Lay My Hat

I am a beginner at this, so please don't laugh at my supremely stupid questions but I have had my own website for over 3 years and I think its about time I started doing minor text and photo updates myself. When I have changes at the moment, my webman e-mails me the various html files and I update them with word, which then seems to produce html/word files which I e-mail back to him. Does anything have to be done to these files before they are FTP'd?
For photos, do I need to have a seperate directory on my own PC that the photos will be taken from, as at the moment the photos are not there when I update?
What do I need to FTP - just the appropriate passwords from the webhost?
Any advice gratefully received!

I use Dreamweaver so I just click on the page or the image and then select 'put' and there it goes. I did used to use Terrapin FTP which was easy too. A real techie will help you more but just wanted you to know that you are not the only one learning as they go.

The FTP part is pretty easy as long as you have the passwords, and some software to do the FTP transfer, which you can buy separately or is included with FrontPage, Dreamweaver etc.

You can always test your transfer works first using a 'made up' page like www.brittany-cottages.co.uk/mytestpage.html

Won't risk harming the rest of the site, no one else will find it or be interested in it except you, and you will know whether it works.

As for the first part of the question, that depends whether he is sending you the 'complete' html files with head, body etc etc (you will see these in the file you receive if they are there) or some kind of extract. Really you are likely to need a website editor anyway - ignore what everyone else here will tell you, Frontpage is very easy to use and will do everything you want as you get started (a bit controversial to say that here, i think). Later on you will see the terrible things it has done to your code, but they aren't really so bad, are all easily reversible, and it is still a good WYSIWYG HTML editor. Dreamweaver is better (but will be too scary if you aren't familiar with what you are looking at, I think, and costs more).

I think the FTP is better in FrontPage (ie easier to use) than in Dreamweaver, but i could be wrong. Certainly its very straightforward to use.

The directory where you keep the photos on your PC shouldn't be a factor. When you do a FTP transfer you will tell it where to find the pictures (best call them 'images' I think...)

Good luck
Marcus

Susan wrote:When I have changes at the moment, my webman e-mails me the various html files and I update them with word, which then seems to produce html/word files which I e-mail back to him. Does anything have to be done to these files before they are FTP'd?

Rather than edit in Word I would edit in a more basic text editor - if you have a PC you will find Notepad by going to 'All Programs' > 'Accessories'

When you have done your changes, save the file as, for example, index.htm, rather than index.doc.

If you do not have a web editor like Frontpage or Dreamweaver from which to FTP/upload your files, you can either get yourself some FTP software, or your web host probably allows you to upload just using a browser. For example when I log into my account at my host one of the options is to add or remove files from my site. The interface is the usual 'Browse' and 'Select' a file from your computer, and up it goes.

Before you do that though, download all the files on your site into a folder on your computer so you have a back-up in case things go wrong. And as noted above, call the pages something else when you first upload them till you are sure you want to replace the old pages - I just add a '2' so it's index2.htm, and the url is www. mysite.com/index2.htm.

You upload your pics the same way. You will usually find them in a folder called 'Images', and so in your html you have to called the picture something like images/pic1.jpg

Total tangent... but Paolo, since you mentined it, what is your site called? I tried to find your properties in google and only found your h-r listing. Which, as I've lamented in the past, doesn't link to personal sites. So I was still stuck without your domain.

Come on, don't be shy!

Deb,

I am ashamed to tell you because it is something I have continued to neglect and will eventually get round to correcting....www.provence-rentals.org

I also have a few others I have done and manage for friends, and they all look remarkably similar to www.lajauberte.com.

Nice site Paolo,hope mine looks half as good.

Hi and thanks to everyone for their advice. I have got both Dreamweaver 4 and Frontpage ("acquired" through one of my students) can you FTP using that version of Dreamweaver? If so, how? It isn't obvious to me! I will have a go at using a dummy page as Marcus said, but as long as I make sure I have all the images saved in the right library, I think I should be OK with the real thing after a few practices!

Susan,

I'm not sure about DW4, but in the versions I've used, FTP is fairly integrated into the rest of the program functions, so I doubt there's an "FTP by clicking here" button. In my version it's called connecting to a site. You put in a new site, where you give it your website address as well as the FTP address and password, and the place on your local hard drive where you want to store any local files. Then you connect, and use the "put" and "get" buttons (which in my version look like little up and down arrows) to transfer a file to (put) and from (get) a site that you're connected to.

Have you tried the DW help files? Hopefully they will have information on this.

Brooke,
thanks for all your help, I had a go at the Dreamweaver tutorial as you advised and now am finding it a lot easier to update stuff! Its very easy as the website is quite basic. I should save myself some money now by being able to do it myself - and I'm enjoying it!

Susan,

Glad I could help!

Hello again,
I haven't this on the reviews section as I don't want a review (too scared) and anyway, my website has been around for donkey's years, but if anyone has the chance, could they have a look at the 'cottages' page in particular, as I have updated it with new photos and am not sure if it takes too long to load - I may need to reduce the size of some photos. Its OK for me and I only have minimum broadband, but if anyone has a couple of minutes I'd be very grateful!
www.brittany-cottages.co.uk

I'm still on dial up and they took a very long time for me - but we must be one of the last places to get broadband so it may not apply to too many folks. Hope that helps.