Page Editing Outside LiveWhale
In October 2008, Southwestern launched a new website and along with that came some changes to locations of where web site files are stored. If you are not editing your web site with LiveWhale, you need to use file transfer protocol (FTP) to get to and change your web site's files.
Documents that make up your web pages are not copied or moved in the same way as your other documents. If you are using a web page creation/editing program such as KompoZer or Dreamweaver, you can set the Publish settings to move your documents to your web page space. You can also use other programs called a "FTP client application" to move your files to your web space (just like dragging and dropping between folders on a windows or mac computer, just from your computer to the server, in this case). There are three great FREE applications to do this - Filezilla [Mac and PC], as well as Cyberduck and Fetch for the Mac.
The Web Office is open on weekdays and available for training or consultations with Student Organizations, offices, and academic departments. Below, you'll find some answers to our most commonly asked questions. Just click a subject heading to find out more.
What is the FTP address to edit web site files for department or student organization?
In the configuration setup for FTP in either a web editing application [Dreamweaver, KompoZer], use the following values where XXXXXXX is the remaining location information:
- FTP server: ahab.southwestern.edu
- Directory: /www.southwestern.edu/htdocs/XXXXXXX
For example, the web files directory for a typical student organizations is:
/www.southwestern.edu/htdocs/studentlife/orgs/nameoforg/
Transferring files to your web space with Filezilla [Windows/Mac]
First you need to download and install FileZilla
1. Open FileZilla
2. Fill in the following in the QuickConnect bar at the top:
- Address: ahab.southwestern.edu
- User: your username
- Password: your password
- Port : leave blank
Once connected, you can choose the folder you want to view or edit.
The best way to get to your site quickly is to enter this in the "Remote Site" blank
/www.southwestern.edu/htdocs/studentlife/orgs/nameoforg
4. Locate the folder or files you want to transfer by changing the directory path on the local system side of the window. For example, if the files you want to transfer
are located on the desktop of the local machine, you will navigate to c:/Document and Settings/Desktop.
5. Drag the file(s) or folder(s) you want to copy to the web folder.
Transferring files to your web space with Fetch [Mac]
First you need to download and install Fetch
1. Install, then open Fetch for Macintosh
2. Fill in the following:
- Host : ahab.southwestern.edu
- UserID: your username
- Password: your password
- Intial Folder /www.southwestern.edu/htdocs/studentlife/orgs/nameoforg/
3. Click OK
4. Drag and drop the folder or files you want to transfer
Transferring files to your web space with Cyberduck [Mac]
First you need to download and install Cyberduck
1. Install, then open Cyberduck for Macintosh
2. Click Open Connection, then
3. Fill in the following:
- Server : ahab.southwestern.edu
- Username: your username
- Password: your password
- Path /www.southwestern.edu/htdocs/studentlife/orgs/nameoforg/
4. Click Connect
5. Drag and drop the folder or files you want to transfer
How to edit and transfer your files with KompoZer
If you already have a copy of Dreamweaver that will probably be your first choice for editing web pages. If not — and if you do not want to spend your money on a commercial product like Dreamweaver — there are some good open source (free) options.
The easiest to install and use is KompoZer [Windows, Mac and GNU/Linux]
KompoZer is great in that it can both edit HTML files, as well as FTP them to your server, eliminating the need to use one of the other FTP-only programs just listed. To use KompoZer, do the following
1. Download and install KompoZer, then open it
2. Make sure you have a complete local copy of your web directory. If you've already installed one of the other FTP programs and used it, just browse to your files using one of the methods described above, then create a new local directory, for example:
C:\My Documents\My Webs\nameoforg
Now, select all the files from your remote web directory, then download them to your new local directory by dragging them onto your local folder. Now you have a complete copy of your files on the server. These are the files you will work on when you edit them. When you're finished, you can upload them to the server with the very same program.
3. First, let's edit a file. From the visible menu, click Open. Now browse to the folder where you saved your site's files on your hard drive
C:\My Documents\My Webs\nameoforg
For example. Let's pick an innocuous file to work on - how about contact.htm
4. Select contact.htm
5. KompoZer opens the file in DESIGN VIEW. This shows you the way you see it on the web (more or less) but you can edit it. You can also open it in Source view (code) or split (which shows you both views). Back in DESIGN VIEW, you can see that your content is laid out in a table (as evidenced by the red boxes.
6. Click within that window. Now you can make text edits just like you do in Word or a similar program. When you are finished, click save.
7. When you are ready to upload your edited files to the web, go over to your Site Manager (left of application) and click on this button
Edit site list
Select your local site directory, for example:
C:\My Documents\My Webs\nameoforg
