Need a kick start (noob)

[SimPilotMN]

Is there a spot for new people? My account isn't activated yet (how long does that take)? I do apologize for the newbie post. I just want to get this thing rolling.

Its been 48 hours since I set up HG, and I thought I could start working on my site today. (Domain was bought from GoDaddy).

I'm using KompoZer, for the design but maybe I've got a setting wrong. The site is www.flightsimtoolbar.com, but the only thing that shows up is the HG page.

Any advice? (I'm 41 and good with computers, but first web site.)

Thanks,
Jon

[EarlyOut]

Have you actually uploaded web pages to the public_html directory of your hosting account? If I try to point directly to index.html, I get a "page not found."

[SimPilotMN]

Maybe that is my trouble. I'm using a guide on 'thesitewizard' for KompoZer, and it tells me to upload it to an ftp address?

ftp://ftp.flightsimtoolbar.com/

is the publishing server.

Is that completely wrong using only KompoZer to 'publish page'?

(I'm doing some more reading.)

[striddy]

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

Is that completely wrong using only KompoZer to 'publish page'?

You ftp address looks correct.

What is the name of the file(s) you have uploaded?

File names should be all lower case and no spaces.

Your "home" page should be named index.html and must be in the public_html directory.

[EarlyOut]

It might be necessary to tell Kompozer that your "publish page" is:

ftp://ftp.flightsimtoolbar.com/public_html

Just guessing, though. I use FileZilla to do all my uploading, and for that, the server name is simply example.com. No "ftp" anything.

[SimPilotMN]

Originally Posted by striddy

You ftp address looks correct.

What is the name of the file(s) you have uploaded?

File names should be all lower case and no spaces.

Your "home" page should be named index.html and must be in the public_html directory.

Thanks.

In the public_html directory there was a default html file in there. I added my 'index' to it and now I see my fancy web page at www.flightsimtoolbar.com But I added it in the cPanel file manager.

Is that how it works, use KompoZer to create the page, then open the cPanel and upload the index file?

Thanks again,
Jon

[SimPilotMN]

Thanks EarlyOut, was typing when you posted.

[SimPilotMN]

Originally Posted by EarlyOut

It might be necessary to tell Kompozer that your "publish page" is:

ftp://ftp.flightsimtoolbar.com/public_html

Just guessing, though. I use FileZilla to do all my uploading, and for that, the server name is simply example.com. No "ftp" anything.

Yes, that worked! That is the kick start I needed! I'm hoping I can fly through the rest of this now.

Thanks all,
Jon

[EarlyOut]

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

Yes, that worked! That is the kick start I needed! I'm hoping I can fly through the rest of this now.

Go ahead and delete the default.htm that's sitting in your public_html at the moment - you won't ever need it again.

Glad my wild-ass guess worked out.

But I really love the "I can fly through the rest of this now!" Ah, the faith of the noob! It really warms my heart.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by EarlyOut

But I really love the "I can fly through the rest of this now!" Ah, the faith of the noob! It really warms my heart.

"I can fly through the rest of this now,...... until my next question"

[SimPilotMN]

Originally Posted by striddy

"I can fly through the rest of this now,...... until my next question"

Funny...I'm sure I will have more questions as soon as I screw something up!

Jon

[striddy]

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

Funny...I'm sure I will have more questions as soon as I screw something up!

And we'll help if we can.

[SimPilotMN]

Originally Posted by striddy

And we'll help if we can.

Can I take you up on that? (I hate being a noob)!


1. Is the index file just the layout?

2. I did some work on my laptop, and transferred the index to another computer, but the images don't show up?

3. This leads me to believe when I 'publish', the files on that computer will be included and uploaded. Or if I want an image included, do I need to upload that file to host gator first?

Sorry for the questions here, and thanks for the help.

Jon

[striddy]

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

1. Is the index file just the layout?

Any html file contains the code specifying what is displayed, where and the formatting.

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

2. I did some work on my laptop, and transferred the index to another computer, but the images don't show up?

You need to transfer the images as well.

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

3. This leads me to believe when I 'publish', the files on that computer will be included and uploaded.

I'm not familiar with Kompozer, but I would assume publishing would upload all related files, e.g. html and image files.

[Hullabaloo]

Welcome to the madness.

I looked at your site, because I'm interested in FS stuff.

A couple things you could/should change:

Page Title, at the moment it is new_index. I am not familiar with Kompzer but if there is not a place to add a page title you can edit the HTML directly. The title goes in the <head> section between <title> and </title>.

Your graphics are very wide.
The head graphic is 1280 and the FS bar is 1249.

Monitors are getting bigger and bigger, but designing for 1024 wide is still a good idea. (That means actually shooting for a width of about 960 to allow for windows scrollers etc.)

