The best way to download a copy of Flash Web Designers website is to get a program known as an FTP client. There are numerous free ones available at thefreecountry.com's Free FTP Clients page. For the purpose of this guide, I shall use FileZilla, a free FTP program listed on that page.
If you are not familiar with using FTP clients, please see my tutorial on How to Upload a File Using FileZilla to learn how to install and configure FileZilla. I will not repeat the information here. You can however skip the part about actually uploading (publishing) a file. You won't need to do that - in fact, what you need to do is the opposite.
In the "Local Site" pane of FileZilla, which shows the files and folders on your computer, navigate till you are in the folder where you want to place your website files. (If you don't know where the "Local Site" pane is, go back to the FileZilla tutorial again.) Make sure it is a new folder rather than your desktop, otherwise you will end up cluttering your desktop with all the files you're downloading from your site. If you haven't created a new folder yet, just create one the usual way you normally create folders on your computer, then go to that subdirectory in FileZilla.
In the Remote Site pane of FileZilla, which displays the files and folders on your web server, navigate till you are in the folder where your website's files are kept. This is usually a folder called "www", "public_html" or even "htdocs". If there is no such folder when you log in, and you see files like "index.html" instead, it is possible that you are already in your web directory.
Select all the files and folders in the web directory in the Remote Site pane and drag them into your Local Site pane. Make sure that you select all the files and folders so that you preserve the directory structure of your website. Otherwise, if you change things around or only selectively download files, you may find that you have a lot of broken links and broken images when you edit and publish your website in the new editor.
Once you've finished downloading your site, skip to the relevant section for your web editor. That is, if you use Dreamweaver, go to the Dreamweaver section of this tutorial. If you use Nvu or KompoZer, go to the Nvu/KompoZer section instead.
If you are not familiar with using FTP clients, please see my tutorial on How to Upload a File Using FileZilla to learn how to install and configure FileZilla. I will not repeat the information here. You can however skip the part about actually uploading (publishing) a file. You won't need to do that - in fact, what you need to do is the opposite.
In the "Local Site" pane of FileZilla, which shows the files and folders on your computer, navigate till you are in the folder where you want to place your website files. (If you don't know where the "Local Site" pane is, go back to the FileZilla tutorial again.) Make sure it is a new folder rather than your desktop, otherwise you will end up cluttering your desktop with all the files you're downloading from your site. If you haven't created a new folder yet, just create one the usual way you normally create folders on your computer, then go to that subdirectory in FileZilla.
In the Remote Site pane of FileZilla, which displays the files and folders on your web server, navigate till you are in the folder where your website's files are kept. This is usually a folder called "www", "public_html" or even "htdocs". If there is no such folder when you log in, and you see files like "index.html" instead, it is possible that you are already in your web directory.
Select all the files and folders in the web directory in the Remote Site pane and drag them into your Local Site pane. Make sure that you select all the files and folders so that you preserve the directory structure of your website. Otherwise, if you change things around or only selectively download files, you may find that you have a lot of broken links and broken images when you edit and publish your website in the new editor.
Once you've finished downloading your site, skip to the relevant section for your web editor. That is, if you use Dreamweaver, go to the Dreamweaver section of this tutorial. If you use Nvu or KompoZer, go to the Nvu/KompoZer section instead.
