Building a Web Site: Publishing Your Web Site

At some point, you'll want to publish your web site from your local computer to the server so that other people can look at it!

• If you are using FrontPage to build your site, you can also use FrontPage to publish your site.
  • If your hosting provider has FrontPage extensions, you can publish by going to File > Publish Web and typing in your domain (http://www.yoursite.com).
  • If your hosting provider does not have FrontPage extensions and requires you to publish using "ftp," you can still use FrontPage. Go to File > Publish Web and type in "ftp://www.yourdomain.com".
• If you are using Dreamweaver to build your site, you can use the built-in file manager. You can set this up when you "define" the site.
  1. Go to Site > Define Sites and choose the site if you haven't already.
  2. Choose the "Remote Info" category and choose "FTP" from the dropdown.
  3. Your "ftp" host is the "ftp.yourhost.com" address that your hosting provider should have provided.
  4. Your "host directory" should also have been provided - ask your hosting provider if you don't know what it is.
  5. You should enter your login and password, and find out from your hosting provider if you should check any other options.
  6. Once you do this, you can click the "Connect to remote host" icon (or go to Site > Connect). If the connection is successful, your remote folder (the folder online on the server) will appear in the "Remote Site" area. You can then drag/drop files from your local web site to the server or use the "Synchronize" tool.
• If you are going to FTP your site, use your FTP client. See our article on "Choosing Your Tools" for more information, and follow the instructions for your FTP client.

Next: Testing Your Web Site