Common Questions
Welcome to the common questions page. This page comprises of
some of the most commonly asked questions we encounter from town and parish
councils when constructing or publishing their web site.
To view the answer, click on the question.
What is HTML?
Html is the language that almost all web sites are made up of. You may never
need to see html code when making a web site but it will be there. It is used
by your browser (eg. Internet Explorer) to interpret what to display and where.
For example an image on the left of the screen.
What is FTP?
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocal and it is the process that is
used to get your web site onto our server. This is because our server is on all
the time which means that your web site will be available all the time as well.
In order to use FTP to get your site onto our servers you will need an FTP
Program such as the one offered on this site, "FTPLeech". Many of you may also
be familiar with another commonly used program called "WS FTP".
What do I have to
name my homepage?
In order for your homepage to be the default page that loads when
somebody attempts to view your web site, your home page must be saved as
"index.htm". If you do not have a file named "index.htm" as part of your site
then a page will not appear when somebody accesses your web site address.
How much web
space have I got?
Currently, each Local Council is allocated 80 mega-bytes of storage
space. Additional requirements can be negotiated by contacting the parish hosting team
How much does it
cost?
Currently, Cheshire West and Cheshire East offer this service to Local Councils
for free.
My parish has an
old website that needs to be removed, how can I do this?
Your Local Council may have an obsolete website at an old
website address. This could be at an address such as www.yourparish.co.uk.
To remove this site, a written request needs to be submitted to your
previous ISP (Internet Service Provider) on letter headed paper. Your
previous ISP will then remove your old website as requested.
Can I use Server
Side Scripts or Front Page Extensions on my web site?
If your web site is or is to be hosted on the Councils web
server then you cannot currently use server-side scripts (client-side scripts
are permitted) or Front Page Extensions on your web site as our server is not
configured to support them at this time.
Is it possible to
place publisher files on our site?
Yes. This is certainly possible. There are a number of ways you can publish
this file...
1. Transfer the publisher document up to your website in its current format (as
you would do with a normal web page). Then establish a hyperlink to that
document on an associated web page - possibly called 'newsletters' for example.
It is good practice to warn your website visitors of the document format. After
the hyperlink, type a note such as 'Microsoft Publisher Format'.
2. Alternatively you could open the publisher document, and depending upon your
version of the publisher program, you might have the ability to save the
newsletter as a HTML document. This option can be found in the file menu and
normally appears as 'Save as HTML'. This option will convert the newsletter
into an html format ready for the internet. The HTML file, along with all
associated images that appeared in the newsletter will need to be transferred
up to your website as individual files.
You can place other files, such as word document, spreadsheets, etc on your
site and are accessible providing that the user has the correct software.
Is it possible
to put a counter on my website?
How do I publish
my Parish Council Meeting Minutes?
Publishing documents on your web site is relatively straight forward.
Write up your Parish Council Meeting Minutes in a suitable document format,
such as Microsoft Word or convert them to a PDF file using a suitable program.
On the web page which you wish to link to the document from create a Hyperlink
using the HTML tag <a></a>. In the tag you will put the filename of
your document including the document extension type (.doc for Word, .pdf for
PDF), after the tag and before the closing tag you put the text that will
appear on your web page that the user will click on to view the document. The
complete tag would be something like:
<a href="SeptemberMinutes.doc">Click here to view Septembers
Minutes</a>
This assumes that your document and web page HTML file are both going to be in
the same folder on the server, if your documents are held in a different folder
on the server remember to include the folder path before the document name
something like:
<a href="MeetingMinutes/SeptemberMinutes.doc">Click here to view
Septembers Minutes</a>
It is a good idea to advise the user that clicking on the link will open a
document and to advise them of the document type by including some text after
the Hyperlink tag.
When a user clicks on the link in your web page their web browser will open the
document and allow them to view it, assuming of course that the user has the
appropriate software installed. Word and PDF file types are very common and the
majority of PC users should have software installed that allows them to view
these file types.
