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The info here, although is for GeoCities homesteaders, may even work for you, especially the Uploading your files section and the File management section. If you don't have a page on GeoCities, then GET ONE FREE!
As a GeoCities homesteader, I understand that you want to make a page of your own, in the easiest way possible. That's why I created this section: I wanted to bring you some knowledge that will ease the burden of understanding what's going on "up there", as we say.
When you got your account, a directory (pointed by the URL they gave you) was created. That directory has read-only access rights, so that no one can wreak havoc on your "personal site".
You have a limit of 2 MB of space in your directory in which you can put almost whatever you want (follow GeoCities content guidelines before putting anything). To delete, rename, preview, edit or move files, you have to use the GeoCities' File Manager. You can use it to edit your profile or launch your favorite HTML editor, may it be the standard, advanced or JavaScript editors.
The first thing you have to do when creating a site for you is to create some crap on the server with the Basic home page editor. That will create a file named "index.html" that is loaded automatically every time a reference to your directory is done. Remember, index.html is the main file. This is where all of your site must start.
Go to Uploading files for info on putting your files on the server. Once you upload files or edit them with the Advanced HTML editor, you won't be able to use the Home Page editor again (but that doesn't matter, you know it sucks).
Attention: The FTP procedures apply only for GeoCities. Most of this part refers to the procedure GeoCities homesteaders use to put their files on the remote site. Any other person, please refer to the help page in your particular Web page provider. But, it is advisable to the user to familiarize with his/her FTP utility, because almost all of the Web page services use it. That's why the advices in the last section help anyone, not only GeoCities homesteaders (you'll see what I mean). Click here for info on EZ file upload.
To upload a file, you use the FTP utility or the EZ file upload. I use FTP, so that's why I'll explain it. If you don't have any FTP utilities, then go to my More information page, look for the link on Tucows, and go there. You'll find a lot of shareware FTP utilites. For those who use Windows 95, you already have an FTP utility. It's called FTP and it's located in your Windows folder.
So, while connected to the Internet, start your FTP client and locate yourself in the directory where you have your files. Then, connect to ftp.oocities.com (remember, Unix differences between uppercase and lowercase) and login with your member name and password. Then, activate binary transfer. The remote system will take you automatically to the upload directory.
The party starts! Just put all the files you want in that directory. Check if all of them are spelled in lowercase. Only thing you must have is an index.html file (not index.htm). Now, sit down, drink a coffee, relax, and in 15 minutes (yes, wait, because the upload queue is long) you'll see your masterpiece online.
Get more info about GeoCities FTP procedures here. This link explains EZ file upload too.
If you decided to keep your files in your computer and upload those who change, I got a tip: keep all your files on a single folder. Every HTML document should have an .HTM or an .HTML extension. If your computer supports long and lowercase file names, prefer the long and lowercase versions of the name and extension.
Use descriptive names and keep your documents without spaces in the filenames, because many servers, including the GeoCities server, don't support spaces in the file names; use underscores ("_") instead. You'll thank me for that prevision after you submit your files to the server.
Now, the document organization itself. Save the main document with the name "index.html". At least in GeoCities, that's the main document that is loaded when the URL is accessed. To create more pages, simply create other documents and save them in the same directory (with an .html extension, you know that). Logically, you'll reference them with links in your own "index.html", isn't that true?
It might be better to take an example, so that we can see it better. Let's take mine: this site, as you're seeing right now, was originally on an "HTML" folder on my hard disk where all of the files related to this homepage were stored. The main file (usually index.html) was located there too. I had all my related MIDIs and GIFs and external pages there, so that I could submit them at once. I created the links as follows: when I had to reference a graphic, I didn't have to put any URLs or pathnames, I just put a filename instead, because as the files were all in the same folder, my browser let me preview them as if they were online. As normally you keep all of your files of your page in the same location on the net, it was exactly as it was supposed to be viewed. A friend of mine used FrontPage: he had the problem that when he saved his page to disk, FrontPage would convert all of the relative URLs in absolute ones, so, when he submitted the files to the server, all of the references were locale to a hard disk. Bad time for my friend.
Here is the GeoCities help system. This place can get answers to all inquiries (home page problems, password problems, every kind of problem that might come up).
Be sure to check the FAQ page for information about the Frequently Asked Questions.
The Help forum is where you can post a question, read former answers to all questions, about HTML, images, password, FTP, nearly every kind of problem. This is you want to be assisted by humans (you might want to contact me too :-) ).
The GeoCities Internet Tools page is THE page where all Internet tools, help pages and informations can be found. Here, utilities for the GeoCities homesteader are provided, and links to HTML help pages and stuff.
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