Before your dive in to some of my other more complicated tricks, here are some basic instructions for making html changes after publishing in iWeb. These instructions can be used to add just about anything to your iWeb pages!
IMPORTANT: Editing html post-publishing breaks .Mac commenting! I recommend js-kit.com (see below) to replace the .Mac comments so you can edit as you please!
Examples of items you could add using these instructions:
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•Banner ads (Adsense, Amazon, etc)
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•Paypal buttons
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•Creative Commons Licenses
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•Link Exchange/Ring code
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•Flickr/Slide.com/other photo site code
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•Google or other site widgets
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•YouTube/Google Video embed code
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•http://www.widgetbox.com widgets (if you haven't seen this - go check it out!)
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•http://www.js-kit.com - comments, polls, and star ratings - very cool and easy add-ons! You can see some of them in use on this site.
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•Anything else you get off the web that generates a code to be inserted into the html of your page!
Here are the basic instructions:
1. Type a placeholder in place of where you want the item to go. i.e. CODEGOESHERE or something like that. Publish your site via iWeb
2. Find your html files.
Go to iDisk/Web/Sites/iWeb/Sitename/Pagename.html
(If you publish to a folder, look in the folder you selected or try looking in your Sites folder of your home folder. )
There are two ways to handle accessing your iDisk.
Method 1:
Turn on local copy of your iDisk in System Prefs, with or without automatic syncing.
If you publish your site via iWeb, now the updated pages exist online but the old pages are on your local iDisk. You need to sync (automatically or manually) to get the new pages on your local iDisk (on your computer).
Then you can open the updated files, make your html changes in Text Edit or whatever program, and SYNC AGAIN (automatically or manually) to update the online version of the site to match what you have just changed on your local iDisk
Method 2:
Mount the iDisk when needed via the "Go" menu in Finder. This is the ONLINE VERSION of your iDisk, not a local copy. When you publish your site via iWeb, the changes INSTANTLY appear on the iDisk on your desktop. If you make html edits or other changes, they appear INSTANTLY online.
I recommend Method 2 - much easier!!!
3. Make the html changes.
You can open the html files generated by iWeb in any text or html editor. In TextEdit, to view the code in an HTML file, choose File > Open and select "Ignore rich text commands." Then locate the .html file (as described in step 2) and click Open.
Make your changes (i.e. replace CODEGOESGERE with the html code!) and don't forget to save your changes (not Save As, just Save)!!!
4. Remember, if you make a change to a page like this post-publishing, and later re-publish, you have to make the html changes again! Set up a Find/Replace command in MassReplaceIt and you can do this very quickly. You can save your queries so you can make all of your changes with one click the next time you save.
Download here:
Please, leave a comment in my GuestBook if you are confused and need clarification, or just to let me know this has been helpful!
Or, maybe you are feeling really grateful and generous... care to buy me something off my Amazon Wishlist? Just about everything on there is intended for my classroom, so you would be making a great donation!
