Learn HTML Basics

In order to make your web page accessible to the world, you need to put it, along with any graphics and other files you created, onto a web server accessible on the Internet.

Uploading: Refers to sending files from your computer to a website.

Downloading: Refers to receiving files from a website to your computer.

There are typically two ways to upload files although one or the other may not be available through your service provider.

Note: If you are using a CMS like WordPress or LMS like Moodle and using the integrated HTML editor, you may not need to upload files to your website as they included a lot of this functionality through the web browser. However, this is still a useful skill to have in case you need to upload large files which cannot be handled through a web browser.

Web-based File Manager

This is typically provided to you by the web hosting company that hosts your website. While convenient, because it is already set-up for you, it is also limited because you can typically only upload a limited number of files - often only one at a time. Contact your web hosting provider to get instructions on how to access this web application.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol

This is the more common way of uploading files to your website. In order to do this, you will need:

• The address of your website's FTP server.
• The username and password to access the FTP server.
• An FTP client. This is a special application that allows you to copy files between your computer and the web server. Some of the more popular, most compatible and most trouble-free FTP applications available include WinSCP (Windows/free), Transmit (for Mac OS X/$$$) and Filezilla (All platforms/free).

For more information on copying files between your computer and your website, consult the instructions provided by your web hosting provider and/or the FTP software.