interact with them.

    I typically put PDF into a dedicated PDF folder, separate from web images and HTML files.

     

     

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    Jon Fritz
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2024

    PDFs are not images (typically)...

    The vast majority of PDFs are not simple images, like a jpeg or a gif. They can be a pretty rich file format, with interactivity, embedded fonts, as well as images. They can have searchable text, and could have pretty much an entire website's content baked in for offline viewing.

    Does that mean you need to have a "pdf" folder?

    No, not at all. It's completely up to you how you want to organize your site. Aside from special cases, like using DW's Template or Library feature, there's no rule in DW saying you must separate all images from video, or pdfs from images via your directory structure. In fact, if your site's not all that big, using one folder for all non-html assets called "assets" and storing everything there would/could be just fine.
     
    It's all up to the person/people putting it all together. Use as many or as few folders as makes sense to you.

    Personally, I keep images and PDFs in their own folders, I also separate out pages by main sections into their own folders, but the choice to do so is yours.

    One mans "organized" is anothers "directory structure of doom".

    BenPleysier
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2024

    I second @Jon Fritz in that there are no fixed rules on where to store asset files. My usual way, even for small websites,

    assets
        images
        pdfs

     

     

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