Procedures for zipping files for upload through the WebCT
interface.
To display your website for Dr. Makela’s class, it is
necessary to upload your files through the WebCT interface. There are two basic ways to do this:
- You
can upload the files singly (works great when you only have a few files)
- The
files can be zipped using WinZip and uploaded (works better if you have a
lot of files)
To upload files singly follow this procedure:
- Open
the WebCT homepage in your favorite web browser. The address is http://webct.csuohio.edu
- (these instructions are written using
the Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.028)
- Log in
to the WebCT page using your WebCT password
- If
you have not yet established your user name and password for WebCT,
Please consult the instructions provided in your class to do this first
- Once
you have logged into WebCT, Click on the link for the Workshop for
Teachers, which will take you the class home page which should look like
this:

- Click
on the Student Web Sites link in the center of the page.
- This
will take you to the list of students in the class, and next to your name,
you should find a small link that says EDIT FILES. Click the EDIT FILES link.
- You
will arrive at the edit files screen which looks like this.

The information below the files
and folders line will be different depending on what files you have uploaded
previously. (if you have not uploaded
any files, this area will be blank)
- Select
upload a file and then click go
- On the
next screen, click the browse button and locate the file that you wish to
upload.
- After
you have located the file and selected it, you will return to the upload
page, where you can click UPLOAD.
- The
web browser will then upload your file and you will be returned to the
Manage Files area.
- Repeat
this procedure with as many files as you need to.
The procedure outlined above, works nicely if you only have
a few files to upload, but a typical website may have hundreds to thousands of
files to manage. Many of these files are
hidden, and you would not find them if you did not know where to look.
This procedure is designed for the student who is using
Microsoft FrontPage XP to create their web site.
The first thing that you must be aware of is that the WebCT
system does not accept any kind of file with spaces or special characters
(!@#$%^&*( ) ) in the name, so you need to stick to letters, numbers, and
underscores for your file names. This
also applies to the titles of graphics and pictures, so some of them may need
to be renamed.
To rename files when downloading them (Explorer 6.0)
- Using
standard browser commands, locate the picture that you wish to download
- Position
your mouse cursor over the picture and right click
- On the
menu that pops up, choose Save Picture As…
- The
Save Picture As… window will open, and you will be given the opportunity
to specify the location and name of the picture.
- Be
careful not to change the extension (something like .gif or .jpg) of your
picture or you will not be able to use it later.
- Change
the name of the picture so that there are no Illegal characters in it, and
then click save
- A
picture named Yellowstone Geysers, Old Faithful.jpg might be renamed
Yellowstone_Geysers_Old_Faithful.jpg
- Remember
that you want your file names to mean something, naming a file Herbert
would not help you out next week when you are trying to remember what
that file is.
- Continue
finding and saving pictures using the above procedure as needed.
FrontPage XP will tend to hide files all through your
website file structure, so you will need to display all the hidden files so
that you can make sure that everything is OK
To display hidden files in FrontPage XP, complete the
following procedure:
- Open
FrontPage
- Open
your website in FrontPage
- Click
on the Tools option on the menu bar
- On the
tools menu select Web Options
- In the
Web Options menu, select the Advanced tab
- About
halfway down the advanced tab you will find the Display hidden files
option, Make sure that this is checked and then click OK

- Once
you have closed the Web Settings box, you might get a message box telling
you that the hidden files will not be displayed unless they are refreshed
from the server. Tell it YES you do
want it to refresh the files.
- Your
hidden files should be displayed now.
To rename your files within FrontPage XP:
- Open
FrontPage
- Open
your web site
- Click
on the Folders icon in the Views list on the extreme left side of the
screen.
- This
will display a list of all the files and folders in your web site
- Scroll
through the list and any files or folders with a space or other illegal
character in the name will need to be changed.
- Once
you have located a file that needs to have its name changed, left click on
the file name once, wait about 2 seconds and click one more time.
- Another
option is to right click on the file and choose Rename from the popup
menu
- The
file name will be highlighted and surrounded by a small black box.
- Edit
the file name to remove the illegal characters (!@#$%^&*() )
- Be
careful not to change the extension, as this will keep the file from
functioning properly
- Click
off to the side somewhere to complete your edit
- When
you do, a box may pop up telling you that there are hyperlinks to the file
and asking you if you want the program to fix the hyperlinks, Answer
YES!!!
- Once
you have checked all your files, you are ready to zip the files and upload
them to WebCT.
Downloading the WinZip program
WinZip is a piece of Shareware software that allows you to
compress and package large numbers of files into a package (called a .zip file)
which allows them to be easily moved.
The software is shareware, and it allows you to use it in a demo mode,
but if you continue to use it, you really should purchase the software
($29.95).
To download and install the program, use the following
steps.
- Open
your favorite web browser (these instructions are written for Internet
Explorer 6.0)
- Navigate
to www.winzip.com
- Click
on Download Evaluation Version
- Tell
the browser where to save the file (the desktop is a good spot, you can
delete it later)
- Allow
the file to download and then exit the browser.
- Find
the file you just downloaded and double click on it.
- You
will need to be logged in as the Administrator on Windows XP or Windows
2000 systems (If you are using a school lab computer, ask the lab
supervisor for help)
- Install
the software, using the option for the WinZip wizard.
- Once
you have installed WinZip, you are ready to zip your files and upload them
to WebCT
Zipping your Website for upload
- Using
the My Computer or My Documents icons, navigate to the folder where your
web site is stored. (With FrontPage it will be in a folder called MY WEBS
which will be in the MY DOCUMENTS Folder
- Open
the folder which contains your website (it will often be called MYWEB or
something similar or whatever you named it)
- On the
menu bar click the Edit option
- On the
edit menu click Select All – This will select all the files in the folder
- Position
your mouse over one of the files and right click
- Choose
the WinZip option on the menu that pops up
- From
the flyout menu, choose the file that says add to XXXXX.zip where the XXXX
is the name of your folder
- The
winzip window will pop up and you must select the USE Evaluation Version
button.
- The
Zip file will be created.
- Make
sure you know where your zip file is, as you will need it in the next
section
- You
are now ready to upload your file
To upload a zip file using WebCT
- Open
your browser
- Navigate
to the WebCT homepage http://webct.csuohio.edu
- Log in
to WebCT
- Select
the Workshop for Teachers
- Select
the Student Websites Icon
- Locate
your name and click on Edit Files
- Select
Upload File
- Click
Go
- On the
next screen click browse and locate your file to be uploaded
- Click
on the file, then click OK
- Click
Upload
- The
file will upload and you will be returned to the manage files page
To unzip your file (Last Step)
- Locate
the zip file that you just uploaded
- Click
the check box next to it.
- In the
second section of the manage files page, click the down arrow next to edit
and select UNZIP and click GO
- On the
next screen click unzip – the files will be unzipped and you will be
informed of any errors. If files
are omitted because of illegal characters, go back into FrontPage using
the instructions above, and fix any file names
- You
might want to print out the list of files, so that you can find them.
- Once
you have fixed them, rezip the website in a new file and re upload it and
re unzip it
- Once
you get an upload with no errors, relax and take a break, You are DONE!!