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Creating a MiniWeb

A MiniWeb gives you a graphical view of the files in a directory. To create an empty MiniWeb, just choose FileNew MiniWeb. This gives you an empty MiniWeb that you can save as a new directory wherever you want it.

However, you will probably start by creating a few pages. For a while, you'll be able to keep track of the files and links in your head. Eventually, you'll have so many pages that you need better tools to manage them. That's when you need to create a MiniWeb. We call the process of creating a MiniWeb from an existing directory "Webizing".

1. Choose ToolsWebize Directory (or Webize Folder on a Macintosh).
2. In the Webize Directory window, select the "help" subdirectory or folder within the directory or folder where you installed AOLpress. For example, you might select the c:\aolpress\help directory.
   (Or, if you've been working on some Web pages of your own, select that directory, instead.)
3. Click Webize.
4. If a MiniWeb has ever been created for this directory (it has been for the help directory), AOLpress will ask if you want to regenerate the MiniWeb. Click Regenerate.
5. AOLpress will begin scanning the files in the directory and checking the pages for links to other files inside and outside the directory. When it is finished, you will see a "web" that shows the files in the MiniWeb and the links between them. (To see the whole MiniWeb, you can choose one of the ViewZoom commands to enlarge or shrink your MiniWeb view.
6. If there are too many pages and connections in the Web view, try choosing ViewName. You can view links in each page to other files by putting a check next to ViewList Links To. Or, you can view links from other pages to each file by putting a check next to ViewList Links From.
7. Try opening a page or image by double-clicking on its icon.

• Greyed out icons: This means the file doesn't exist yet. You can double-click on a greyed out page icon to create that page.
• Web with a spider icon: This is the "home page" for the MiniWeb -- the first page shown when the directory is accessed on the Web.
• Regular Web icon: This is another page in this MiniWeb.
• A folder containing a Web: A "SubWeb" -- that is, a directory within a MiniWeb.
• Cyan filenames: The file is located outside this directory.

There are lots of ways to add new pages to a MiniWeb:

• Choose FileNew Page.
• Choose FileImport and select a file you want to import into the MiniWeb. You can import pages, images, and other types of files.
• Double-click on a file that is greyed out because it hasn't been created yet.
• Drag the web icon below the toolbar into the MiniWeb.

As you edit your files, the MiniWeb keeps track of your changes. If you make changes or add files to the directory with a tool other than AOLpress, you can "re-Webize" the MiniWeb at any time by following the steps above.

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Customizing your MiniWeb view

If your MiniWeb contains lots of files, the Web view may be too large or crowded. AOLpress gives you several ways to focus on the parts of your Web site you want to examine.

1. From the MiniWeb window, choose From the View menu, choose ViewDisplay Control. The window you see lets you hide various parts of the MiniWeb so you can focus on the others.
2. Click on the External files box. Then click the Apply button. This hides all the links to files outside this directory. (This simplifies your view of the help MiniWeb quite a bit.)
3. Select the Image files option in the list of file types. Then click the Apply button again. This hides all the image files in your MiniWeb.
4. The images are still there. You can redisplay them by clicking the Show All button.
5. Click Done to close the Display Control window.
6. Choose ViewName. This lists your files by name. You also see lists of the links in each file.
7. Choose ViewList Links To. This hides the links to other files so you see only the list of files.
8. Choose ViewList Links From. This shows you links from other files to each file. You might want to examine your files this way if you want to delete a file and make sure you have removed all links to it.

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Publishing MiniWebs

Suppose you've finished creating your Web pages on your own computer and are ready to move the whole Web site to your server. AOLpress makes it easy to publish a page--you just save it to the server.

But, what if you have lots of pages? AOLpress makes that easy too. You just save the entire MiniWeb to the server. When you save a MiniWeb, all the files in it are saved.

1. If you have created your own MiniWeb, then regenerate your MiniWeb by choosing ToolsWebize Directory. This will make sure that the MiniWeb knows about all the files in this directory. You might also want to scan the new MiniWeb to make sure there are no broken links or missing files.
2. Choose FileSave As.
3. In the file selection window, select the directory where you want to save the MiniWeb files.
4. Click OK. AOLpress will begin saving all the files in the MiniWeb. It may also prompt you for a username and password.

MiniWebs chapter

Next, we'll give you some tips for learning more about how to use AOLpress.