Navigating in FTP

(Some subjects are being glossed over for now, because my clients don't need them right away. They'll be covered in the next edition.)

You'll notice there are two address bars and two windows, marked 'Local System' and 'Remote Site'. The window on the Left is Local. The window on the Right is Remote. "Local, left, remote, right." The Local window shows what's on your local site, that is, the machine where you're sitting. Just as local as it gets. The Remote shows what's on the remote site, far away. It could be anywhere.

The address bars give you the pathname for what shows in the window underneath. In the picture, the local site address bar shows a folder on my home computer's hard drive. The address bar for the remote site shows a folder on the DM server at HCC. And the buttons down the side...

Clicking MkDir (make directory) will create a new folder. You get an Input box asking for the new folder name. Type it in and click OK. Rename and Delete do just what you expect them to do. If you want to look at one of the files, you'll be tempted to click 'View'. That will only show you the code. To see what the page looks like, click 'Exec'. This 'executes' the file. (It wasn't my idea.)

To get to this point, you navigate by means that are very similar to what you're used to with Windows, with exceptions. Like Windows, the arrow pointing up (the green one at the top of the window) takes you to the next folder up. But unlike Windows, you must double-click the arrow to go up. You open a folder by double-clicking it, like Windows. But unlike Windows, double-clicking a file transfers it. To 'open' and look at the file, use 'Exec'. We'll transfer files in Posting. As an example, we'll double-click the 'creative' folder on the Remote (right) side.

The 'creative' folder on the right side has been opened, showing the folder and files it contains. This is only an illustration. When you transfer files, you will almost always see the same thing in both windows, as in the picture at the top. Remember, what's transferred from left to right here will end up in the 'creative' folder. Let's try that in Posting.