FTP for Dummies
Howdy, it’s _steve again. Lots of you don’t know what the hell FTP is, or how to use it, or how you can make Geof’s life easier by installing your own themes, plugins, etc. Well I’m gonna show you how to do this with my favorite FTP client, SmartFTP.
Download it, install it, run it. In the address box, type in 67.19.147.148. In the Username and Password boxes, use your FTP usernames and passwords; if you don’t know what those are, ask Geof. Click on the Go button and you’ll be connected. Depending on how your windows are set up, you may or may not see the directory structure - if you don’t, click on Window -> Auto Hide All. If you get any dialog boxes asking if you want to save your settings, click Yes.
Some things you can do with FTP:
1) Install a new theme. Download a theme to your HD, unzip it if it’s a compressed file. In public_html/wp-content/themes, create a New Folder by right-clicking on the window on the right. Name the folder whatever your theme name is. Upload all the files for the theme; if it has custom images (which is likely), create a folder in your new folder called “images” and upload your theme images there. You can activate your new theme from the Wordpress Dashboard - just click on the Presentation tab.
2) Install a plugin. Once upon a time, there was something called Wordpress Plugin Manager that made this process incredibly simple for you people. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, WPPM went the way of the dodo, so we’re back to FTPing it. Download and unzip a plugin you want, and follow the instructions provided. This will almost always include uploading a file (or more than one file) into public_html/wp-content/plugins. Once the files are all in place according to the instructions, go to your Wordpress Dashboard. Click on Plugins and activate your new plugin.
3) Create bare subdirectories for stuff. Just create a new folder in public_html and upload whatever you want here. I use this for storing my videoblogs and as backup storage for academic papers.
Now you’re FTP savvy!!!