HTML for Technophobes.
©David Knopfler/Willa Cline July 1998

Chapter Four: Part Two: FTP for Macs


Alora! Isn't it nice to be among friends:)

Okay here's how you do it: Loads easier than on a PC ... naturally ... Do what? I hear you ask blankly. This is how you load your web pages up to your website ... FTP (file transfer protocol) with me now? They are only words invented by someone who couldn't look cool to save their life - don't let them worry you. Before you read any further I've made a couple of assumptions about what you want to achieve - so if the following doesn't apply to you - skip to the next chapter. I am assuming you have a website on a host server owned by someone else at some remote location and that you want to upload your files to it.

You can of course transfer files using ftp from anywhere to anywhere - but I'm sure that's not why you're visiting this page - though if you figure out how to transfer files to your own website I think enough lights will go on, that you'll be able to do other useful stuff with the information like anonymous logins ... don't even ask.

I'd recommend one of two shareware applications (though you can if you want use your WYSIWYG editor like VisualPage without additional software).

Netfinder (woof!) --- OR Fetch

They are both very easy to use. Netfinder in particular is very Mac like - not least because you can simply employ the same dragging and dropping of files from your Macs folder window to the window of your website, once you open the correct window. And that, more or less, is the only tricky bit. Don't be afraid of asking your Host Server support people to help you - it's their job.

This is what you'll see when you open Netfinder

And this is probably what you'll need to put into each line .. though your support guys might have their own arrangements that are slightly different:

In the first box you want your Host name

i.e. you want to put ftp.mysite.com where mysite.com is the name of your website - or ftp.mysite.co.uk if you bought a UK domain name - etc.

In the second box you need to put your Username - that's the name of the folder they have created for you at your host server when you sent them their first cheque ... If you are at all uncertain ring them and ask. Chances are it'll be the same as the middle bit of the first box - i.e. just the mysite bit

Similarly the third box should be whatever the password was that they gave you - and when you type it in you'll notice that it types in little dots - that's purely to stop anyone seeing what you type - don't get paranoid - you're almost there ;)

Finally you have to add the Path - not the garden variety. I know you are now feeling we've sort of slipped out of Mac territory and into DOS and I can't really argue with you .. it's pathetic isn't it? HOWEVER we do have to type it in and worse I can't really tell you what your path to your folder is, because it depends on what your host server has called their master folder that holds everyone's websites - at my host you have to add home/ then your username - but at yours it may be different. HOWEVER all being well you'll wind up with your doobrie looking something like this:

Don't send the boys round if I'm wrong ... this stuff verges on art rather than science to get right. All you need to do now is click Save as Bookmark so hopefully you don't ever have to write this stuff in again, then go online by whatever is your usual usual method and then last but not least, click Connect and it'll try to connect you to your host server ... Triumph or despair will shortly follow so when it fails have your host server's support line number close to hand ;) Remember once you get there, you should be able to double click your way into whichever folder you need to access. Good luck.

Note: If in doubt about which format to use to upload your files, try binary first - and if they look okay in your browser once you've uploaded them - it worked! If not, try the other options offered. Oh, and another tip - it's VERY common for people of think that their upload didn't work when in fact it did, simply because their browser is still reading the old file from your cache. To avoid this possibility when you are clicking to open a page with your browser hold down the option key (two keys to the left of your space bar) - this will ensure that the page loads from your website and not from the cache of your computer.

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