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I want to edit my website with a HTML editor...

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2.9K views 24 replies 4 participants last post by  eddie5659  
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#1 ·
...but I'm having an issue with HTML files. I save copies of my current webpage as HTML, and they land on my desktop (extension ".html"). But, they don't show the same colours. My web pages on the web have a gradient colour from yellow to blue, but the saved HTML files are just the blue, no gradient, no yellow (see screen shots). I just need to edit the texts a bit and repost my web pages, but this colour thing is a problem. I like the gradient colours and want to keep them.

How do I do this? Some web page editors ask you to upload a HTML file to their program (SeaMonkey) and then do the edits, but...
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K
#3 ·
Hi Colin,

Well, I figured I might be getting in over my head here! I created my website in 1999. I started my pages using GeoCities, where they allowed people to create and post their own web pages. So It's been quite a long time before I had to edit my pages myself. Over the years I used to send my web hoster my edits and they would post them, but I changed my web hoster a while back and they don't do that.

So how do I get my page code in code tags to you? I think I can see them in my Mac via the Develop menu item "Show Page Source," but I don't know how to extract a file of them. Also, the same goes for CSS file(s), not sure what they are exactly. I attach another screen shot, this time of the Page Source, but as I said I don't know how I can make a file of it for you.

Oh, in the attachment, you'll see that the gradient colours repeat and start again as they go towards the right. I think this is because in 1999 computers and web pages displayed with a 4:3 aspect ratio. I don't mind this look. I rather like it.

You'll have to be patient with me re: knowledge of web page editing terms. If I need a special program to do this work, let me know. Not sure I like SeaMonkey anyway. Thanks!

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#4 · (Edited)
To address your concerns about the background colors ...

If you look at line 172 of your page's source code you should see this start of the BODY tag:

Code: 
<body bgcolor="#80ffff" background="gradent2.gif"
You need a GIF picture file called gradent2.gif I believe saved at the same file folder location as the HTML file to get the gradient color background. If the web browser does not find this file, it will set the page background color to a pale cyan tint (bgcolor="#80ffff").

In order to properly edit your website on your computer, you will probably need to download all of the site's files from the server to your computer.

EDIT: A bit of further digging on your site found the gradent2.gif file. It is a 1,024px × 2px GIF image file that is used as a wallpaper to fill the background of the visible page.
 
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#5 ·
Thanks, Chuck. I think there is a major problem. I no longer have the old original files that were uploaded / posted to the web. So today I can only save an html file directly online from my web page, i.e., File, Save As HTML. I see that won't suffice. Can I copy and paste all the codes from my page's source code to somewhere and save it as html? Will that work?
 
#6 ·
In answer to your question:-

From the 'view page source code' page select all the code in the usual way (click and drag or cmd A) then copy it cmd C to an editor you can even use the Mac TextEdit then you can save it as HTML from there. There are several free editors other than SeaMonkey see https://www.lifewire.com/best-free-html-editors-for-mac-3469019

Given what you have said you should have a copy of all the files that make up your site stored locally. You can do this with a program such as SiteSucker.
 
#7 ·
Do you have FTP access to download and upload files to your website? An app like SiteSucker, mentioned by Colin, will allow you to download the files from the site's server to your computer, but I believe does not support uploading files from the computer to the server. Uploading will usually require you to know the URL of the upload location, a user name, and a password.
 
#9 ·
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a standardized method of uploading and downloading files on a server over the Internet.


You can think of using it the same way as you might use Finder on a Macintosh computer to view and move files stored on your local hard drive, but you are looking at files on the website server. A user name and password are typically needed to access the files on the website server.

I checked and the Sea Monkey app has a Publish tool that allows you to upload your edited files to the server.

Does citenet allow users to upload their own HTML files to the server or are users only allowed to edit the files on the server? At one time, many of the sites that offered free web pages only allowed users to only use the site's editing capabilities to edit the contents of their pages. I have not kept up with how such free hosting sites work these days and am not familiar with the citenet service.
 
K
#11 ·
OK. I extracted all the website files using SiteSucker, see my screenshots 1 & 2 attached. Thanks for that great advice; now I have all my website files again.

Next, I copied and pasted all the HTML codes of my Intro page (it's a 7-page site) onto a TextEdit file which I named "HTML codes - my website - Introduction."

Here is a question though. Screenshots 3 & 4 attached are from the Page Source. You can see the file "gradent2.gif" is separate from all the codes. How will this work? I have all the HTML coding files from the Page Source in a TextEdit file, and then there's the gradent2 file. How will it get connected to the HTML file and used? I hope you understand my meaning.
 
K
#12 ·
Further to my last message, I think I figured it out. The HTML files I saved with SiteSucker have the gradent2 colours and also all the photos embedded. It's been several years (decades) since I edited my website and there's been lots of changes with that technology. So I will start editing the text on them and try posting and let you guys know how it all turns out. Sorry about that.
 
