404 Page-Creation and Location

I’m trying to create a 404 page. When I create the page in Rapidweaver, generating the page gives me the following directory structure.

The problem, of course, is that a 404 page shouldn’t have its own “index.html” page, it should be just “404.html”. How can I get the directory structure right–with added graphics and info–so that this page will display correctly on an already-existing site? In other words,

–what modifications need to be done to a RW-generated custom 404 page; and
–where does that page go? (I’m assuming next to the existing ‘index.html’ page.)

Maybe these links will help.

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OK, but “just make a page” in RW results in the generation of the file structure as shown above. Because these files reside in the root directory, along with the files generated for “index.html,” you simply can’t add them there. Sure, if you just create an all text html file with no supporting files outside of RW (\begin{html}…\end{html}} you could do it, but then there are no supporting files.
So what should the file structure look like?

The difference is that you made a 404 page as part of a single RW project. In my case, because I’m running multiple sites, the 404 page was its own project because I’d like to use it for each different site. In other words, the 404 page is its own *.rw project file.

Just copy the page to each sites project file. Your going to need a htacess for each site anyway.

Making a 404 page as a separate project does not make any sense. It always has to be a part of a regular project. What makes sense is to reuse your 404 page in multiple projects, if necessary.

In RW project, in Page Inspector, create a folder for your 404 page (give it a name – something like… “404” or “PageNotFound” maybe?). The fact that the page itself is named index.html is not a problem, but you can name it anything you want. Just be sure it is placed in its own folder.

Then, as Steve suggested, make a .htaccess file and in it reference your 404 page. That’s it. You can reuse the same 404 page in other projects by copying it and adjusting the reference in the new .htaccess file.

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Why should that be a need?

One reason I think it needs to be part of the regular project is I would assume you would want regular navigation on the page.
Would like the customer who mistyped a URL to get back to the homepage or another page on the site.

Another reason: if you create a project for just 404 page, it will be put in the root – hence the Original Poster’s problem.