Frequently Asked Questions
This help section organises issues in topics as frequently asked questions.
For the basics that include how to create pages, set up menus, and change your colors please read the quick Getting Started Tutorial that will give you a good overview of how to customise your FDW.
Q. How do I upload files, example photos?
Q. How do I insert an image/photo in a page?
Q. How do I make a link in a page, to another page?
Q. How do I create a Photo Album or a Collection of files?
Q. How do I add files/photos to a collection/photo album?
Q. How do I add and manage User Accounts of my website?
Q. How do I manage my Guestbook?
Q. How do I change the Header Banner of my website?
Q. How do I upload my own Stylesheet (css)?
Q. How do I create a contact form or feedback form?
Q. How do I make my photos smaller before I upload them?
Q. How do I upload files, example photos?
From the "Admin" menu, go to "Your Files & Upload". You will see the list of files that you have already uploaded. There is also a button "Upload File". Click on this button and you will get the file upload form. Read the instructions carefully. Click on the "browse" button to choose the file you would like to upload. You may change the access level and the validity period if you like. It is also good to type in a description of your file, so that it becomes more search-able. If the file name that you are uploading, already exists on your FDW, and you wish to replace it, you need to tick the "Replace" option. You may also decide to add the file that you are uploading, to one of your collections straight away. Note that this can also be done later on after the file is uploaded. The details of the uploaded file can also be changed later on, from the "Edit File" option.
When you are ready from filling the form, click on the "Add this File" button once. Note that this will take a while depending on the size of the file that you are uploading. The smaller the file, the faster it is for you to upload and your users to download. So if you have photos, first make them smaller, ideally 640x480 and less than 100Kb in size. To read more about shrinking photos, see question " How do I make my photos smaller before I upload them? ".
Note that the direct link to your uploaded file will be in the form of: http://www.mywebsite.com/getfile.php/mmfiles/MyFileName
Q. How do I insert an image/photo in a page?
From the content editor of the page in question, click on the "Add Image" icon in the tool bar (last section). A small window will pop up that will ask you the URL of the image you like to insert. Enter this URL, example http://www.mywebsite.com/mmfiles/my_photo.jpg . Then click the "OK" button and the image should be inserted in your page at the position where you cursor was.
Q. How do I make a link in a page, to another page?
From the content editor of the page in question, click on the "Insert Link" icon in the toolbar (last section). A small window will pop up that asks you the URL, the text, and the target of the link. For the URL, you may enter something like http://www.mywebsite.com/Section---Page.html (i.e. first the name of the section, then 3 dashes, then the name of the page. Example this page is named "Faqs" and is in the "Help" section so its link is "Help---Faqs.html") . For the text you may type something like "Go to Homepage". The target defines where the new page will open, _self means in the same window of the current page. When you are finished, click on the "Insert Link" button, and the link should be inserted in your editor, where your cursor was. It is important that you use the absolute URL, i.e. starting with http://...... It is a good idea to copy and paste this link from your browser, to avoid mistakes.
Q. How do I create a Photo Album or a Collection of files?
From the "Admin" menu, click on "Collections & Photo Albums". You will be presented with a list of the collections that you already have. To add a new collection, click on the "Add Collection" button. This will bring you to the "Add Collection" form page. Read the instructions carefully. First give a unique name to your new collection, so that the system will be able to identify it, such as "graduationalbum". Then decide on a display title for your collection, such as "My Graduation Photos".
If this collection you are creating, happens to be a photo album, you need to tick the "Photo Album" option. You may change the access level and the validity period if you like. Type in a description for this collection, for display and search-ability purposes. Note that you will be able to change these details later on after you created the collection, from the "Edit Collection" option.
When you are ready, click on the "Add this Collection" button and your new collection will be created.
Note that the link to the page where your users can see the new collection will be in the form of http://www.mywebsite.com/collection--CollectionName.html (i.e. "collection" followed by two dashes followed by the name of the collection, ex. http://www.mywebsite.com/collection--GraduationAlbum.html ). It will show a list of files in the collection with links, or if this collection happens to be a photo album it will show a nice browseable photo album.
To read about how to add files/photos to this collection, please see the next question, how to add files to a collection.
Q. How do I add files/photos to a collection/photo album?
There are two ways to add a file to a collection. The first way is possible when you are uploading the file that is to be added to the collection. You may choose to which collection it is to be added straight away when it is uploaded. For more details see the question "How do I upload files, example photos?".
The second method is to do it from the "Edit Collection" page. Click on "Collections & Photo Albums" from the "Admin" menu. From the list, find the collection you want to add files to, and click on the corresponding "Edit" button. You will be taken to the "Edit Collection" page that has two parts. The first one on top is a form that you can use to change the details of this collection.
The second form below is used to manage the files that are part of this collection. To add a file to this collection, select the file you would like to add from the selection/dropdown list. This dropdown list shows all the files that you have uploaded to your FDW, apart from the ones that are already part of this collection. Once you have selected the file you wish to add, click on the "Add this File" button, and the file you chose will be added to the list of collection files.
You may remove a file from a collection by clicking in the corresponding "X" button, in this same list. This will NOT remove the uploaded file from your website, but only remove it from the collection.
NOTE that the same uploaded file may be part of more than one collection.