#13 ·
kerawl said:
Further to my last message, I think I figured it out. The HTML files I saved with SiteSucker have the gradent2 colours and also all the photos embedded.
Click to expand...
The background image and photos have links from the HTML files for the other pages. My post #4 explains how the gradient background is linked inside the BODY tag

The photos will be linked in IMG tags in the HTML files.

kerawl said:
It's been several years (decades) since I edited my website ...
Click to expand...
Did you edit the website contents directly on the site using editing tools provided by the hosting service or did you download the files to a computer, edit them, and then upload them back to the server?
 
K
#14 · (Edited)
Chuck, to answer your last paragraph, in 1999 I used GeoCities to create my website. Years later I switched to someone who had linked to my site and later offered me webhosting. What I had to do though was to edit my saved html files and send them to that webhoster and they posted them for me. More years later, I found it inconvenient to have to do this every time I wanted to update my site, since often they weren't available for months. So I got citenet to host me. This is where I am now.

I was having problems with the Publish part of SeaMonkey, but I think I found some instructions to help me. SeaMonkey has a lot of things it does and it's hard to find where they have info on what I need, but Googling for help works.
 
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#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
After reading and Googling and trying to find a manual or good tutorial on the SeaMonkey Composer program, I cannot not find anything helpful so far, for me anyway. SeaMonkey's site is terrible as to where to find the instructions on editing & uploading web pages. Plus I just realized that, although I said here at the beginning that I wanted to edit using an HTML editor, this is not so now. I need a WYSIWYG editor. I don't recall HTML being that complicated when I first set up my webpage in 1999. All my later edits were done with a kind of WYSIWYG procedure.

What I do in SeaMonkey is open my webpage direct from the internet, make my changes WYSIWIG style, then press Publish and fill out the fields. I keep getting an "unknown publishing error" after pressing Publish.

My trouble is, I can't figure out what SeaMonkey wants me to put in the fields in the Publish sections. The explanations and examples of them that I found (not on SeaMonkey, BTW) only make me ask more questions. For instance in Screen Shot 1 attached, I'm not 100% positive that anything I entered is the kind of info they want. Then Screen Shot 2 attached is not helpful as to what sort of error I had made or where I went wrong.

Here's what Citenet tells me about their servers and such. Hope this helps somewhat:
Hostname: pages.citenet.net
Username: my citenet email address
Password: xxxxxxxx
Website address: Observations on the Historical Development of Pupptery (to see the actual full web address, click on the link. Can't make this into text only, sorry)
[Removed by Moderator]@citenet.net
[Removed by Moderator]@citenet.net (my email with them)
incoming: pop.citenet.net (changed Aug 11, 2022 to pop3.pathcom.com)
outgoing: smtp.citenet.net (changed Aug 11, 2022 to smtp.pathcom.com)

Hope you can help! Sorry about saying I wanted to edit in HTML; that's way above my skillset right now!
 
K
#19 ·
Hi Colin and Chuck,

I just got an answer from CiteNet. About a year ago I asked them in an email about uploading to their servers, and they telephoned me back to basically say I could. After all this recent trying to update my site and post it (without success), yesterday, I asked them again by email and they said this (in an email this time):

"Please be informed that this webspace [my citenet website address] is a legacy service and has been discontinued. This service was offered to the customer in the past that allows to use their mailbox storage to host a simple HTML website, here in this case this webspace is associated with your mailbox [my citenet email account].

"We request you to please consider upgrading your current Mailbox Bundle service to our web/email hosting platform HostPath, and you will require to obtain/purchase a domain name for your website. This new hosting platform will allow to use any third-party HTML editor tools to easily edit and manage your website in a very efficient way."

To explain, at one time years ago CiteNet was my internet provider, and my website was hosted by someone else. When I switched to another webhoster, CiteNet gave me a special deal which included webhosting by them and the same email account, but no other perks, like internet services. This special deal was very cheap as a result of the reduced services. But now, I see I cannot upload my edited site to their servers, unless I upgrade. But I had relied on CiteNet's phone call last year saying I could upload my site, when in reality that wasn't part of my special deal with them. I only found this out now.

Now I have to decide whether to upgrade with CiteNet or maybe go with someone else, like WordPress perhaps. Oh, I think my current internet provider only provides me with internet service, and which came with my apartment. But of course I will ask them first to be sure.

Well, looks like yet again I've wasted Techguy's time. But I want to thank you both for your patience with me. I learned so much. Now I will mark this as SOLVED. Sorry yet again, everyone!
 
#20 ·
kerawl said:
Well, looks like yet again I've wasted Techguy's time. But I want to thank you both for your patience with me. I learned so much.
Click to expand...
You're welcome and I did not consider working with you a waste if time.

I thought that CiteNet was still your Internet Service Provider and was a bit confused when I could not find any information on their site about offering web hosting to their residential customers. Thank you for clearing that up.

I have not kept up with free web hosting services for a number of years. If you are looking for recommendations, you can always start a new thread here and there is good chance other members can assist you with your options.
 
K
#22 ·
Hello arencologistics.duba. After all these discussions, my web hoster provided me with a domain name of my choice and migrated my site and then added the ability for me to edit and repost my site, which was not allowed under my previous package. Plus they advised me on how to edit my website, etc. So now I'm good. Thanks!
 
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