Learn to read a url

Locating which page you want to edit on your website demands you first know how to read a url. First of all: What'a url? It's a web address. If your website is built in the UVM publishing system, your url will start with http://www.uvm.edu/~accountname

Take the example of the Web page you're reading right now: http://www.uvm.edu/webguide/build/?Page=url.html (The Web Guide has a tilde-less address (no "~" in the URL. Most will have /~accountname. See our documentation on obtaining a friendlier URL).

The account name is the first thing you come to in the url after the "edu," so in this case the account name is "webguide."
The slash (/)implies you've entered another directory/folder.
Nested within the folder "webguide," you'll find a folder called "build."
Inside "build" you'll look for the file called "url.html." This is the file you wish to edit.
Note: this exercise makes much more sense if you are actually logged into your account through a file transfer client and in your public_html folder as you're searching for a file, following along with the url path in the example simultaneously.

Why are folders nested like this?

In the case of the Web Guide, it's a large site and folders/directories are used purely for organization. You may not have any folders inside your own website. For example, in the url http://www.uvm.edu/~anthro/?Page=programs.html (the Anthropology website), the editor would simply enter the public_html folder and find the file called programs.html

Is this public_html folder where I should build my website?

This is definitely where your finished website will live — anything files you place in the public_html folder are in fact visible by the public. So some like to actually build the website in a folder, perhaps called "development" that you place in the public_html folder. So, for example, you end up looking at http://www.uvm.edu/~accountname/development in order to view your website. That keeps it out of the public eye while you go through the process of developing. Learn how to publish your website.

What is the "?Page=" for?

If you provide labels and links within your Content Area to other pages on your site, you will need to use a special code for the URL address in order for the page to show up in the UVM Web Template format. Let's say that the name of the file/page to which you want to link is called subpage.html. The link to that page should use a special code, ?Page=. Here's what the link from default.html should look like: ?Page=subpage.html Note that the P is capitalized.

See this page without the ?Page= code. If all of a sudden your website looks stripped of its formatting, add a ?Page= to the link.