My website won't let me edit

[Goloh]

This might be the most naive question this month, but here goes.  Some 12 years ago, a webmaster built my website using Dreamweaver.  It sells things.  For inventory, descriptions, and so on, I can log in and do all that by myself.  But the structure of the site is "fixed" and I do not know how to edit the mistakes:  that webmaster has disappeared, and I can't find anyone else.  After I log in, and right click to "inspect source" or "View Element,"  I can see what looks like coding, but no amount of highlighting or clicking delete--or anything else I can see--lets me edit some of the mistakes.  

Even I use FileZilla to back up the site from time to time, but can't figure out how to get into the codes while logged into that, either.

Can anyone please suggest a way I can actually get into the heart of the coding and make some simple changes?   Many thanks ...

[John Waller]

What is the website address?

Which version of Dreamweaver are you using?

[Goloh]

1.  globalpostcardsales.com

2.  I don't know because the webmaster did it.  Can you tell me how to find out?

Thanks.

[BenPleysier]

Open main.css which resides in the style folder. This is where you will find all of the style rules.

To help you on your way, near the top of the style sheet you will find

#wrapper {

width: 900px;

padding: 0px;

margin: 0px auto 0px auto;

height: auto;

text-align: left;

border: 0px solid #006;

}

Change

width: 900px;

to

min-width: 900px;

Open the site in a browser and see what happens when you change the width of the browser window.

[Goloh]

I don't know what to say:  the website doesn't have anything called a "Style" folder, or anything like "main.css," or if it does, I would not know where to find it.  Using Internet Explorer 11, there's a toolbar at the top and one item is "View".  Under that, there's "Style" but clicking that only leads to two options:  "No Style," or "Default Style," and I'm certain that's not what you mean. 

This was my fault, for not insisting the original webmaster show me how to enter the coding so I could do it myself.  But he's gone.

Please direct me, then, to what I need to do to find the "main.css" because it must be very close.  Meanwhile, I will also tery logging in through the host server, and see if what you mention is visible there.

Thanks.

[John Waller · Accepted solution]

Seems like you're trying to edit your website using a web browser. That won't work.

You need a web editor. Or at least access to the server where the web files reside so you can download them, edit them and save them. That's what a web editor like DW does for you from your desktop via FTP.

In IE, View Source shows this on line 62

<link href="style/main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

so you've definitely got a styles folder, and many more.

You just can't edit it without FTP access (username/password).

[Goloh]

This seems like a major step in the right direction.  I back up the website using FileZilla often but (until now) have only needed FTP for that one reason.  So that's all I know what to do.  For time reasons (because it looks like it may be getting very late for you where you are), I will use the information above, go to the main FileZilla page, see if I can find all that, and report the results after.

Thank you both.

[Goloh]

All right, I downloaded and saved the website using FileZilla.  I also went again to FileZilla as if this was a new download, logged in, and looked for anything that would get me to main.css or anything resembling style/main.css.   All I could find, up at the top, was an icon of binoculars telling me to search recursively.  (?)  I entered style/main.css and variations of that, and nothing came up.  I looked at every item on every scroll-down list.

This is clearly very easy for someone who knows what they are doing.  Wish I did!  Though I have full passwords and permissions to manage my own site, it is not intuitive to me and I am getting nowhere.  Also, I don't want to waste people's time creating a step-by-step version of programmed learning for this.  I will keep looking locally here.  Fingers crossed.  Thanks again.

[John Waller]

A step-by-step here will take hours.

What exactly have you downloaded? Can you show us a screenshot?

Are you downloading only from the public_html folder? That's where the website lives. Nothing else matters.

If you've downloaded the entire website, including all subfolders, then you've got a "style" folder.

If not, then you have not downloaded the entire website.

[Goloh]

You're right, it would take hours, and I do not ask or expect anyone to do that for me -- I'm normal!!  Here is a screen shot of what FileZilla downloads:

And if I am successful, here is another screen shot of what appears when I click that line called "Style".

I respect that this is asking a lot, and will not press my luck by going much further...

[Nancy OShea]

You need a code editor like Dreamweaver or Brackets to open and edit CSS & HTML files.   Which code editor do you have?

[Goloh]

I've not made myself clear:  I know nothing about coding or editing, and had a webmaster to handle all that for me.  With his sudden departure, it left me in the position of finding another one, or learning how to make (what I thought might be) simple changes by myself.  As this message string shows, that is going to be over my head. 

I have no code editor, and wouldn't really know what to do with it if I had it.  Apart from this forum, I looked online for varous Dreamweaver discussions and instructions.  The basic message seems to be that one needs to be pretty good with this already to start messing with it.

But I am grateful for these messages, from you and John and Ben above.  They corrected one major error in my thinking, that I could just log into the site (online), somehow access the coding, and make my changes.  Obviously not so, and no point in wasting time trying.  Where I live, we are not swimming in available coders but I will keep looking for someone experienced in Dreamweaver who might want to help.

Thank you all.

[Nancy OShea]

You do not need someone experienced with Dreamweaver.  You need a web developer.   The tools they use are irrelevant.   Geo-location is also irrelevant since your site files can be accessed from anywhere in the world if the developer has your FTP log-in credentials and password.

[Goloh]

You're right, I know that.  Maybe I am just unlucky, but from a series of bad experiences, I have learned that online advertisers for this sort of thing promise the moon and deliver sand.  And they want the money up front.  Maybe it's my inability to communicate what I need, but for me it will be better to be able to sit with someone, give them coffee, and know I can find them again.

Will take your advice and find a web developer here.  Thanks.