Guide to WS_FTP About FTP and the WS_FTP Program Setting Up WS_FTP Connecting to your Account Tips and Tricks Filename Extensions on Your PC WS_FTP is available on the class CD and you can also download free from the Internet. (Get WS_FTP from The Flying Cat FTP site) I. About FTP and Your Web Account FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is used to move files between a "remote computer" (the computer in cyberspace that you connect your computer to; the computer that houses and serves up your web pages) and your own personal computer. The FTP program has to be configured with information specific to your account with Fulton County schools. The WS_FTP program comes with many public access FTP sites already entered. You can delete those sites or keep them around for later exploration. Because you can use this FTP program to connect to more than one site, the settings for each site are saved in a session profile so you don't have to re-enter them. II. Setting Up WS_FTP You will create a session profile for your Fulton county account. Figure 1: Opening screen for WS_FTP Figure 1 shows the opening screen of WS_FTP. Notice it is composed of two windows, one overlapping the other. The upper, foreground, window is labeled Session properties. The background window is labeled WS_FTP LE In WS_FTP you can create a session profile to contain the connection and login settings so that you don't have retype those entries every time you connect. The program comes with many session profiles to public access FTP sites already set up. You will add your web host to this list of session profiles. Feel free to delete the entries that come with WS_FTP. They are not necessary, but are there in case you'd like to explore these sites, which are a mixture of commercial, freeware and academic archives of resources. I recommend you delete the preexisting entries, just to simplify life. To delete these entries, click on each entry, one at a time, to highlight it; then click on the Delete button, just below the New button (circled in Figure 1., above). To create a Session Profile for connecting to your personal cyberspace in WS_FTP you will enter Session Properties Options A. Session properties When you launch WS_FTP you should see the small window titled Session Properties. If you don't see this window, click the Connect button to open this window. In the Session Properties window click the New button (circled in Figure 1) to start a new properties entry. The window should look like Figure 2. Figure 2. WS_FTP Session Properties window. Complete the items numbered in this image. As you complete a field of information do not press the enter key to get to the next field of information! Pressing the enter key signifies you are finished with the configuration and initiates the connection to the server. Instead, press the tab key or click your mouse in the next field. If you accidently press the enter key before you are finished entering all the necessary information, you can edit the profile. You will type in the blue text seen in Figure 2. 1. Profile Name: 1 fulton This profile name is a label to identify your settings. I recommend you begin this entry with the number 1 so that this label will be forced to the top of the list.   2. Host Name/Address www.fultonschools.org 3. Host Type select Automatic detect. This setting should be the default but if you don't see it just use the drop down list to find it. 4. Anonymous: UNchecked   5. User ID Enter the same account name that you use for your school email account. But you will preface it with FCBOE\ so, if for example, your account name is edmiston, you'd enter FCBOE\edmiston. It is important that you use a back slash, not a front slash. 6. Password Enter the same password that you use for your school email account. 7. Account Leave this blank.   8. Save Password Leave this blank 9. Comment Leave this blank. 10. Startup Now click the little tab at the top of the window labeled Startup. This is circled at the top of Figure 2. Opening the Startup tab you will the window in Figure 3., below. Figure 3. The Startup Tab. There are only two items to complete here, but they are very important. The Remote computer is the computer up in cyberspace that holds your web site. The Local computer is your own PC. 1. Initial Remote Site Folder This is where you enter the directory path for your web space. You will probably enter /teacher/accountname unless you are not a teacher. The information sheet you receive in the first class meeting will contain the exact entry. The slashes area little confusing. You must use a back slash in step number 5, but in this step you must use a front slash! 2. Initial Local Folder This shows the path to your web files that you store on your own personal computer. For the Fulton County class I want you to create a directory named fulton. So in this field you'll enter c:\fulton When you've completed these fields click the OK button and you're ready to complete the next step in setting up the program. After you click OK you will connected to your account. BUT you must complete the remaining setup steps before you use your account. Options After the setup, described above, is complete, and you click on the OK button, the program will connect to your site. BUT you must complete the remaining setup steps before you use your account. Once connected to your site, the window will appear as the illustration in Figure 4., below. Figure 4. The FTP Connection to the Site. Click on the Options button, number 7 on Figure 4, above. You will complete several settings here. The options menu contains a number of setting that you will need to reset. WS_FTP. We will look at several settings: 1. Extensions. Click on the folder tab labeled Extensions and the window will appear as the illustration in Figure 3, below. Figure 5. The Options/Extension Window. In the white strip (1.) under ASCII Filenames and Extensions enter .htm and click the Add button (2.). You'll see that extension appear in the list under the .TXT entry that's there already. Now enter another file extension: .htm and click the Add button to see that extension appear in the list. Finally enter a last extension, .html and click the Add button. Click the OK button to return to the main FTP screen. Once you've entered these two entries the window will appear as in Figure 5A., below.   