Website info, please

tabatha · 25-10-2007, 14:57

How easy/difficult is it to "manage" an already established website.

Our club site is in need of TLC , but I do not want to volunteer for something that I fail on..

I am computer literate, but have zero knowledge of websites.

Advice...info...help, appreciated.....

Paul · 25-10-2007, 15:04

If you have no knowledge of HTML etc then you could be walking into a world of pain lol. What sort of work does it need doing to it?

**Rob** · 25-10-2007, 15:08

Most web pages are a series of text, that you can tweak the wording of using things like Windows Notepad. Provided you don't want to change the format, that is simple enough to do. If you can open and edit a letter, and send it by email, youl be capable of that.

Upload and download web pages using a FTP program there are a few out there which are shareware or open source, or some that you pay for.

If you want to get more sophisticated in your updates, then programs like Macromedia or Frontpage provide detailed editing capabilities along with code writing, but you really need to start understanding some of the basic html code if you are restyling. This becomes the stage where it is more time consuming and skilled

tabatha · 25-10-2007, 15:22

Paul/Rob..

Thanks for your replies.

It just needs keeping up to date with info/pics/results etc...

Here it is...

www.mvac.co.uk

**Rob** · 25-10-2007, 15:34

The first websites I messed about with were ones written by others. Spend enough time and buried between the various bits of code, you start to recognise the links to graphics, sentences of text. From there you start to appreciate how the site is built up from lots of bits, and can work out how to substitute one piece for another.

Best option is to download a copy of the website to your computer. Make a safe copy, and then start to play. If there is no flashy stuff in there so it's all html, you'd be able to view your updated pages in IE, Firefox or similar to see what effects you are having. OK linked stuff like graphics might not predict so well.

There will be a number of trial web editor programs you could experiment with too, that can view a local copy of your website far more realistically by replicating links.

tabatha · 25-10-2007, 15:43

Rob...
Lost already..!!!!

How would I do this.......

Best option is to download a copy of the website to your computer. Make a safe copy, and then start to play.

Perhaps it is beyond me

**Rob** · 25-10-2007, 15:56

Whoever has the admin rights to the website at present will need to tell you how to access it using a ftp type client. You'll need the path to the server side of the website, and the password. At that point you can tell your ftp client to download the entire site.

The webhost used for your site, may well have a number of tutorials. Sometimes they have control panels for working with the website that allow you to make various copies if you login through your browser.

Paul · 25-10-2007, 15:57

Ask whoever is currently looking after the site to download the current files or send you a copy. Once you have a copy you can look at how it's been written and how much work you will need to do.
A website is just a set of files that link together and display via the screen, if you can be given access to the html file and the images then you can save them to your local hard drive and look at them there.

ikthius · 25-10-2007, 16:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by tabatha

Rob...
Lost already..!!!!

How would I do this.......

Best option is to download a copy of the website to your computer. Make a safe copy, and then start to play.

Perhaps it is beyond me

step by step page by page.

ok open one page and click file save as and save it to a folder that you want to store it in.

it looks like a big site so this might take a while.

I would download a program called editplus2
this is like notepad but I prefer it.

now pick any page you saved and right click it, open with and pick editplus2 if you downloaded it, it shows you the code the page is written in and its all highlighted.

you will need to know most of this code to keep the site working correctly.

HTML will probably be the main language, maybe some javascript & CSS, dont worry about there names just now.

I would learn HTML then CSS then JavaScript in that order for your site concentrate on the first 2

ok, if you dont know these languages go here and learn them free of charge

once you got the basics it sort of gets better and easier.

try a small few pages on your own, before you tackle the site.

good luck

ik

edit:
I see that whoever made it up, has written it in word a cheats way hehe

handyman · 25-10-2007, 18:07

Tabatha - Go on Amazon and buy 'Build your own website the right way using html and css' by Ian Lloyd. It's written in real easy to use language and the book builds a website as it goes along so you can see how a whole site is assembled using all the small bits. As it happens its a club style website in the example so by the time you have finished the book you should be more than capable of redoing the club website from scratch and making a proper job of it. (it teaches you xhtml and css which is the most current spec to be coding in).

The book took me only a few days to go through but I did have a number of years tinkering with website under my belt but I cannot see it taking you more than a week to get to grips with things.