RedWolf's "AIIEEEE I'M NEW AT THIS"
KEENSPACE-HOWTO

(aka How to work AutoKeen for fun and profit)

There's alot of folks there that are having problems getting up their site for the first time, and are panicing all over the forums. You see them every day, pouring their guts out, trying to do the right thing but it just turns out all wrong.

And, of course, you happen to be one of them.

But before you cry out your problems in the Help Center Forum, read this document first! Alot of problems stem from uploading it in the wrong place or naming it wrong or in generally getting AutoKeen all confused. It's not your fault... well, not all of it. AutoKeen doesn't know any better, so you have to play the game to get it work right, the first time, every time. Computers are rather dumb that way, eh?

Here's how I do my own site, Stalag '99. It's a rather clean way of making a KeenSpace, and I bet a KeenSpot, site. Follow along, you may learn something yet. [And I suggest you print this document out and read it over a nice mug of coffee or favorite caffinated beverage. --RW]

STEP 1: GATHER YOUR TOOLS

You need at few programs to start the layout of the pages:

1. A decent HTML editor. I use DreamWeaver, which works fairly well and lets you edit the page as it would look like. Can I say it's worth the money? If you know a good amount of HTML, you can use a normal text editor. But for god sakes, don't use a bazooka to kill a fly... er... use Word or WordPerfect to do HTML! I've also tried Netscape's Composer -- don't use it, it's buggy like a rotting corpse in the Amazon.
2. A FTP program. WS_FTP works well, but I use LeechFTP. The old version still works. But for $DEITY's sake don't use Internet Exploder or Nutscrape to do FTP!!! Get a dedicated tool. Mac users should use Fetch.
3. Both IE and Netscape. Install both. I'm serious about this. What looks good in IE may not work in Netscape, and you will get the main two there.

Take this time to get familiar with them. See how they work. Did I mention you can't rush this? Take a weekend to go through this document.

STEP 2: SETUP AND EDIT

[Linux/Unix users should refer to "folders" as "subdirectories" unless you use GNOME or KDE. -RW]

With everything set, it's time to recreate your little corner of the server that corresponds to your comic's site.

Now log into the server and switch to the workspace/ folder. Belive it or not, you'll allways be uploading to that folder, but in a special format that AutoKeen knows about. Don't go into public_html/ at this time. AutoKeen takes care of that, so you don't have to.

Take the two template files and pull them into stalag. Don't rename them! We have to preserve their names, or AutoKeen will get confused!

Start tweaking on your site now by editing indextemplate.html. It should display the current strip, have buttons to navigate the archives that AutoKeen will generate, and look crude, but hey, you want it up, right? Gav's Tagtorial can help here.

Put all your comic strips into comics, and also put your images into images. AutoKeen will generate the pages depending on what's new and what's current -- it's that smart -- but only if it finds it in the right places.

When linking to the images, use "/images/file-to-show.gif" or similar. This will tell IE and Netscape where those images are. In Dreamweaver, it's the "Site root" reference. Don't do any more webpages other than the templates at this time.

What I did with my strip is did the indextemplate.html first, and then copied that and named the copy dailytemplate.html. I then tweaked that to be the archive pages.

Think of a web page as a newspaper, instead of a peice of looseleaf. You have your big headliner story up top, across all the page, and you can read the story of how Clintion was doing another intern while pardoning another criminal at the 11th hour without having to unfold the paper. (Sorry for that image). Your comic is the headliner story. Follow the similar design: Title and advert at the top, followed immediately by your comic.

Also, layout your pages for a 800x600 screen. This is a good average to go by. Your comic may have to shrink to prevent excess scrolling, but it works out well, and you viewers won't be annoyed.

And finally, remember that Netscape 4.76 and below loves to pull everything inside a table before drawing it on screen. IE doesn't have that problem. If you have a clean cut between two rows, you might want to try to split it into two tables.

When you done, get back onto the server via FTP and change into the workspace folder. Upload the two template files, overwriting what's on the server, and the entire comic directory. If you can do multi-select, do it.

Don't put them into public_html, since AutoKeen won't know they're there. AutoKeen is looking for them in workspace.

Finished already? Now go ahead and do a regular update. In five minutes or so AutoKeen would of done it's magic.

It should work, and your page shown with your comic strip showing. If not, check to see if you've uploaded it properly, and then ask for help in the forums!

STEP 4: MEDIUM WIZARDRY

I take it things worked out, eh?

Good, you've passed novice wizardry. Now lets get another page linked.

Copy over the indextemplate.html to webpages/links.html, and start editing that. Of course, take out the comic viewing code, and put in some links you wish to share others. Maybe a few other strips you like, or maybe Slashdot.org. ;)

When done with that, link to it from the indextemplate.html, but don't use "/webpages/links.html". Just use "/links.html". AutoKeen will take everything in webpages, do a bit of magic, and put them right next to the resulting index.html that it'll make.

If you want to do more, go ahead. When you're done, just upload the whole webpages folder, as well as the new indextemplate.html. Everything that's changes, put it up there.

STEP 5: PANDAS

Now there is only a few good reasons to go into public_html and muck with that. The first is putting up Javascript files and downloadable items related to the comic strip. The second is when you get into BIGPANDA.NET's index.

Go ahead and log in via FTP, and switch to public_html. Create the bigpanda folder there, and put the info in there.

There will be other directories there, such as images (where your images really are), d (AutoKeen puts the archive pages there), and comics (where comics up to today's are moved). Don't mess with them. That's AutoKeen's job, not yours. Same goes for any webpages there. AutoKeen manages 'em. Don't put your own pages there, because AutoKeen can't put in the ads, comics, navagation images, etc there without overwriting them (and that's a bad thing).

Now you're off to a good start, and things are running smoothly. Good luck on your comic strip!

Kelly "STrRedWolf" Price - Stalag '99