Q. What are Access Levels?
An access level is a number from 0 to 10 that you assign to your pages, files, menus and collections through the respective management forms. The access level of one of these objects defines who can see and access the object.
An access level of 0 (zero) means that anyone who is surfing your website can see and access the object, without the need to be signed in.
If an object's access level is set to greater than 0, i.e. from 1-10, it means that someone browsing your website needs to be signed in, in order to access the object.
Now when you create user accounts for your website, you also assign an access level to them, from 1-10. You as administrator have an access level of 10, and can therefore access all the objects (pages, menus, files, collections). A user can only access objects that have an access level smaller or equal to his own access level.
So a signed in user with access level of 1 is not able to see a menu with access level of 2. Similarly, a user with access level of 5, cannot download or see a photo that has access level of 6, even if he tries to do so using a direct link.
Q. How do I add and manage User Accounts on my website?
A user account is only needed in the case that you want someone to be able to sign in to your website, so that he or she can access some protected pages, files, menus or collections. You have a user account for yourself as an administrator, with Access Level of 10 and you use your username and password to sign in and access the "Admin" menu. Similarly you can create other user accounts for other users, with different access levels.
From the "Admin" menu, click on "Your Users". You will see a list of the existing user accounts. To create a new user account, click on the "Add User" button. You will see the "Add User" form. Read the instructions on top and then start filling the form. Choose a unique username and a password. You may change the access level and the validity period if required. You may also set the rest of the information, which can also be changed at a later stage from the "Edit User" form, after the user account is added.
To change the details of an existing user account, click the corresponding "Edit" button from the "Your Users" accounts list.
Q. How do I manage my Guestbook?
Your website comes with a Guestbook. The link to your Guestbook is in the form of http://www.mywebsite.com/Main---Guestbook.html . When someone leaves a message on you Guestbook you will be notified by email. To remove unwanted messages from your guestbook, from the "Admin" menu click on "Guestbook Entries". This page will list all the posts in your guestbook. To remove any of them, click on the corresponding "X" button.
Q. How do I change the Header Banner of my website?
By default your website header displays the title and subtitle of your website. You can change what your header looks and include images / photos. From the "Admin" menu, click on "Your Header / Banner". This page contains a form that you can use to create your customised website banner. First read the instructions carefully. The form contains an editor like the one you use to change the content of your pages, and you use it in the same way. You can insert images and links. When you are ready designing your customised header, click on the "Submit Changes" button at the bottom of the form. You should see the changes immediately to your header. If you would like to remove your customised header and revert back to the default one you can click on the "Remove Header" button.
Q. How do I upload my own Stylesheet (css) ?
If customising your stylesheet using the stylesheet generator is not enough for your needs, and you know how to develop CSS stylesheets or have someone to do it for you then you can directly upload a stylesheet for your website.
However first you should start by downloading the existing stylesheet so that you can add on and modify that one. From the "Admin" menu, click on "Styles & Colors". Then click on the "Upload Stylesheet" button. Read the instructions on this page. To download the current stylesheet for editing, click the "click here" link.
Once you have modified the stylesheet to your needs, use this form to upload your customised stylesheet. To test it, go back to the "Styles and Colors" page, find your new stylesheet from the list, and click on the corresponding "Test" button. To set it as the main stylesheet to be used, click on the corresponding "Set" button.
Q. How do I create a contact form or feedback form?
First of all, your website comes ready with a contact form. The link to your contact form is in the form of http://www.mywebsite.com/Main---ContactForm.html . Visitors of your website can fill in and submit this form and you will receive the information by email to your registered address.
However with FDW you can develop your own HTML forms and place them in any of your pages. When users submit such a form, the information supplied will be emailed to you. To develp these custom forms, you need to understand how to develop HTML forms. You can develop them in your preferred HTML editor and then copy and paste them into the FDW page editor of the page you like.
The only special thing you need to do for your custom form to work is to make its "action" attribute point to a particular page of your website. This page is "Main---Formsubmit.html".
If you would like us to develop a form for you, please contact us.
Q. How do I make my photos smaller before I upload them?
It is always a very good idea to make your photos smaller to an appropriate size before uploading them. Many times you take a photo with your digital camera and it is a JPG of over 1MB(1000Kb) and has a resolution of over 2000x1700 pixels. Over the internet, photos that are 640x480 pixels are still considered very good quality.
When you shrink your photo resulution by 3 or 4 times to make it 640x480 or less, its file size is reduced by around 10 times to make it around 100Kb. This means it will take much less time to upload, much less space on the server, and your users can see your photo much much faster and do not have to wait for it to download.
There are various techniques to shrink your photos, using basically any photo editor. Example if you use "Windows", you can use "Paint". To do this, right click on the photo you want to shrink, and choose "Open with >> Paint". Then from the Paint Menus, go to menu "Image >> Stretch / Skew". In the "Stretch Horizontal" type "25" and in the "Stretch Vertical" type "25" too. Click "OK" and you can see that your picture is now smaller. Now you need to save your shrunk photo by choosing " File >> Save As ". Save your shrunk photo with a new name so that you do not overwrite and lose the original photo.
Then upload your shrunk photo to your FDW. It will be much better for the performance of your website. If you need help with uploading a file, see the question "How do I upload Files, example photos? ".
