When I make changes and hit Save As I see a screen that looks like it has dozens of saved files, most with the same name. The only difference I see is the time of the change is different. Is CC VSD saving a copy of everything I do, and saving the whole file every time I change something?

I can't tell which one is the last one, nor which one to save, nor which one to view. It appears to keep adding folders and files. I wanted to change a minor typo this morning, thinking I was getting the hang of editing, but my word it has a directory with so many files I can't tell which is which. Then when I hit Publish it says the file is not found and asks if I want to procees anyway. If I click "OK" it just keeps popping up the same sign until I finally click "No' is flashes up an error sign and says an error was made trying to upload.

I still giving this an honest effort, but thinking back to work with my personal web site years ago, I don't remember having this trouble. I have one basic "welcome" page with two pictures and less than 100 words of info. I'll bet there are 50 files in this folder I see when I hit "Publish."

I can't imagine why something that would seem to be so easy is turning out to be so difficult. What is the purpose of all these saved files and folders and why does it keep saving all this stuff and not just updating and deleting all the copies and previous versions? There are so many files I can't possible tell which is which. Seems like when I hit Publish it would just publish and cut through all this nonsense.

As much as I hate using my Mac, at least iWeb cuts through all this nonsense and makes it simple. I'm still on my Coffee Cup experiment hoping to get away from the Mac, but all these aggravations are making the Mac look better and better all the time. When I hit "Save As" it opens a window and I'll bet there are 50 files and folders that look the same. They have the name of my site and a date, and there may be something different at the end of the file name, like the time at the end of each one, but there are so many files I have no idea which one to save or replace.

Is there a simple and straight forward way of just putting up a simple and basic web site? For heaven's sake what I'm trying to do has just two pictres and less than 100 words. This should be easy as pie, but instead it's so dang frustrating I'm beginning to wish I had just stayed with iWeb. Nothing this basic should be so complicated, confusing, and frustrating to accomplish. It seems that every baby step that I'm trying to work through has some unexpected and unnecessary snag that bogs me down over and over. I'm so frustrated trying to work with this, which is supposed to be a simple program, that I'm about ready to just scrap the whole thing and get back on the Mac. I'm totally mystified why such simple things always have a glitch to learn through, and what imaginable purpose does CC save so many files that I can't even find the one I'm working with. Just now I tried to save a change and it said "Could not crreate a temporary category on your machine" and "an error was found on the page" and "couldn't finish save process." I've never seen a program that won't do a simple "Save." This is getting ridiculous.

How the heck do I know which file in this huge list of files and folders is the one I'm saving? And how can I delete all these duplicates? Why won't it just Save when I hit Save?

Any help will be appreciated.

Don

Don, Lets address one thing at at time.
VSD works just like any other windows program. You only do a "save as" when your creating something new, as in a new site. Just hit "save" when your making changes to an existing site. To clean things up do a "Save as" and change the name of the site. Now VSD should have created a new folder and named it mysitename_website and a mywebsitename.vnu file just outside this folder. Keep these and delete all the rest.
The mywebsitename refers to what ever you named your site.

Also any pictures that you add to your site, place them in a dedicated folder before you add them. VSD will always look at these to see if they have changed when publishing so if you move them or delete them VSD will give you the error that it can't find them.

Also don't worry about how VSD handles files. Design your website the way you like hit the publish button and sit back and enjoy watching VSD do all the grunt work.

If I make a change, click Save, click PUBLISH, then I see "the file xxxxxxxx cannot be found. Do you want to continue anway?" If I click Yes, then it keeps popping up one notice after the next saying the same thing. It will do this a dozen or more times as long as I keep clicking. If I click NO, it throws up a warning and says "An Error Occurred While Trying to Upload to You Page." I done that a dozen times today and nothing changes. I finally clicked "Yes" TWENTY-NINE times before it finally said....Publishing was successful.

Again....what are all these files that keep building up, and which one is the Welcome Page to my web site? I sometimes think it would be easier to just delete all of it and start over. I can't imagine why I need dozens of files, many of which look to be duplicates or many an update to a previous one with a minor change, all these folders, and so on. All I have it two pictures, maybe 50-100 words of text and I finally got the JukeBox to show up. It can't be THIS complicated.

What am I missing to wade through and clean up all these nonsense files?

Thanks again.

