What's an easy way to make a change in a web page?

My supervisor wants me to get rid of an introduction page on our website. I have no experience in designing or publishing web pages. But it seems like a simple task: Delete intro page so people can go straight to the main page. I logged into the colo and downloaded all the files and directories for the site.

Now what can I use to change the site? Would purchasing Dreamweaver help? I may be asked to start changing more to the site, but I don't want to go deleting something that would cause the site to not work anymore. Any suggestions?

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Comments

mrhaun03

Any time I do some HTML i just use notepad. I'm not big on webpage design, however, I do have to make some changes once in awhile to our company website.

Zoomer

Is there a primary HTML file that I should work with? There's at least 20 or so different HTML files. I found the one that has the intro page on it. Would simply deleting this file do the trick? Or could that stop the page from working?

mwgood

Most webservers will default to a page titled index.html, index.htm, default.htm - or something like that.

If you just delete the main page - you will probably break the site. Given that you want to replace the main page with another page - you will want to rename the new page with the name of the previous page, and check all of your links that refer back to both the original and new pages.

If you need further help - please post the URL for the site, along with the the filenames of the pages you want to swap.

keatron

Unless your site is a flash site....

Zoomer

Yes, it's mostly a flash site. Almost all of the links or buttons are embedded in a flash object.

mwgood

Can you post the URL?

Zoomer

I managed to fix it.

dynamik

Visual Web Developer from MS is actually a great program (and it's free):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/

It's infinitely better than frontpage since it doesn't screw with your code.

So all you want to do is get rid of the front page and have it go right to that yellow flash page? Just rename index.html to something like index.html.bak and rename home.html to index.html. You don't really need to mess with the code at all. You're going to need to use Flash if you want to update the rest of it though.

Zoomer

Ok, another question. Now I am trying to change some text, however, whenever I edit the .html file nothing happens. Upon further review of the specific page, under "view source" in the web browser it shows that it is referring to a .swf file. Can I edit the .swf or do I need to convert it to .fla first? I will also need to buy/download Macromedia Flash it seems.

Plantwiz

Zoomer wrote:

Ok, another question. Now I am trying to change some text, however, whenever I edit the .html file nothing happens. Upon further review of the specific page, under "view source" in the web browser it shows that it is referring to a .swf file. Can I edit the .swf or do I need to convert it to .fla first? I will also need to buy/download Macromedia Flash it seems.

There was a 30day trial of MM Flash...however, if this is somethign you will continue to do I"d recommend buying a copy.

My flash days have many cobwebs over them...I believe you'll make changes in the .fla and covert back to the .swf when complete. Though don't quote me.

Slowhand

You'll need to have the original .fla file to edit, then export that to .swf when you're done. It's very difficult to convert a .swf file into a .fla file after it's already been exported and optimized. You'll need either Adobe Flash, (formerly Macromedia Flash), or Swish to edit and update the .fla file.

Zoomer

Slowhand wrote:

...It's very difficult to convert a .swf file into a .fla file after it's already been exported and optimized...

Yeah, the original .fla files don't exist anymore or are somewhere else now. Can I still convert the .swf to a .fla using, for example, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional?

Slowhand

Zoomer wrote:

Yeah, the original .fla files don't exist anymore or are somewhere else now. Can I still convert the .swf to a .fla using, for example, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional?

You can, but that doesn't mean that the .fla file will be clean enough to work with, (or working at all, for that matter).

Kaminsky

I wouldn't touch this with a barj pole. Your either heading for a slim chance at gettng it right, asking lots of questions on sites like this and eventually getting a "Ahh about time" from your boss or, more than likely, "YOU DELETED WHAT !!!! - YOU'VE CRIPPLED US"

Seems like your boss is being tight fisted and trying you rather than putting his hand in his pocket and getting someone who knows what they are doing to sort this out (I suspect there is a BIG reason these .fla files are no longer there- ie the origional developer walked off with them disgruntled). Really, If this is a big advertising/revenue source for your company, you could really drop the ball big time and your up coming career could be seriously messed up if you get it wrong. (as much as you want to be helpfull)

Advise they get someone who know's what they are doing to sort this out and possible expand it further. I am sure it wouldn't cost very much. There are lots and lots of guys around with this expertise just chomping at the bit for experience to go with their knowledge. Chance to get the job done fairly cheep whilst a chance to shine with ideas on improvements all balled up into one low cost solution. (smells of managerial potential if ever I heard it)