Dreamwater FAQ and Intrdouction 2: Back to the main faq File Management: Another major part of Dreamwater is the ability to edit, delete, name and make new html and text files on your account. These functions are very important and very simple to use View File Types One of our newest and most helpful features is the ability to view certain file types in each directory. By viewing only one or two file types, you can greatly reduce the load time of your file manager and you will also find that browsing through your files becomes much more simply. You can select the file types to browse when logging into your account or once you have logged in. Viewing by all types or not selecting any viewing preference to view will show every file of any type in the current directory. Viewing html files will show only files with the file name .php, .php or .shtml. Viewing by images will display any file with a .gif, .jpg or .jpeg extension. Viewing by other will display any other allowed file types that are not html or image files. To make new file type viewing preferences be reflecte reflectedin your file listing, click the "Refresh Current Directory" button. Refreshing Your File List Refreshing your file list goes along with Viewing File types. When you upload a file, rename a file or delete a file, the changes to your directory will be shown right away. However, there are many cases in which you use ftp (not all accounts have this option) or you edit your files on another computer or you manipulate the files without causing the directory to reload. By using the refresh feature, your file manager will be reloaded and will reflect the current files for that directory. Refreshing the directory also causes your file Viewing Preferences to take effect. Editing a File If you already have made or uploaded a html file and now wish to edit it, you can do so by logging into the file manager program. Select your directory as explained above and find the section titled "Files residing in the directory". Then select the file that you wish to edit, click the "Edit File" button. You will be taken to a page with a large text box with the contents of your file. Make any changes that you want to make here and then click the save button. If you are unsure what to change or what html is, see our html tutorial. Deleting a File If you have uploaded any type of file or created a file online you are able to delete it using this function. You can do so by logging into the file manager program. Select your directory as explained above and find the section titled "Files residing in the directory". The click the box next to all the files that you wish to delete and click the "Delete Files" button. You will then be taken to a page where you must confirm that you with to delete the files. If you wish to delete the files, simply click on "Delete these files", if you do not wish to delete them, click your browsers back button and they will not be deleted. Once a file has been deleted, it can not be brought back by the webmaster. Renaming a File If you wish to change the file name of any of your files, log into the file manager program. Select your directory as explained above and find the section titled "Files residing in the directory". Then click the box next to the file name you with to change and click the "Rename File" button. You will then be taken to a page that lists the file name along with a blank field for you to enter the new file name in. Enter the new file name and click "Rename these files" to rename the files, to cancel click your browser's back button. Creating a New File There are now three possible ways to create a new file: plain html, template or ez-web builder. Each of these features can be accessed by logging into your file manager program. Select the directory to place your file in and click the button titled "Create New File". From there, you can select the method of file creation that you want most. Each method of file creation is explained below Creating a Plain HTML File To create a plain html file where you can insert whatever code you would like, proceed to the Create File Page (as explained above). Once you reach that page, you will be sent to a page with a large text box for you to enter your text or HTML code in. Once you are done making your file, type the file name that you wish to save the file as and click "Save Changes" to make the file which can later be edited, renamed and deleted. Creating a file with templates To create a plain html file where you can insert whatever code you would like, proceed to the Create File Page (as explained above). Once you reach that page, you will be shown several options including the option to use the ez-editor and/or make a page from html code by hand. You will also see a list of Templates along with a brief description of each template. These templates allow you to fill in a few fields and create a simple and standard web page. The fields for templates will vary but they normally will contain a few normal options like Bg Color which sets the back background color. Page name, which sets the name for the page. Text/ Link color which set the text and link colors for the entire page. Other options will vary but should be mostly self-explanatory and simple to use. When you are done filling out a template form, you will have the option to either save the template or preview it. Saving it makes the page a part of your web directory (with the file name chosen by you). You can later edit a template created file if you would like. Below is an example of a simple and generic template: Creating a file with EZ-Web To create a ez-web html file where you can use our editor to create files, proceed to the Create File Page (as explained above). Once you reach that page, click the EZ-Web button and you will be taken to a page with many options. The first option is to give the file a file name. This option is required or your file will not be able to be saved. If you want the file to appear on the web, name it something.php. The next two text boxes allow you to enter a page description and keywords. These are optional fields and are used to add your pages to search engines (meta tags) and allow your page to be found when someone searches through your host's site. The Page title field is used to make a page title that will appear as the name for your window when someone visits your page, just as this page has the title "Dreamwater Web Page FAQ 2". While a title is not a required tag, it is key to making a page that users will like and return to. The Background color option allows you to select a solid color for the background of your page. This is also not required but you may want to use a color to make your page lindeterminesk more life like. Just remember to pick a text color that works with the background! The background image option allows you to select from a list of predefined images for a background image. Background images will automatically tile (fill up the whole screen) and override any background color. To preview an image, select the image from the drop down list and then click the image icon. Text color determines the default font color for your page. You should always pick a color so old browsers can view your page properly, even if that color is black. The link color is the color that links will appear in before they are visited by a user. This is not required and browsers will show their default colors of you do not select one. The visited link color works exactly the same as link color only it is the color of a link after the user has viewed the page. Drop down list options: These options can be added, deleted, moved or edited at any time. Text - this allows you to insert a section of text into your webpage. Link - allows you to make a link to another file in your site or to another site. The link url is the url to send the user to. The link text is the text that appears for the link and the mouseover text is text that will appear in the status bar when a suer's mouse passes over the site. Image - this allows you to insert an image anywhere in your page. The image can be one of your own or one from the pre made images list. You should specify the image height and width to save on load time. You also can align the image to the left, center or right to make it fit into your page. New Line - this tells the page to start your next image or link or text on the next line instead of the same line. Email link - this lets people click a link or fill out a form to send you an email. You can select text or an image for the link. Start Font - this allows you to select a specific font to use such as a certain height or style or face or even bold/underline. End Font - this ends your previously started font so that the rest of your page does not reflect the settings of that font. Horizontal Rule - this creates a thin line across your page (Horizontally) to divide content. Once you have create a page you can either preview it or save it. You may come back and edit a saved page whenever you want using the editor. You can not however use EZ-Web to edit a hand coded page. Back to the main faq © Copyright, Ted Sindzinski