Splash! tutorial

Publish It!

Of course we aren't going to publish the "Baker's Cleaning Goods" web site but you probably want to know how to go about it so you can publish creations of your own.

To upload or publish a site on the web we need to find a way to transport all the Splash! files currently stored on your computer to another computer which has a 24 hours a day 7 days a week connection. This computer is usually called your ISP or Internet Service Provider (the Splash! Homepage Resources section provides heaps of information on how to use a free web host supplier, which is a place that will store your web site for free - great for those of us without ISPs).

This may sound complex but it's really very easy with Splash's automatic FTP upload feature. To access this feature you should select PROJECT => GENERATE HTML from the menu system (or click the button furthest to the right on the button bar at the top of the Splash! interface - the one with the arrow and the spider's web pictured). This window allows you to generate HTML from your Splash! file. Generating HTML means converting your site into a format that can be placed on the web and interpreted by other computers anywhere in the world.

From the Generate HTML dialogue box, you can do one of two things. You can either generate HTML pages from your Splash! site to a local directory of your choice (desirable for some advanced users) or get Splash! to automatically generate your pages to HTML and upload your pages to the Web in one smooth step.

To generate HTML to your hard disk

From the dialogue box

choose Output Type
(choose between outputting all pages, a range of pages and so on)
choose Output Path
(hit the Browse button, and select an appropriate directory on your hard disk)
hit OK

Your pages are now saved in an HTML format to your hard disk, and can be uploaded manually to your host.

To upload your site automatically using Splash!

To have Splash! do it all you should click on the UPLOAD TO FTP site button which will bring up a details screen. At this point you need to garner some important information about your host. You must first confirm that your host will allow you to use FTP to upload your pages to their site (this is usually just a matter of looking through the documentation they provide online) and then you must have the following information (also provided by your ISP or the info page of a Free Web Host).

Remote Machine	something like ftp.host-name.com
Logon Name	varies, but is usually selected by you
Password	your password
Directory	not always neccessary, particularly with Free Web Host suppliers however you should consult your ISP.

Having followed these steps Splash! will upload your new creation to the web for the whole world to see!