Lesson #4: More on Publishing
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Vocabulary Terms:

  • Local Web: a copy of a website that resides on your computer or disk. Normally, the local web is used to create and revise content.
  • Remote Web: a copy of a website that resides on a web server, which is a computer that enables Internet access to your web material: normally, local webs are published to a separate web server.
  • Publishing: sending a copy of a web from one location to another.

Background:

  • Normally, most authors will work on their webs locally. This way, they can fully test their webs before making them available through the Internet.
  • You can work on the remote copy of your web, but viewers will see any errors and you'll run the risk of making your site unavailable as you correct any problems.
  • Another advantage of working on your local copy of the web and publishing it to the remote server is that the remote copy of your web can function as a back-up if you accidentally delete or destroy your local copy.

Step One: Getting Started on Your Home or Office Machine (FrontPage'98 instructions/assumes that you have been working on the remote copy of your web)

When you run FrontPage from your office or home machine for the first time, no files will be listed in the Getting Started window. Each time that you successfully open a FrontPage web for the first time, its name will be listed in this window. Once a web is listed, you can open it by double-clicking on its name instead of manually typing the full address of your web.

Below is an image of the Getting Started window that you'll most likely see when you run FrontPage for the first time. To open the copy of your FrontPage web that was assigned to you, click the More Webs button:

Click the More Webs button will display the Open FrontPage Web window. In the textbox immediately below Select a web server or disk location, enter the address of your department web exactly as it was assigned to you:

Click the List Webs button to open your web in FrontPage Explorer. You now can work on your web, keeping in mind that any changes that you make will be reflected immediately, or you can publish an exact copy of this web to your local machine.

Step Two: Publishing a Copy of Your Web to Your Local Machine

Now that the remote copy of your web is open, you might want to publish a copy to your home of office machine.

Under the File menu item, select Publish FrontPage Web:

In the Publish window, check the Publish changed pages only option. Click the More Webs button to specify the location of your site your hard drive:

Clicking the More Webs button will display a dialogue box. In the dialogue box, enter the letter of your hard drive (normally c:/) and the name of your department web. Click OK to send a copy of your web to your hard drive:

You may receive a warning that a folder does not exist. Click Yes to continue.

After clicking Yes, you will return to FrontPage Explorer. Please note that you are still in the remote copy of your web.

Step Three: Working on the Local Copy of Your Web

Close FrontPage and restart it. The next time that FrontPage runs, you will notice that your remote web is listed in the Getting Started window. To determine if this web is remote or local, click on the web's name, and then look at the middle of the Getting Started window. If the web is remote, you will see an http:// address; if it is local, then you'll see a c:\address. In the example below, the http:// address indicates that the highlighted web is located on a remote server:

To open the local copy of your web, click on the More Webs button. In the Select a web server or disk location window, enter c:\ and the name of your department web. Click the List Webs button, and you will be brought to FrontPage Explorer.

You can now work on the local copy of your FrontPage web without impacting the remote (and public!) version.

Once you are done make any changes, publish your local web to the Worcester State College remote web server. This will synchronize the local (private) version of your web with the remote (public) version.

The next time that you run FrontPage, you will note that both your local and remote copies of your web are listed in the Getting Started window. You can open your local web by double-clicking on its name instead of clicking on the More Webs button. Please note that your local web may be identified as "Root Web":

You can verify that the Root Web is a local web by checking if there is a c:\ address associated with its name.