apologetic newbie

[sniperwon]

I am sorry if this topic has been touched on already, but i have done 5-6 searches already and have come up with nothing close to what i typed in. Maybe cuz i entered wrong key words, but in any event I need help and cant find what i am looking for. so hopefully i can find some help here and thank you in advance for any input or help you may be able to provide. I recently decided to build my own website and get it published. I chose lunarpages.com as my web host out of sheer convienance the night i decided to do all this. I purchased my domain name through them and built my site over 5 weeks using microsoft publisher (so far from what I gather that was my first mistake). I have contacted technical support a dozen times at lunarpages.com and everytime i always seem to find my way into there "we cannot offer layout or construction help". My web page when i preview it through microsoft publisher is fully operational and looks the way i want it too, when i upload my files to the file manager on www.lunarpages.com something is wrong. My site has no background and only 3 out of the 11 buttons visible but they dont even have the correct color or graphics on them as well. There is no text and when u click on any of the buttons it brings you to a message "404" error page basically meaning invalid path from what i gather. I have tried everything my novice ###### can think of to correct this and have had no success. At first i thought it was because microsoft publisher was on a different platform or language that they couldnt support at lunarpages, but my brother made a website with different graphics and different layout and uploaded it to my computer and everything work find except 3 images but u could navigate from page to page just fine and he used MSpub too. The other day out of frustration i went into the Cpanel on lunargages and just went exploring between all my i options one was Frontpageextensions. My status was uninstalled. SO clicked install went to my web page. NO change. Went back and clicked turned off front page extensions. Walla all my buttons were there and the rite graphic and readable, but still no background, no header, and no navigation from page to page. So i assume it is GIGO (garbage in garbage out) on my part, but since I didnt know where to look or how to work this problem out I decided to use lunarpages in house web builder. so rite now my site has there template on it with the "underconstruction" plastered all over. www.sniperscorner.com. I dont understand what the trouble is or the problem is. All i want is my own background 3 bars 2 of which run parallel to each other and 3rd that seperates the navigation buttons from the page text. Nothing complex as far as layout goes. I jsutwant the graphics that i want. And i cant get them. Cuz lunarpages doesnt have a blank webdesign to creat from all they have is template after template that you can change the color schematics but that is all. Is there another program out there that doesnt cost an arm and a leg (under $50) that i can get to create my website. Is there someone out there that can help me make sure my files are in the write place? Where can i look to make sure my files are in the rite place? If its a coding error how do i even find it let alone correct it? Has anyone else used lunar pages as a web host? Anyone else used microsoft publisher to design their website? Did it work? what problems if any did u run into? I know most of this is babble but i am at my wits end and just need help and i do not know were to turn anymore. THank you again for any help you may be able to provide.

[F-Man]

Make sure that your stylesheet (if any) and pages are located in the right directories. Like if you have a link to "pages/page.htm", make sure page.htm is inside of a child directory called pages.

[Kcarson]

For possible HTML editors, check this out:http://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=760To check your code for errors, validate it here:http://www.w3schools.com/site/site_validate.aspHopefully those can at least get you started in the right direction.

[sniperwon]

Make sure that your stylesheet (if any) and pages are located in the right directories. Like if you have a link to "pages/page.htm", make sure page.htm is inside of a child directory called pages.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am not sure if this is relevant or not, but technical support told me that I needed to put all pages in the "public.htm" folder and than all my graphics in the "index_files" folder and that folder needed to be in the public.htm folder. Which i did and it still doesnt work and they wont offer me any more support than that.

[sniperwon]

For possible HTML editors, check this out:http://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=760To check your code for errors, validate it here:http://www.w3schools.com/site/site_validate.aspHopefully those can at least get you started in the right direction.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank you i will give it a try and thanks to you both for taking the time to try and help me out with this. I know u didnt need to and gain little by doing so but I do appreciate your time and input.

[Chocolate570]

Ok, first of all. See if you can get ftp access to your server. It'll make everything easier.Second of all. Before you ever buy a server or a domain name, check for better places. You can get much more for much less money! I bought my domain for 2.99 a year and my webhosting for i tink 25 bucks a year, webhosting stats: 3gig disk space, 1.5tb monthly data transfer, and some ridiculous amount of bandwidth. www.webhostingbuzz.comThird of all. You should upload everything pertaining to your website in the public_html folder. Now, you should be able to point to any of them just by going to www.yourdomain.com/button1.gif. If you can't, you have a serious problem.Yes, i think that using microsoft publisher was a major mistake. It's features ######. If you really need help, you should use us as your html editor. No, really, just post here when you have a problem.If you have no clue about html, then learn html from the w3schools tutorial. It's very, very easy. Another place to go to is www.htmlgoodies.com. They have a good starting html tutorial.That's basically it. If you can get ftp access, then post. Sorry if i sound rude, i wasn't trying to be. ~Chocolate570

[Nucklehed]

Chocolate's right. (Choc's always right, in fact).You should just skip the programs and interfaces and write your own code. You can get all the help you need right here, plus on the links posted above. webmonkey.com is also helpful sometimes.I was trying to design a nice site with GoLive and it just wasn't happening. So, I started using the tutorials here, got a book on XHTML, and now I can ALMOST write my own code (still need plenty of help from time to time). But, if you can learn some HTML basics, the fine folks here will give you all the other help you need to fine tune your site without cruddy programs like Microsoft whatever.It's worth it.One point: If you changed the location of your images (putting them in the new folder, the correct folder) your code likely is still pointing to the old location... Have you viewed your source (specifically your IMG tags) to see where the tags are pointing to? You may now have your images in the right place, but your tags are still looking for the images in the wrong place...