FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQs

Following are several questions I've received...along with the answers I provided.

Hopefully, this provides additional assistance to you as you build your free websites.

However, you're always free to contact me for further help. If it's a quick question or you are a non-profit, I can help you for free via email. However, I may need to charge if the assistance required gets more involved.

Good luck!

QUESTIONS

QUESTION: I don't want to use the designs that tripod has to offer. I want to use my own background and create my own designs. I click on blank pages, but I still get that "click on a design" option. I see many other tripod pages that are made from one's creation.....could you help me use my own design on tripod? Thanks for any help you can give me. I followed the step by step tutorial for tripod, but the answer I am looking for is not there.

Answer: I do feel for you as I encountered the same problem...or rather challenge...soon after I started using Tripod. My tutorial on Tripod is simply for beginners trying
to set-up a quick and easy website and pre-set designs are generally what they want. Yet, creating your own design involves HTML coding, Dreamweaver/FrontPage (Web design/editing applications), etc.

Here's what I did in between learning these new skills and wanting something up and going.

I got a program for transferring files via FTP from Tripod to my computer. Such programs are:

Fetch for Macs:
http://fetchsoftworks.com
CuteFTP for Windows:
http://www.cuteftp.com/downloads/cuteftp.asp

For instructions on how to FTP to/from Tripod, click here:

Then, I got a book like Dreamweaver for Dummies (or FrontPage for Dummies if you're using a PC), which includes a 30-day trial of the program.

I opened each of the files I downloaded from Tripod using Dreamweaver and then learned by mistake mostly how to modify the design. Of course, you can try to create each of your pages from scratch and then upload via Fetch/CuteFTP back to Tripod, but, this is beyond an email. I or someone else would need to assist you there.

Hope this helps for now. I also intend on adding a message board to my site for questions/answers like this. Revisit my site in a few weeks for this.

Return to top of page

QUESTION: Thanks for the info re a free web site - but I need a little help. I do a small trader magazine in Northern Ontario and want to put the previous issue on my site. How do I go about that? Any idea? I do it in Adobe Pagemaker. It is 16 pages, about 8 or 9 MB. Thanks heaps!

ANSWER: I'm happy to help out other independent efforts like yours...even though I usually do charge. I'll have to make a few assumptions, however. And, if I'm off, you will need to call me and I can step you through and even do the PDF conversion if necessary.

ASSUMPTIONS:
-- You know how to convert the document to Acrobat PDF format and have the Pagemaker PDF plug-in or Acrobat 5.0 to do so.
-- You're using Tripod
-- Your potential clients/visitors to your site are
willing to spend about 6-10 minutes to upload and
download...I'm guessing.

STEPS:
1. Convert the document into an Acrobat PDF document, which will let anyone view it whether or not they have Pagemaker, etc. All they'll need is the free Acrobat Reader - explained below. The PDF format should also reduce the size of your document to about 1MB.

2. Go to http://www.tripod.com and go into the Site Builder for your specific web site and page. If you're not sure about this, see my instructions at:
http://www.mxservices.net/freewebsites.html

3. On your web site page, choose "Add Web Gem" and select the place on your page where you want to add the download.

4. In the following Web Gem Gallery page, find the "File Download" option and click on the "Add" link across from it. You should then be able to follow the directions for uploading your PDF document to the Tripod server and allowing visitors to download it.

5. Go back to your web site page. You should now see the text link and corresponding link to download the file.

6. If you're not sure all your visitors have Acrobat Reader, go back to your page (within the Site Builder) and select "Add link" and specify:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Return to top of page

QUESTION: Greetings from South Africa... I work as a missionary in Togo west Africa. The Diocese want to have a web site and I saw your lovely page help. I followed it and was able to set up a web site. However, I can not reach it again and don't know what to do. Please, help me to finalise my work. I wish you were here because you are surely the one God put on my way to do this work. Thanks a lot and May God bless.

ANSWER: I was delighted to receive your email...it is truly my most interesting one...and would love to help out a great cause like yours.

You might have to help me though. I visited your site but will have to guess what you mean by "I can not reach it again." The answer might be as simple as knowing what the address is to your new site...this follows the form: thenameyougaveit.tripod.com. However, I assumed you meant that you were not able to access Tripod's Site Builder, where you built your site. So, I have provided instructions for one possible solution to this below.

If I don't succeed in answering your question, however, please email me again. In fact, I'd love to hear back from you in any case. Let me know how your site goes or more about lovely S. Africa. I can always help you add special forms, etcetera to your site.
_____________________________
EXTRACT FROM WORD DOCUMENT:
Tripod: If the Site Builder Doesn't Work

Tripod's Site Builder requires you to set your Preferences so that the Cache History is cleared and Cookies are accepted. To do this, follow these instructions.

Internet Explorer:
1. Open the "Edit Menu" above and select
"Preferences".
2. Click on "Advanced" in the left section and then
click on the "Clear History" and "Empty Now" buttons.
3. Click on "Cookies" in the left section and make
sure "never accept" is NOT selected.

Navigator:
1. Open the "Edit Menu" above and select
"Preferences".
2. Click on "Advanced" in the left section and select
"Accept Cookies".
3. Click on "Cache" in the left section and then click
on the "Clear Cache Now" button.

Return to top of page