How to Edit a Website
Use these editing basics to get started! Please Contact Us if you would like a Free Design Quote.
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Accessing your Website Files
FTP is a simple and secure way to transfer files back-and-forth over the internet. It is most commonly used to download a file from a server or to upload a file to a server (ex: uploading a webpage file to your server).
To access the files on your hosting server space you will need FTP Client Software. We suggest using FileZilla because it is one of the better Free FTP clients. We are not affiliated with Filezilla, and ask that you seek support for this application at their website.
Once downloaded and installed, you can use FileZilla to view the files on your hosted server space and to transfer files between your computer and your hosted server space.
To Login, open FileZilla, fill out the fields along the top row, and click Quickconnect:
Host: www.your-website-domain.com
Username: (your hosting username)
Password: (your hosting password)Now that you are logged into your server space, and you will notice that there are two columns of files and folders. The Local Site files (left) are files located on your computer. The Remote Site files (right) are files located on the server. You will also notice a folder tree at the top of each column that helps you navigate through the folders.
Typically website files are kept in the www folder on your server and the index file is the home page of the website. On the Remote Site side (right), go to the www folder, here you will find the files that make up your website.
Editing Your Web Pages
To edit your website there are several options. You can use a software program like Adobe Dreamweaver that has a user interface or you could use a simple text editor like Notepad to edit the pages of your website.
You can edit your website for Free by using FileZilla to drag and drop the site’s html pages (located in www folder) to your desktop and editing them with Notepad. When you are finished, simply drag and drop the updated files back into FileZilla (www folder) and copy over the old version of the files.
Tip: Before Editing, drag and drop the entire www folder to your computer’s desktop to save a backup copy of your website.
Easy to use interface programs can give you the ability to edit your website without knowing much about html code. There are many open-source (free) and commercial products that you can use to create and edit your website.
Commercial products, such as Dreamweaver, provide advanced editing tools and a user-friendly interface for building websites, but can be expensive. Free website editing software, such as KompoZer, Komodo Edit, and Sea Monkey are good alternatives and can all be downloaded for Free online. There are numerous tutorials for all of these applications, especially Dreamweaver.
You will also need a good image editing software program like Photoshop, or you can use a Free program like Gimp to create and edit images.
We are not affiliated with any of these software programs and ask that you seek support for these applications at their respective websites.
Contact Us for a Free Website Customization Quote and we will gladly take the time to consult with you and discuss all of your options.
If you found this page informative then you may also be interested in How To Design A Website.