2. Session (cont'd) Click the Options button to reopen the Properties window. Click on the tab labeled Session (cont'd). Under Startup Transfer Mode check the button next to Auto Detect. 3. Advanced Tab Click the Options button to reopen the Properties window. Click on the tab labeled Advanced. In the section labeled Double Click Action, click the round radio button labeled Nothing. Click the OK button and return to the main Connection window. Now you are finished setting up WS_FTP! Click the Exit button to quit WS_FTP. You will not need to complete these steps again unless you want to add another web site to your program. From now on, to connect to your site all you need to do is to follow the steps below on Connecting to Your Site! III. Connecting to Your Site When you launch WS_FTP you should see your 1 fulton site in the top window. Click the OK button to make the connection to your site! The connection window will look something like Figure 6. Figure 6. WS_FTP Active Connection window. There's a tremendous amount of information here! The window now splits into two parts, refer to items 1 and 2 at the top of Figure 2. 1. The Local System, on the left This shows the directories and files on your own PC. You can move around this directory structure just like you can in any Windows-based "File Open" window. 2.The Remote Site, on the right This is your web host server. It's set up just like your personal computer. 3. Transfer Files arrows The two arrows in Figure 7 actually upload and download files. To move a file, click once on the filename to highlight it, then click on the arrow that points in the direction in which you want to move the file. If you want to *download* a file from your web site to your personal computer, you'd click once on the file name in the right-hand window, then click on the arrow pointing to the left-hand side, your personal computer. 4. ChgDir and MkDir The word "directory" is a synonym of "folder". This command allows you to Change Directories and open a new directory. Click once on the directory name to highlight it, then click the ChgDir button to open it. You can actually double-click on a directory name to open it too. MkDir allows you to Make Directories. If you need to create a directory in your web site, for example a directory to house your images, this is how you can do it. 5. Rename and Delete These commands allow you to change the name of a file (or directory) and to delete them. Be careful with the delete command, there's no UNdo! 6. ASCII, Binary, Auto: File Transfer Modes Files are transferred in two modes: ASCII and Binary. If you transfer a file in the wrong mode it may be damaged. Briefly, ASCII files are plain text and these files have extensions to their names like this: .txt .html .htm Binary files are not plain text. They contain special instructions embedded in the file that humans are not meant to see, that are used by a program in displaying the file. All image files are binary. Any file created by a word processor, spreadsheet or presentation program is a binary file. Earlier in the setup instructions you set an option to tell WS_FTP to always run in Auto mode. Now you don't have to worry about making sure you have the correct mode selected. WS_FTP will determine the correct mode of transfer based on the extension to the filename. IV. Tips and Tricks Transferring More Than One File at a Time You can use a couple of handy commands to transfer multiple files at once. these are keyboard commands, meaning you'll use keys on the keyboard together with the mouse. Sequential Transfer You want to transfer several files that are listed right next to each other in the file listing. Click on the first filename Scroll down until you see the last filename you want to transfer. Hold down the Shift key as you click on the last file name and you'll see all of the files in this sequence are highlighted for transfer. Now you're ready to click on the transfer arrow. ** If these files are a mixture of file types (ASCII and Binary) be sure the Auto button is checked! Non-sequential Transfer You want to transfer files that are not listed right next to each other in the file listing. Click any filename For each subsequent file you want to transfer hold down the Control Key as you click on the file name. You'll see the files highlighted for transfer. Now you're ready to click on the transfer arrow. ** If these files are a mixture of file types (ASCII and Binary) be sure the Auto button is checked! Filename Extensions on Your PC It's important to understand and to SEE the extensions on filenames on your personal computer as you work with all kinds of software programs. For some odd reason Microsoft ships Windows configured to hide file extensions! If you want to see the extensions on the file names on your personal computer try this: DOUBLE-click the My Computer icon on the Desktop Click on the View menu of the My Computer Window. and select Folder Options In the Folder Options window, select the tab labeled View Make sure Show all Files IS CHECKED Hide file extensions for known file types is NOT CHECKED. Figure 8. Windows Setting If you don't see settings exactly like this on your computer you may have a different version of Windows. Contact your teacher before changing any setting.