Website development help desparately needed

[derekcohen]

I need some help to upload/publish a new website. Ideally, someone in Perth as hands-on input would be best.

I have been using EasyWebEditor to re-write my articles. Many are done.

I have a new address/domain: thewoodworker.net

I have a web host: Hostmonster

I have no idea how to do what I need to do next! How to upload the face sheet/introduction, link to an index, and link the articles to the index. The instructions are all Greek to me. Help!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[wheelinround]

Derek their own web site has a help centre
http://helpdesk.hostmonster.com/kb/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&id=100

[echnidna]

the links must be done in your web editor

use an ftp client to upload your webpages

I use freeftp for general work here (http://www.sofotex.com/downloads/d361.html) is the download page

Though I write my webpages with Arachnophilia which has a built in ftp upload client. That way whenever I update a page I just click the update button.

[dazzler]

I use coffeecup.com to create my website. Very basic but if I can do it then ANYONE can do it :p

[autogenous]

Im not familiar with the monster interface but I assume it is some form of CMS (Content management System)?

You can direct upload in Internet explorer with drag and drop capability.

type you ftp address into the address bar

A user name password will come up

enter that then a server file window will come up

Then drag your files from your computer into the www folder

[Incoming!]

I thoroughly recommend site spinner software. You get a free trial for 15 days then I guarantee you will buy it. (Probably the first software I ever paid for! :) Willingly that is!

If you can use a word processor, you can use this stuff. I've created over 40 websites now using this stuff - (non-professional) and it's pretty damn good.

Monkey see - monkey do. Very very easy, and you just get better and better at using it.

[derekcohen]

Hi Incoming

I had a look at SiteSpinner. It is not nearly as good as EasyWebEditor.

I have actually tried several Editors over time. I chose EWE because it could do one thing that others could not - it can copy Word documents with embedded images and convert them all directly to html. SiteSpinner alters the font and does not even recognise that the images exist. They would have to be installed separately. Plus the paragraphs, etc would have to be re-formatted. The problem is that I have something like 50 articles to upload. And that is why I find EWE so useful. It is a great editor. (Further ... I have already re-written about half my articles with EWE. The files are not compatable with SS).

The problem lies in how to publish. EWE does this directly from within the programme as well, and one may also preview, but I am confused by the computer addresses and language that is still requested. Just not sure what to type in. For someone that is familiar with this area, it would take a few minutes only.

1. Link the Face Sheet with the website address (thewoodworker.net)
2. Link the Index with the Face Sheet
3. Link all the articles with the Index.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Incoming!]

Hope somebody could help you out. Thanks for the info on EWE - will check it out!

[Brickie]

I use this. (http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/index.html)

[echnidna]

Derek have a look at these links (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=EasyWebEditor+forum&btnG=Google+Search&meta=lr%3Dlang_en)

[woodbe]

Derek,

It's a bit hard to help long distance, but rather than discuss the merits of various software packages, you probably need help understanding how a website operates, and where to put your html documents.

One way or another, most web hosts are reasonably similar. Most run linux, and from the hostmonster helpsite, it would appear yours does too.

1. The domain thewoodworker.net

Do you have this domain? If so, it needs to be delegated so that the internet domain name system sends people to your site at hostmonster. Currently it doesn't seem to go anywhere but to a generic page.

2. General tips.

Your html files need to go in the hostmonster public_html directory. this is the directory that will display to users when they type in www.thewoodworker.net on their web browser.

In the public_html directory, if there is a html file called index.html it will be displayed automatically, so this should be the name of your 'start' page.

It's pretty common for people to organise their site with subdirectories to make it easier to manage, rather than having everything dumped in the one area, so you might have a layout like this:

public_html/
|
----> images/
----> reviews/
----> reviews/images/

And relevant content in each area.

When creating a site from scratch, it's best to create the directory structure on your PC, just like you wish to use on the host. Then put all the html files, images etc in those directories. Test locally, and when you are reasonably happy, upload the site to the webhost (file by file if you have to) and then test against the real domain.

To avoid hassles, always use relative links in your documents for your own content, rather than links to web addresses. The web server will automatically fill in the blanks and the right files will be sent to the users. advantage here is that the resulting html will work locally on your PC in testing, as well as on the internet.

Example. In your index.html, a link to an image file may reference a subdirectory 'images'

so the link might read www.thewoodworker.net/images/image1.jpg

but it would be better to just link it as images/images1.jpg that way it will work anywhere.

Whilst it's possible to do a complete website in word, it's not really a good idea. MS Word fills the html with all sorts of strange cruft that makes it slower to load and hard to debug. One of the suggested editors might be a better idea, but that is up to you, word certainly should get you going.

Hope this helps, if you need more specific info, just ask, I'm happy to help, as I'm sure many others here are.

woodbe.