Don

I think you looking to deep into VSD. Let the program do the work. Don't worry about what you see VSD doing when your publishing. It needs to look at the files to see if they have change compared to the ones on the server. If your seeing the error that VSD can't find a file then the file has been moved or deleted from it's original position when it was added to your site. The easiest way to solve this is to write down the file that VSD can't find. Now click on "Edit" then "Remove files". Now browse through this list of files until you find the reference link to the file VSD can't find and remove it. Now hit the publish button and see if the error is gone.
I'm sorry your having these issues. We'll get you off and running like a pro in no time.

Read again what Eric wrote. One thing I found is that VSD creates a preview folder with all the files necessary to display your site. This folder fills up. I delete this occasionally and then do a save and a preview. Any form folders and associated files keep they are needed for preview. The reason I say this is I work on a few sites at once and that preview folder gets really full.
One attribute that you may not be aware of, there is another folder that saves backups of your site less pictures etc. A reason why Eric's method is so important.

The address of my backup folder, Yours would be similar.
C:\Documents and Settings\******\My Documents\CoffeeCup Software\Visual Site Designer\Backups Nothing is lost and all sites can be re created. Wonderful foresight on CC's part and another reason why I find VSD rings all the bells. I am finding the more I get to use the various packages I am finding the extended thought that has gone into them.

There are not many questions raised on these forums that the software doesn't address, It is just a matter of finding out how the software works. Even the best help files do not always address every eventuality and solution but I bet the software guys have thought of it

Don if you are still having trouble try my beginners thinking it was me not so long ago

Your VSD tool creates an old fashioned index file draw (cardboard box with index cards in)

You add something like a juke box so its sticks an old fashioned index card in with a tab to find it called jukebox and behind it it puts another index card with all the bits and pieces that make it work (ie jukebox1) your 40 or so files then another index card with a blank tab waiting for you to add jukebox2

When you publish it goes and finds jukebox and the files to publish BEHIND jukebox1, BUT (BIG BUT) if theres something missing usually because human error either you didn't put it in because as a trainee you didnt know how to, or because you put something behind another index card called jukebox 2 by mistake, VSD gives you a message saying file cannot be found

Now as your website does NOT need the file because you actually removed that HTML code and codebox and replaced it with by now jukebox27 (as it took you 27 attempts to get it to work) after hitting the proceed button XXXX number of times it publishes and works

Now get your secretary to go into the index file draw and sort it out (she can tear her hair out) and eventually you wont have to hit proceed XXXX number of times each time you publish

OR once your happy its all how you want it, MAKE A BACK UP FIRST then go to the files> remove files and remove the whole lot, then do save as and re name your website then add the jukebox, and everything else ( NOT PICTURES OR TEXT) as they wont have been removed. Because now you know how you did it right once you got past the learning stage, and all will be well, and your secretary will still have her hair.

PS :: it was my secretary who hammered those studs in my head

Thank you all for your patience and knowledge. It seems like when I try anything new or different, or something I haven't tried in a while, on the computer that Myrphy's Law affects me exponentially.

I read over the suggestions here and finally corrected the problem by deleted something like 40 files. I also was able to get the juke box like I wanted it; the right look, skin, when to start, etc.

I never did really figure out what I did, but whatever it was, was making me have to click "Yes" like 30 - 40 times before it would SAVE and PUBLISH. I can only wonder how long it would have taken me to figure out how to delete all those files if not for the suggestions here.

Thanks again. I'll work on the project more tonight.

Don

Have fun with your new discovery.

Hi Eric,

In your March 5 post above, you mention:

"Now VSD should have created a new folder and named it mysitename_website and a mywebsitename.vnu file just outside this folder. Keep these and delete all the rest."

I have no trouble creating mysitename_website, but I am not getting any .vnu files.

What am I doing wrong? Btw, using Chrome.

Thank you.

Greg

VSD will create this folder when you save you website. The mywebsitename_website is just for reference because I don't know what a user named their site. If you saved you website in VSD as gregsawesomewebsite VSD will create a folder called gregsawesomewebsite_website with all the needed files. You can find the gregsawesomewebsite.vnu just outside this folder and a backup .vnu in the Back folder called gregsawesomewebsite.[Tuesday, March 20, 2012 19;26;38].vnu. It will have a date stamp on it. Hope this clears things up.