HOW HARD IS IT TO UPLOAD A WEBSITE?

The following lists the steps needed to upload your website onto your web server.

Requirements:

• FTP program such as cuteFTP, smartFTP or any other free FTP programs on the Internet.

• Account details: web server address, username & password. These are supplied by your web host when you sign up.

Assuming that you have chosen for your website to be delivered as a Zip file from My Design with all html pages and images.

STEP 1 - If you are redesigning a website, be sure to do a backup of your existing website.

STEP 2 - Unzip folder - look at how files are organised and how folders are named.

STEP 3 - Create the exact folders on your web server and upload all files into appropriate folders. You should have the following folders created:

• Templates - should contain a file call template.dwt

• images - should contain all images for the template

• pageImages - should contain all images on individual pages

• scriptPages - contains ASP or PHP scripting files for forms. For example: contact.php OR contact.asp

The rest of the htm pages (or .doc, .pdf and other downloadable files) will not belong to any folders. All htm pages will have the same name as your existing web pages. Therefore, when asked whether you wish to replace existing pages, click YES. (Make sure you have a reserve copy of your existing website!) Depends on how your web server works, the file called index.htm in every location should be replaced.

STEP 4 - Open up your website again and check all links are working.

If you're not too confident about this, please indicate that you require help in uploading your website. As stated in our privacy section under our "Terms & Conditions", we will not disclose your web server details to third parties and you can change password as soon as you no longer require our service.

HOW HARD IS IT TO MAINTAIN A WEBSITE? (That was designed by My Design)

When a website is designed by My Design, there are two main parts to maintain:

1. The template section. This is the outer part of the website which contains the main navigation and all other links. Think of it as the "parent" page. You would want to modify this part when you want to add/modify/delete a link or perhaps change the picture on the banner. All changes to the template section need to be done to a file called template.dwt. Changes will be reflected on all other pages keeping all the main navigation consistent on every page. So doesn't matter if you have 40 pages in your website, you only need to change 1 file, which is template.dwt.

How hard is it to maintain the template?

Quite hard if you don't understand how template works or using Photoshop. Your website's template was created in Photoshop and to make additional links you would need to reopen a file called "template.psd".

You would need someone who knows how to work with Photoshop layers and saving it as a webpage to be able to handle template.psd. This should be saved as template.html (replacing it as well as all images in "Images" folder).

Why you should let us do it?

If the above does not sound like something you'd want to waste time with or have anyone else with the skills to handle it, please choose option 1 or 2 instead.

2. The content section. This is the "child" page where you place all your content, you can edit this part on each page. Of course, the parts that belong to the "parent" page (template.dwt) such as the navigation or the banner is locked.

To edit a "child" page, simply open it and make the necessary changes and save.

What program can you use to maintain your website?

My Design mainly use Dreamweaver. Other WYSIWYG ( "What You See Is What You Get" ) programs such FrontPage, CuteHtml, PageMaker are also sufficient. We recommend Dreamweaver for one particular feature (other programs could also have this feature):

• In Dreamweaver site can be set up once and you'll never have to use a FTP program to upload your web pages again. You can simply make changes to your website, press "Save" and the new page will instantly be uploaded onto your server.

• To set this up, follow these steps:

  • Click on Site

  • Click on New Site... then follow instructions to set up site.

  • On Remote Info and under Access choose FTP and enter all FTP information that you normally enter in any FTP program.

  • Additionally, click on Automatically upload files to server on save. This is optional and is not always recommended but it saves you the extra step of uploading files.

Once this is done, every time you want to edit your site simply press F8 and press on "Connects to Remote Host" and you're ready to go!

Overall, does it sound like something you or any of your staff could handle? If not, please contact us for support.