Using HTML-Kit to Update Your Site
HTML-Kit is freeware available for download. While it is strictly a code editor, it has numerous toolbars available that have all of the basic text formatting you could need built in. However, it does give you a Preview option, allowing you to see what your HTML page will look like. HTML-Kit has you set up Folders or FTP Servers to connect to and manage your site. To start, we will set up an FTP Server for your site.
Setting Up the Site
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Open HTML-Kit and, if it pops up, Cancel out of the Open file wizard. |
| 2 | Click on Workspace, Add Folder / FTP Server, then Add FTP Server.... |
| 3 | For the Server Address, type in: www.svsu.edu. |
| 4 | Enter your Login (SVSU Username) and Password (SVSU Password). |
| 5 | Give your site a Display Name - generally just the club name, or "My SVSU site" will do. |
| 6 | For Initial Directory, If it is your personal directory, |
| 7 | Click the General tab. |
| 8 | Enter in the URL for your web site for the Web Root Address section. If it is your personal directory, |
| 9 | Click OK. |
Creating Pages and Uploading to My Site
HTML-Kit's FTP Servers are direct connections to your actual web site. Any change you make and save is automatically uploaded and available online. This actually makes it a little easier because you don't have to maintain local copies of every file.
- To create a new page, right click on the FTP server for your site in the Files pane, then go to New and select Create File....
- If you're not already in it by default, go to the [ All ] tab.
- Select Blank HTML Page.
- Click OK.
- Enter in a New File Name. Keep it short, related to the document you're creating, and avoid spaces and special characters.
- You also have to give it a file extension - generally, it should be .htm or .html.
- Click OK.
Because HTML-Kit isn't a WYSIWYG editor, you may have to do a little bit of playing around to get acclimated to creating pages in Code View. The Objects, Document, and Text toolbars are where you will probably work from most of the time. These have your headings, links, images, text formatting buttons to give you the code necessary to apply that built-in formatting.
As you're working, keep previewing to see how the code you are entering is going to look.
Things to remember as you manipulate code:
- Stay inside the <body> tag with code you want to display on the screen.
- The <p> tag around a block of text means it will be a paragraph, and will automatically add some space below it, whereas the <br> tag will only move text down to the next line (<br>)
like this. - If you see something on a web page that you want to do, View -> (Page) Source can often guide you in the direction of how it was accomplished.
- Google is available 24/7/365.25 and can direct you to pages that offer tips and tricks to learn all you need to know.
- HTML manipulation can seem daunting at first, but millions of other people have done this before you and survived. A lot of them have even moved onto more complex parts of web development such as CSS styling, graphics manipulation and generation, and application programming. That's not to say that you will eventually end up there, but the point is - there's bigger and better things available, but everyone starts somewhere.
More Help
If you need more help, HTML-Kit does have help options available both online and under the Help menu. And when all else fails, Google it - or ask someone who knows the program or HTML for help.