When building a new web page, how do my image files get into my vnu file? Are they moved there once I place them on the page or do i have to move them there later?

Hiya Stephen,

As long as you add things correctly to the pages all the items are automatically added to the VNU file for you, you won't have to add anything to that file ever, but you may need to be sure that files are added to your site project correctly. Sometimes you have to do an Add File setup rather than just dropping something in there.

Stephen, you should create a main folder and save all of your site files in it.
For example:
Folder is "my web site"
Then, save your VSD site to this folder.
Also, put all your images in a sub-folder within "my web site".
Add folders for other things if needed (PDFs or documents for example).

When you open "my web site", you'll have all your website's necessary files all in one place:
- .vnu (the VSD site)
- Files (created by VSD, this has copies of images you create or insert in VSD – you don't put things here, just let VSD add what it needs. You can delete unused images from here.)
- Images (keep all your original photos & graphics here) < insert images from this folder
- Content (documents, articles, PDF's...)
forms, galleries, etc. (if you have any, save them to your main folder)

So, besides the .vnu and Files, add whatever other folders you need (name them whatever works for you).
Keep a copy of this main folder on an external hard drive or flash drive. If your computer crashes, no problem – you have your entire site saved. Install VSD on another computer and you're good to go.

Thanks JoAnn and Paintbrush. That helped a lot. I may get this web site up yet:)

When you bring an image into VSD, it will be duplicated in the /files folder.
So, there is no need to understand the file structure for normally added images.

However, if you need to reference pdf files or other files related to scripts etc., you need to enter them as a link and then use the "Add Files" menu in VSD to add them, and like Paintbrush suggests, create a folder for these files and populate the folder with the files you reference in the html box you add to VSD.

Then, crucially, you need to "create" the tree in the "Add Files" menu so that VSD publish feature includes them in the upload.

This is something that is commonly overlooked and often causes problems.

Unless you plan to use an ftp client and upload the site yourself, if you rely on the publish feature of VSD, you must create the correct directory and file tree exactly as required by your markup in order for the inbuilt publish feature of VSD to include the required files and in the required structure.

Dave