Editing a Web page with BBEdit and Fetch (Macintosh)

Summary

This document describes how to use Fetch and BBEdit Lite to edit an existing Web page in your Web directory. This technique is useful for making changes to individual text files. It is not a good substitute for complete Web site managment with a program like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe GoLive.

BBEdit Lite is available as a free download from Bare Bones Software.

Note: Fetch version 4.x (with secure file transfer) is required for use with these instructions. It is available for download as a component of the UW Internet Connectivity Kit.

Instructions:

To edit a Web page in BBEdit Lite via Fetch:

Make sure you have Fetch version 4 or later installed. It is available for download as a component of the UW Internet Connectivity Kit.
Start Fetch and connect to Homer, Dante, or shell.myuw.net as you would normally.
Double-click on the folder public_html (your Web directory.)
Select the file you want to edit by clicking on it once.
Click the Remote menu and select Edit File with BBEdit...

BBEdit Lite will start with the selected file open and ready for editing.
When you are ready to save the changes, click the File menu and select Save.
You're done! The changes you made have been saved to your Web directory. You should verify this by opening the page in a web browser.