Text across a wide screen is harder to read. Kompozer should have a way to set width.

All that being said, if you make the bar smaller it will be harder to see. 1249 is not ridiculously wide. Your target audience will probably be running wide screen monitors.

Just musing while the coffee brews...

[gwyneth]

SimPilotMN, welcome to the forum. It sounds as if you've managed to publish, but if you haven't (and for others)...

In the Edit menu, choose Publish Settings. For Web Site Name, write anything you want ("Fred's Used Rhinos, Today's Deals")

In Web Site Information, write the address for the site that someone would browse to or link to, in this format: www.fredsrhinosales.com.

In Publishing Server, write, in this format: ftp.fredsrhinosales.com

User name and password would be the cPanel username and password.

That's the same dialog box as in "Edit Sites" in the pane on the left, which can show either local files or files on the server when you are connected.

If you are moving images up with the pages, you should go to the Tools menu, Preferences, General, and check the box for "always save images and associated files..."

[SimPilotMN]

Thanks striddy, Hullabaloo, and gwyneth for the info so far! I hope to get things right in the next few days.

Hullabaloo, thanks for that advice. I'm surprised it showed up so wide for you. It fits on my small laptop screen, but yea I don't like the way it looks at all. I'm trying to make a banner type picture on the top of my page that will stay there for all the pages. Oh, flight sim is my winter hobby. I fly on-line with a Continental VA. I'm doing all this just fun/free. Let me know if you are looking for a good FS community/forum.

Jon

[SimPilotMN]

Oh, since I'm asking questions...

Would Front Page be easier to use than Komposer?

I'm also looking at Wordpress, but it seems that is more for creating a blog site?

[EarlyOut]

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

Would Front Page be easier to use than Komposer?

FrontPage is an obsolete product, and wasn't a very good idea to begin with. Long story, but you will always be better off staying away from FrontPage and its successor, Expression Web.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by SimPilotMN

Would Front Page be easier to use than Komposer?

I'm also looking at Wordpress, but it seems that is more for creating a blog site?

Originally Posted by EarlyOut

FrontPage is an obsolete product, and wasn't a very good idea to begin with. Long story, but you will always be better off staying away from FrontPage and its successor, Expression Web.

Frontpage deserves one place, the bin.

Wordpress and Kompozer are quite different products. I would recommend WordPress to anyone, pro or noob. With the amount of plugins available it is very feature rich.

[SimPilotMN]

Thanks for the info about Frontpage, I'll give up trying to find my copy. I'm trying out the trial of http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/, and I like it better than Komposer so far.

I'll give Wordpress a shot next.

gwyneth: Love the Apostle Islands. I was up camping on some of the islands a couple of summers ago, and that was the best boating/camping trip I've done. Are you in Bayfield? I'm in St. Paul.

Jon

[Chimpie]

Originally Posted by EarlyOut

FrontPage is an obsolete product, and wasn't a very good idea to begin with. Long story, but you will always be better off staying away from FrontPage and its successor, Expression Web.

Originally Posted by striddy

Frontpage deserves one place, the bin.

Wordpress and Kompozer are quite different products. I would recommend WordPress to anyone, pro or noob. With the amount of plugins available it is very feature rich.

When I started out doing webpages I used FrontPage. While there is a lot of trashed talked about the product, and it is very limited on what it can do, I will say that I probably wouldn't have learned basic HTML coding without it.

I liked the WYSIWYG editor, making pages look all pretty and such, but clicking to the Code view really helped me understand what was being coded.

[EarlyOut]

I suspect that's how most of us have learned what we (think) we know today - looking at the code generated by someone else, or by a WYSIWYG application. Trying to learn code from a manual is a painful exercise!

At least part of the "trash talk" about FP centers around its reliance on server extensions. Just from reading forum posts (especially on my previous host), this seems to be the Achilles Heel of the application. There seemed to be endless problems with them.

In any event, FP is no longer available - I think the last version was FP 2003, and it's now beyond its official "end of life."

I haven't used it, but Dreamweaver seems to get consistently better reviews from users. Unlike Kompozer, it's not free, however (neither was FP).

[Chimpie]

Originally Posted by EarlyOut

I suspect that's how most of us have learned what we (think) we know today - looking at the code generated by someone else, or by a WYSIWYG application. Trying to learn code from a manual is a painful exercise!

At least part of the "trash talk" about FP centers around its reliance on server extensions. Just from reading forum posts (especially on my previous host), this seems to be the Achilles Heel of the application. There seemed to be endless problems with them.

I agree with both of these points.

[gwyneth]

Jon, now that you've been activated, also see this thread for some other free editors worth at least trying (nothing wrong with having a number of editors). Regardless of the title, these editors are for any skill level.

Tools for noobs