OK, I read through other threads. Like many people, I have a LARGE site that was created in FrontPage.

Telling me "recreate it" is not a valid answer. That will not happen, there are dozens of pages. I didn't look for another program to be forced to redo years of work, so let's not go there.

I initially mistakenly tried VSD, but was advised to switch to HTML Editor. I can now see all my pages and open them, but images do not show (just a box with a little X). I also can't seem to directly edit a page.

Another feature I like with FrontPage is I can see the tree of my website with parent and daughter pages. This helps me organize things.

My problem is I can't quite get my head around using HTML editor, and the help menu isn't very helpful.

Is there a tutorial or something that walks people through editing existing HTML / FrontPage sites? This should be that difficult, but I am unable to even get images to appear.

Thanks!

Tom

Your images must not be in their proper folders or the href reference is not correct.
http://www.coffeecup.com/help/articles/working-with-website-projects/
http://www.coffeecup.com/help/articles/absolute-vs-relative-pathslinks/

Here's the problem. With FrontPage looking on the server, or looking at the page over Internet with any browser, all is fine. My server files are arranged so image files are all in folders on the server, and various pages then share images from those folders. This way one image can be used any number of times on various pages but the server holds one image.

I assumed if I viewed a page with HTML editor, it would behave like a browser or like FrontPage and get the images from the proper folder while I am logged in on the server. After all, I can see all the folders on the server, so what in HTML Editor is preventing it from retrieving images like any other program?

I got this stuff because web reviews said it was intuitive and easy, and I'm trying to make that happen for me. :-)

Maybe I'm confused just starting out, but I find FrontPage extremely easy and intuitive to use. It just has some code that does not work correctly with some browsers, so I have to watch the HTML for bugs once in a while. So I wanted to ditch FP and get something else that would not put the occasional bugs in.

I guess according to the links you posted I have to do something special, besides just going to the existing website on the server and opening a page that has images and views fine on any browser or FrontPage, to see the images with HTML editor??? Is that correct? I'm just having a real hard time figuring out how this works for some reason.

Thanks!

Hiya Charles,

Your best bet (and what you should do anyways to assure that your files online and offline are reflections of eachother) is to make sure you have a copy of the images setup the same way on your computer s you do on the site. Unless you have full direct links to each image (which isn't advisable, relative links are much more efficient) you will not be able to see the links as the code is most likely looking for them in a specific folder tree which is either not on your computer or does not contain the images it's looking for.

Always keep in mind that the program is always looking locally for the preview, it doesn't look online unless the address for the item is a full direct online address. Your image paths "should" look something like:

folder/image
or
folder/folder/image
etc.

If that is the case then they would be correctly setup, and they would be looking for that folder tree on your computer. Best way is to just download your site files to your computer to keep the full structure. If you already have the rest then just download the images to the proper location (folder tree) and you should be set to go there.

This goes for files your site is looking for.

Thanks for the reply. I like a "how it works" overview like this. The problem is learning the overview of how something works, and this is helping.



Yes, the images are not in my computer. I assumed the viewer, if I was online logged into the server, would grab them from the site files.

What I am understanding is HTML editor, unlike FrontPage, does not really work on-line. It must download the page into my computer, and work there off the server. That's why it cannot follow the path in the server that browsers would follow.

OK. There is no way to actually work on-line. I normally work on-line to avoid filling my computer with my website.



That's exactly how it is on the website.



Is there a simple one step process to download everything necessary into the computer? It will take all night to do, but I can do it if it does it all one step.

The primary reason I do not have the site in my computer is upload and download time. I live in a rural area and have limited speed, and the website is large. It will take at all night to download, and five times longer to upload.

My solution was to always work on line, and publish one page at a time. The server has the backup files.

Many people assume everyone lives where really high speed Internet is available. Until 2005, I was on a dual channel ISDN line. Then I changed to satellite, and now a slow ADSL line finally. :-) Everything I do has to be planned for minimal upload speed (~~275 kbps), and to a lesser extent download.

Thanks.

You can change all your image links to absolute but wouldn't you want to have your website on your pc for backup and tweaking images with Photoshop. After all the entire website was on your pc when you were using Front Page. I would open you project in the Editor then right click on folders on the my websites tab and select " Down Load to Project". That way you know you have your file structure on your pc matching your server.

Not as an entire website it wasn't. Most of it was slowly composed, one page at a time, while stored in the server. Images were sized and processed in my computer and uploaded a few at a time. But the entire website was never in my system. Connection speed prevented doing it that way.



Well, if I have to I can do that. It will sure take a while to download and upload, but I probably need a copy of the files anyway even though the host does a backup.

I assume then that HTML editor will only update changed files somehow? There is a setting someplace to only update changed files?

This is important to me because my upload speed, not even considering errors requiring resends, is only a few hundred kbps. The complete website is huge, so I really cannot get into downloading very often or uploading the whole thing at all if I can avoid it!! :-)

As long as you "know" where the pictures are stored, and reference them properly, you wouldn't "have" to dl/ul them... Sure preview will show the nasty red x's, but I'd leave them on the server and just upload the html file then view...

Thanks, I'm trying to make time to look at HTML editor again.

If I download the whole site and edit parts I guess I have no option but to upload those areas manually? HTML editor does not keep track of what changes and upload it automatically without updating unchanged pages?

For me that's never a problem because I always upload to the server to test my new content live.
The Editor does have some options for checking dependencies during upload.