contribute tutorials - uploading a file to your website

Before you start uploading files to your website, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Does the person who's going to be viewing my website have the right software to open my file?
   Not everyone has Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel or many other products I see uploaded to the internet. These kinds of files must be converted to PDF files first. There are many free PDF makers on the internet if you don't a copy of Adobe Acrobat. We like Primo PDF.
2. (If uploading an image) Has my image been reduced to a usable size in an image editing program?
   Photos taken straight off a digital camera or scanner are both huge on the screen and huge in file size. They must be resized appropriately in an image editing program. We recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements, or Adobe Photoshop for the serious image editor. (Elements is around 1/10th of the price of Photoshop!)
3. Is my file too large?
   Not everyone has broadband. If you upload a 50mb file and don't warn people how large it is, you could be driving away visitors. If you're going to link to a 50mb PDF File, warn people. ie: WORKSHEET #5 (PDF - 50mb)

Once you have determined whether it's appropriate to upload a file, here's how you do it.

1. Before you can edit a web page, you need to log on, then surf to the page you want to change (just like you do when you're using a normal browser like Internet Explorer)
2. Once you're on the page you want to change, click the Edit Page icon.
3. You are now in edit mode. You will notice that you do not have access to the entire page, just what's inside the blue boxes. You only have access to the editable regions of the website, and as such, cannot destroy the integrity of the overall structure of the website.
4. Find the text (or the image) that you wish to link your uploaded file to and highlight them. (Sample text could be - DOWNLOAD THE JANUARY REPORT)
5. Up in the toolbar click the LINK button. Choose File On My Computer from the drop down menu.
6. Click the Browse button to search for the file on your computer, then press Select .
7. Target Frame should be set to New Window.
8. Click OK.
9. When you click Publish, Contribute will upload the file to the server. This may take a couple of minutes depending on your connection speed and the size of the file.