FVA Home > Online Help Guides > Creating a District Web Site

This is a help guide for district chairmen (or their designee) who wish to create a district web site. This guide was created for a user running Windows XP and Microsoft FrontPage.

Overview:
I. Contact webmaster for an FTP username and password.
II. Create an empty web on your computer using Microsoft FrontPage.
III. Log into your FTP account on the FVA web server.
IV. Edit web site content.
V. Publish web site.

Suggested reading:

• What's FTP? How do I use it?
• How to setup FTP in Windows XP

I. Contact webmaster for an FTP username and password.

Send an email to the webmaster (webmaster@fva.net) requesting an FTP username and password. You will use this username and password every time you need to update your district web site's content. When you have received an FTP username and password, proceed to the next step.

II. Create an empty web on your computer using Microsoft FrontPage.

Start Microsoft FrontPage.

• From the File menu, create a new empty web (view screenshot).
• On the next screen, select Empty Web and choose a location for your empty web. This is where you choose the location for your new empty web. It is suggested you locate it in the My Webs folder and name it DistrictX -- but replace X with your district number. Click OK when you are finished (view screenshot).
• FrontPage will immediately create the empty web for you, and you can see where it is located by looking at the title bar (view screenshot). You are ready to move on to the next step. Feel free to close all the open windows.

III. Log into your FTP account on the FVA web server.

You are now ready to log into your new FTP account on the FVA.net web server.

• In Windows, go to your Start Menu and select My Network Places (view screenshot ). This will open the My Network Places window.
  • If you can't find My Network Places in your Start Menu, then try this instead... Go to your Start Menu, but this time click on My Computer. When the My Computer window opens, look on the left and click My Network Places (view screenshot ).
• In the My Network Places window, click on Add a network place. This opens the Add Network Place Wizard window . When this opens, click next.
• On the following screen, it will ask you where you want to create this network place. Select Choose Another Network Location and then click next.
• Next, the Add Network Wizard requests an address. In this field, type ftp://fva.hypermart.net and click next (view screenshot ).
• On the next screen, uncheck the Log on anonymously box, enter the FTP username you received from the FVA webmaster, and click next.
• On the next screen, it asks you to name the network place you've just created. Choose any name you wish (i.e. DistrictX) and click next.
• It will now ask you for the password. Enter your password in the appropriate box and click log on. After a few seconds, the screen will display all the files and folders currently in your district web site directory. This means you have successfully logged in (view screenshot).

Important: At this point, you may want to perform one of the following actions.

1. Delete your entire district web site. Do this if you want a fresh start and don't need any of the files currently on the web site.
   • To do this, go to the window titled ftp://ftp.hypermart.net/DistrictX, click the Edit menu, and choose Select All. With all the files and folders in your FTP account selected, press delete and confirm by pressing yes.
2. Download a copy of the existing web site. Do this if you wish to edit your existing web site instead of starting from scratch.
   • To do this, go to the window titled ftp://ftp.hypermart.net/DistrictX, click the Edit menu, and choose Select All. Then, it's suggested you click and drag those files into the empty web you created on your computer earlier under (view screenshot).

IV. Edit web site content.

Now it's time to create or edit your district web site content.

• To begin, open Microsoft FrontPage.
• When FrontPage opens, it may automatically open up the new "empty" web you created earlier (My Documents\My Webs\DistrictX).
• If it didn't automatically open your new empty web, go to the File menu and click Open Web. Navigate to the location of your empty web and open it.
• To view the files in your web, you may need to click the folders icon.
• To get started, locate the file named index.html and make the changes you want. Remember: The index.html file is the "home" page of your web site. This is the page that users first see when they go to your district web site address (www.fva.net/DistrictX).
  • If you are starting from scratch, then you will need to create this file. Go to the File menu and select New > Page. It is suggested that you choose "blank page".
• Make changes to your web site until you are satisfied. Be sure to save your work as you would when working on a Microsoft Word file. Pressing the save button saves the file to your computer. In the next step, you will learn how to publish your web site to the Internet.

V. Publish web site.

Now that you are satisfied with the changes you have made to your district web site, you are ready to publish it on the web. You should still be in FrontPage with your DistrictX web open.

• Go to the File menu and choose Publish Web. This will open a new window.
• When the Publish Destination window opens, you need to specify a location a publish destination. In this field, type ftp://fva.hypermart.net and click okay.
• When it requests your name and password, go ahead and enter the FTP username and password you received from the webmaster and click okay.
• On the following screen, press the Publish button.
• When it asks "Do you want to overwrite this file?", go ahead and click Yes to All.
• If you have done everything correctly, you should see a window stating that your web site has been published successfully.
  • To confirm that your web site has been published correctly, open Internet Explorer, and go to your district web site located at www.fva.net/DistrictX . Don't forget that the address is case-sensitive, so the "D" must be capitalized.
  • If your changes don't show when you open it in Internet Explorer, try pressing the refresh button (view screenshot).
  • If pressing the refresh button doesn't work, you can do a force refresh by holding the control key and pressing F5. If that doesn't work, make sure your F Lock button is off.
• Next time you wish to update your web site, repeat steps IV and V. Don't forget that you need to Publish Web every time in order for the changes to appear on the Internet for everyone else to see.

Congratulations! You have completed the tutorial.

You have successfully created an district web site. If you need further assistance, send an email to the webmaster at webmaster@fva.net.