How Much Space Do I Need?

Good question. Odds are that you need very little, starting out.

As I've reminded you in past chapters, the more a page contains, the bigger its file. Pictures (and picture backgrounds) dramatically increase the amount of space a page requires (and the time it takes to appear to a visitor). Sound, video, and large file downloads also might dramatically increase the amount of space you need.

If you have followed the tips I've offered for keeping the performance of your page sprightly, you'll find that each page occupies very little space. A basic pagea screenful or two of text graced with two or three small picture files and maybe a picture backgroundtypically requires less than 100KB of server space (often much less). You can store at least a dozen such basic Web pages in 1MB of server space. (There are 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte).

Most Internet providers and online services supply at least 3MB of free space to each customer; many supply as much as 10MB. That's enough to store 100 basic pages and have a few megs left over for a short video clip or two.

The following example shows how to determine the minimum amount of disk space required by your page files.

The following example assumes that you have stored all the files for the pagethe HTML file or files and picture files, for examplein the same folder on your hard disk.

1. In Windows, open the folder in which your Web page files are stored.

2. Press and hold the Ctrl key and click one by one all the files that are a part of the page. (The folder shouldn't have any files that aren't part of the page, but if it does, don't click those.)

3. When all the files are highlighted, you see the amount of space they occupy reported at the bottom of the folder window (see Figure 30.4). The Web page in this example (which includes two screenfuls of text, two pictures, and a picture background) requires only 5.16KB of space!

   Figure 30.4. Step 3: Read the size of the combined files.