publishing website EMERGENCY

**Dolivo** · 29 November 2012, 10:11 PM

Would someone please help me before I scream??? PLEASE answer with this in mind: I am NOT a computer language person. I do not have a background, or education in computer language.

Ok, I have Xara web design premium 8. I am trying to publish a page. I have gone into FILE>EXPORT WEBSITE as the tutorial said to. I do not know what file to save this to. please tell me.

I tried to publish and it's not publishing. So then I do some looking and am told I need to download an FTP client. So I download FileZilla. I get connected to it and it brings up all my files. Wonderful. SO what the HECK do I do with it now??? Would someone please explain to me how to use this thing, what the connection is to how I publish thru my Web Design program?. Please I beg of you, talk to me like I"m a 5 year old. Here are some more things you may need to know.

my web host is Dreamhost. I did have Wordpress and was trying to build a site but what a cluster of annoying confusion that was. I tried to delete all the files associated with it but don't know if I was successful. I do not understand all this "path this and path that talk". arg. Please Help!!!

**gwpriester** · 29 November 2012, 10:56 PM

Take a deep breath.

Dreamhost should have given you some basic FTP information. You should be able to publish your site directly from within Xara.

Enter this information in Website Properties > Publish

If Dreamhost wants you to publish your files to a sub directory, such as public_html or htdocs, or something else enter that too.

Then use the Publish Website option.

You will be asked to specify a folder on your computer to publish the files but the files will then also be transferred to Dreamhost.

**Dolivo** · 29 November 2012, 11:28 PM

thank you for your reply. ok, <<<<DEEP BREATH>>>>>
Unfortunatly I had already done all that you said. I entered my FTP information from my web host. I hit publish. Nothing happened. This is where I became confused. So I went to my web host account and tried deleting what I thought to be old Wordpress stuff that might be causing problems. Well, it took my old website (from wordpress) down, but didn't help with publishing my new one. This is when I found the wiki thing that said I needed Filezilla, etc etc.

you said "You will be asked to specify a folder on your computer to publish the files but the files will then also be transferred to Dreamhost." I don't know what that means.

When I'm done with making my web page, do I "save it as" something first? do I name it something specific? What's the difference between this and "exporting website"? when I export website, do I put it in a specific place with a specific name?

If it helps, my website is www.hlhas.com. you can see what happens when I try to publish.

**V12CatMan** · 30 November 2012, 12:34 AM

Originally Posted by Dolivo

thank you for your reply. ok, <<<<DEEP BREATH>>>>>
Unfortunatly I had already done all that you said. I entered my FTP information from my web host. I hit publish. Nothing happened. This is where I became confused. So I went to my web host account and tried deleting what I thought to be old Wordpress stuff that might be causing problems. Well, it took my old website (from wordpress) down, but didn't help with publishing my new one. This is when I found the wiki thing that said I needed Filezilla, etc etc.

you said "You will be asked to specify a folder on your computer to publish the files but the files will then also be transferred to Dreamhost." I don't know what that means.

When I'm done with making my web page, do I "save it as" something first? do I name it something specific? What's the difference between this and "exporting website"? when I export website, do I put it in a specific place with a specific name?

If it helps, my website is www.hlhas.com. you can see what happens when I try to publish.

I'll try to make a couple of comments that will help you to understand the process:

1. Saving a Xara developed file - You save a file just like you do a Word Document or any other file you create on your computer. This is the file you work on to create and maintain your website.
2. Exporting a file - Before you publish a website you have to export the website. This process creates web browser readable html files and images that are suitable for uploading to a web server where your web site resides and is accessed by the public.
3. Publishing a website - This is the process of uploading the html files, images etc to your hosting site (described in step 2). There are 2 ways to do this:

a. The easy way is to use the built in publishing tool in Xara. All you need to do is enter the correct information in the publish screen

b. Use an FTP client like Filezilla, which stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is a stand alone program for transferring files between computers. Frankly this is more complicated for a beginner and you could easily make mistakes. It is not required under normal circumstances. It's a bit like baking a loaf of bread from scratch rather than using a ready mixed one. Well maybe not the best analogy but you may get the point.

