Website Creator Program

Floorguy · February 28, 2008, 09:33 PM

Since my HTML skills suck. I bought a program to do it for me. It was actually the only one on the shelf at Best Buy.

Perfect Website Creator

Holly crap, it is worse then HTML!!!

OK, they want my FTP Server and www folder, on the connection fill in window to set it up.

It has been so long ago I made the temporary page up now, I forgot what to do???

The help page are very vague.

Is that my domain name? AustinFloorguy.com do I put it in like that, or is it something like ftp.austinfloorguy

Whats a www folder? on the help page it says to put a /

I have a bad headache!

TFP Admin · February 28, 2008, 11:09 PM

Floorguy said

Since my HTML skills suck. I bought a program to do it for me. It was actually the only one on the shelf at Best Buy.

Perfect Website Creator

Holly crap, it is worse then HTML!!!

I hate to bring it up, Floorguy, but you are often heard uttering something like, "you get what you pay for." In this case, you bought a program for less than 20 bucks and, from the reviews I've read of it, it's not all that great.

Unfortunately, once you install the program, BestBuy won't give you your money back. But if you are willing to take the hit and if anyone else reading this is wondering, there is a pretty decent web creation product called WebEditor. I wrote a little about it on one of my blogs: I Thought It Would Never Happen: The Re-Design of This Website | Grump's Place You'll find a link to the program there.

OK, they want my FTP Server and www folder, on the connection fill in window to set it up.

It has been so long ago I made the temporary page up now, I forgot what to do???

The help page are very vague.

Is that my domain name? AustinFloorguy.com do I put it in like that, or is it something like ftp.austinfloorguy

Whats a www folder? on the help page it says to put a /

What they are asking for is your FTP server address. That can be in a couple different forms. Your host will have the correct settings, but you can probably use ftp.austinfloorguy.com - you'll also need your password to connect to the ftp server. What I prefer using for my ftp address is the IP address (12.345.67.890 format) and your host will have this info for you too.

The "www" folder is also known as the startup folder. Some people have a host account and they have several websites on it, each in their own folder. Your folder might be called "austinfloorguy". It's also possible the folder could be any other name you chose on creation of the host account - maybe floorguy, afg or any number of possibilities. It just wants to know where the site you will be working on is located. If you have more than one site on the same server, you can change this to whatever the folder name is of the site you are working on. If the folder is buried within other folders on your server, you will have to direct the software to it with a "path" (eg: home/www/austinfloorguy).

Again, I think Namo WebEditor is a much better product for those who do not want to pay for a professional website development. It will also make all this much easier and intuitive. It is more expensive. But you really didn't think you were getting a bargain by paying 20 bucks for a web design program, did you?

Oh well, I'll do what I can to help.

T

Floorguy · February 29, 2008, 10:11 AM

OK, to upload this new, page will I need to delete the contents of the whole folder I have now, of my temporary page?

Ya, for 30 bucks, I was willing to take the hit. I have only played with it for a couple of hours and a call to their tech support may be in order. For the little time with it, I was able to make a better homepage the the yellow page shown now.
It is the publishing it to the web, that has me stumped.

TFP Admin · February 29, 2008, 12:17 PM

When you upload a file of the same name, it will overwrite the older file. I would not delete files unless your intention is to start completely over from scratch. Even then, if your site has been up for longer than a couple of months, I would suggest replacing files (pages) only with files of the same name, even if all the content in the file is different. Search engines may have those pages indexed, so deleting them will give people searching for your content error pages instead of content. You can add new pages with new names too, but don't just delete an old page without replacing it.

T

Floorguy · February 29, 2008, 02:25 PM

Great tip!!!! This program came with another program Professional Website Promoter, it is suppose to help with search engines and web marketing/presents. I have not opened or loaded it, yet.

TFP Admin · February 29, 2008, 05:16 PM

Floorguy said

Great tip!!!! This program came with another program Professional Website Promoter, it is suppose to help with search engines and web marketing/presents. I have not opened or loaded it, yet.

cproader · February 29, 2008, 07:33 PM

I didn't pay anything to join this site.

webwoman · March 3, 2008, 12:45 PM

If you give that program a little more time, you may be able to figure out what you can do with it. Some are not so user friendly at first, but they do have the necessary elements to do what you want.

Under the FILE menu, is there an import option that would let you use the work you already have done? Otherwise, when you publish, the new files will overwrite what you already have.

The ftp information you have been given is good. File Transfer Protocol is a way of publishing your web pages to the internet.

The promotion program may be a waste of your efforts. If you are already published, search engines have been tracking your website. When you add new content, they will just love you!

Floorguy · March 3, 2008, 08:16 PM

Thanks, I just can't figure out the upload deal. I have put all the information in for ftp and username and password. I have it all written down, but when I upload it, nothing appears in my ftp file. and the page stays the same, as the bogus one I created.

webwoman · March 5, 2008, 02:46 PM

Have you talked with the host to find out what they can see on their side?

Have you ever worked with any other ftp tools. FileZilla is free and you should be able to see through it if you have anything on the server side. filezilla.com

Floorguy · March 5, 2008, 09:45 PM

To do the temporary page I have now, all I had to do was drag a file into the ftp folder and it was there. This program wants me to upload through there little ftp upload feature. It is that thing I can't figure how to get to work. It doesn't make html files, it is something else and without looking, I'm guessing .ugx?????? .vbl?????

TFP Admin · March 5, 2008, 09:58 PM

It uses a proprietary .VNU file format. You need to use the File | Export... menu item that will create the HTML pages.

T

webwoman · March 6, 2008, 08:03 AM

Seems like the long way around because you've been used to something else. Once you do the export part, it might work fine.

I learned to do my website damage with FrontPage. It worked and works find, except when I am trying something else. I just get kind of 'thick' when they throw other terms and sometimes even ANY terms at me.

Floorguy · March 6, 2008, 01:32 PM

Thanks T, I'll fiddle with that export thing, and report back!!! I'd be really lost without ya'll

Floorguy · March 14, 2008, 09:48 AM

I made it harder then it was!!

I renamed my bogus yellow page. So it would not pop up.

Then I saved the files as an export, to my desktop. Then opened "My Network Places" opened my ftp folder. then opened the export file on my desktop, and drag each file or folder in.

Now, I make new folders for each page and it works.

It is a template for now, until I feel like playing with it more, but it is way better then a yellow scroll, I had. I have a lot of pages to create and link to, now.