Illustrator CC Save For Web Exported Artboards have a hyphen "-" when there is a space in the file name

Question

I'm working with character animations and it happens that I need to replace an existing image with exact same name.

Example:

• Arm R
• Leg R
• Face A
• Face B
• etc
• .. ..

I edit those inside Illustrator. Then I want replace Arm R with the new edited Arm R. However when I save & export, Illustrator exports like this "Arm-R". So the original image is not replaced instead I have 2 images now.

One called Arm R, other called Arm-R. I did not put a hyphen myelf.

It's a time killer to remove all the hyphens later from the name.

How to prevent Illustrator to put a hyphen into a file name?

Answer 1

Respectfully, you have it the "wrong way round" and in this instance, for a variety of reasons Illustrator is right, and you are wrong.

I find myself using underscores as spaces in every filename I ever make, psd's, .ai files...everything. You simply never know where a file might end up (like a web-server, or backed up to a NAS where you might want to perform bulk, command-line, operations on it). - Spaces cause ambiguity.

You would not want to delete your current file names from a web-server via:

rm Face A

...which would delete all the files called "Face", and all the files called "A" but you would not delete the file you intended. Non intended outcomes on web-servers (or backup machines) are scary!

Likewise is URLS you would face problems if you ever tried to download:

www.example.com/face a.txt

Also of course you have just run into an instance where an application is making the right choice... saving a file for the web should certainly avoid spaces, and you are having to carry out additional work to make the situation worse. This in itself should deter you.

I recommend you get a decent, free, file-renamer, like Bulk Renamer and that you put all those hyphens back (or go pro...with the underscore haha) and then abandon all thoughts of spaces from henceforth! You_will_not_regret_it!