Now the 5 yr old stuff - Think about paths in the same way that you think about indexing documents in a filing cabinet or a public library:

a. Filing Cabinets have drawers which have folders which have documents. Computers have hard drives\which have folders\which have documents hence C:\Data\Mywebsite\sampledocument.

b. Public Libraries have Aisles, which have shelves which have documents. So a library book located on Aisle A, Shelf 2, Book A213 could easily be stored on a computer as C:\Aisles\Shelf2\BookA213.

You are telling the computer where to store the files and the computer creates an index of where those files are located. Always remember that generally speaking a computer does what you do manually but does it a whole lot faster (generally).

When the penny drops you'll be fine. Just check with your hosting Company on the path you need to enter in the publish options. They will help you. They may have a tutorial on their site.

Gary

**Dolivo** · 30 November 2012, 12:45 AM

ok... thank you. I get that I don't need to use filezilla. So I'll take that out of my equation.
So now I have the correct information entered into the publishing tool on Xara Web Master. I know it's correct because I confirmed it with my web host. It still does not work. So what do I do now? Should I call Xara for help? Or my web host?

Exporting the website: you told me what it does, but not the how-to. Does it matter what folder I put it in? Does it matter what I name it? Don't you have to name the Home page a certain thing to get the website to publish correctly?

I just don;t understand why this isn't working. It sounds so straight forward but yet I can't figure it out.

**gwpriester** · 30 November 2012, 12:46 AM

Name your home page index.html (by default, Xara names an index file index.htm). html takes precedence over htm and so if your previous index page is index.html it will not be overwritten.

**Dolivo** · 30 November 2012, 03:44 AM

still not working. Someone help I beg of you. IS THERE A XARA TECHNICAL SUPPORT NUMBER I CAN CALL FOR someone to walk me thru this? This is a very frustrating way for me to try to fix this. Not because you guys are trying to be helpful, but it would be SO much better if I could talk to someone and I can't find a number to call.

**zaphodeist** · 30 November 2012, 04:15 AM

1) Save the Xara made file [I think a .web file in your case] to a place on your computer. I make a folder called XARS and put this under my username.

2) Export the site - This means to save the whole thing via File>>Export website... to anywhere you wish on your computer. Xara creates a new folder - called index_htm_files - in which it puts css code, pictures, etc. I make a folder named after the site or something relevant and export the site to it.If you look in this folder you will see index.htm and other pages you have made as well as the Xara created folder.

3) Publish the site - in Xara, enter the details given to you by the hosting company into Web properties >> publish. Usually this includes a subfolder, probably /public_html/

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NB Remember to click on APPLY and OK buttons

**Dolivo** · 30 November 2012, 04:32 AM

Originally Posted by zaphodeist

1) Save the Xara made file [I think a .web file in your case] to a place on your computer. I make a folder called XARS and put this under my username.

2) Export the site - This means to save the whole thing via File>>Export website... to anywhere you wish on your computer. Xara creates a new folder - called index_htm_files - in which it puts css code, pictures, etc. I make a folder named after the site or something relevant and export the site to it.If you look in this folder you will see index.htm and other pages you have made as well as the Xara created folder.

3) Publish the site - in Xara, enter the details given to you by the hosting company into Web properties >> publish. Usually this includes a subfolder, probably /public_html/

NB Remember to click on APPLY and OK buttons

THANK YOU for your answer. But I have done this. Many times. it does not work. Something is off. Something is not working as it should. I can't pinpoint it. My host has double checked. says everything is fine. I have gone through the Xara publishing steps many times. This is why I desperatly need to SPEAK to someone.

**zaphodeist** · 30 November 2012, 04:39 AM

I don't think Xara have a phone for customers. http://support.xara.com/ is the next stop, they're quite quick responding but remember that they are in the UK so if you're not please allow for any time difference.