Opening, Editing, Renaming, and Deleting Files

You can manage your files on both local and remote drives from within CuteFTP.

Because of the way in which various type of servers handle files and to make file maintenance easier, keep the following in mind when naming your files and folders:

  • Keep names short. Some servers only allow a certain number of characters.

  • Create meaningful names using whole words to avoid ambiguity and so that you do not have to open a file to know what it is. For example, a year after you create a Web page for your friend's cat, Greta, you are more likely to know what pictures-of-greta.htm contains versus pog.htm.

  • Use lowercase for names. Some servers are case sensitive.

  • Names should never contain spaces or special characters (?* / \ : ; < >, and so on ). If you want to make filenames easier read, use hyphens or underscores; however, underscores are hidden if the filename is turned into a hyperlink.

  • For many websites, the main page must be called index.htm or index.html. If you rename it main.htm, it might not work. Refer to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) help pages or your network administrator for that information.

To open a file

  1. Click a file in Local Drives or the Remote pane.

  2. On the main menu, click File > Open, or click the Open icon . The applicable program opens or runs the file.

To edit a file

  1. Click a file in Local Drives or the Remote pane.

  2. On the main menu, click File > Edit or View. The file opens in CuteFTP's built-in editor or the HTML editor that you have specified in Global Options.

  3. Make any desired changes.

  4. On the main menu, click File > Save. If you want to save a text file as UTF-8 format, click File > Save As, and then click UTF-8 in the Encoding list.

You can configure the built-in editor to open in full-screen mode or in tab view . When you exit the editor, CuteFTP restores the screen to its original state. Cycle through the open panes, including any editor tabs, by pressing CTRL+TAB.

To rename a file

  1. Click a file in Local Drives or the Remote pane.

  2. On the main menu, click File > Rename or right-click the file and click Rename.

  3. Type a new name for the file, then press ENTER.

  4. The renamed file is highlighted and the sequence of the file is changed alphabetically. For example, if the file name was S.txt, and the name of the file is changed to A.txt, then the sequence of the file changes. The file A.txt appears where all files starting with alphabet A appear.

IMPORTANT: If you change the extension when you rename the file, you may not be able to open the file in the proper program.

To delete a file

  1. Click a file in Local Drives > Remote pane.

  2. On the main menu, click File > Delete. A confirmation message appears.

  3. Click Yes.