linking to pub files in more languages

[Susan]

Our website should be in more than 1 language. Using the info from this
forum, I have created multiple publisher files with sort of buttons on the
first page to do the linking. However, the links are there - the pathway is
mentioned when the link is clicked - but the page is not shown.

What I did: I made one pub file, used Publish to the web - so the html file
called index is made and the file folder as well. Did the same for the other
languages, and put those in subdirectories, since they are all called index
(I learned the hard way that if you change your index name to e.g. index_NL
for the Dutch site the site won't open at all..). The hyperlinks were made to
the html file, not the pub file. Then I made a subdirectory in the website in
Ippswitch Home and copied the files to that directory.

 

[DavidF]

There are many ways to create a multi-language site, but I think that
http://www.somoscapazes.org/ uses one of the easiest. The trick is how you
organize the files on your host, but it requires the use of just two Pub
files...one in Spanish and one in English...and one subfolder on your site.

If you load http://www.somoscapazes.org/ and mouseover the link to the
English version (a text box in the upper left corner "English"), then look
in the status bar, you will see the link is:
http://www.somoscapazes.org/english/index.htm . What they did on this site
is to create one subfolder called "english" on the host on the root
directory. They use two Publisher files...one for English, one in Spanish.
The primary language is Spanish, so when they produce those web files by
Publish to the Web, they get the index.htm file and the index_files folder,
and they upload them to the root directory on their site...they don't use a
subfolder. Using the second Publisher file, the English version, they
Publish to the Web and once again produce an index.htm file and an
index_files folder, and upload those to the "english" subfolder that is at
the same level in the directory as the index.htm file and the index_files
folder for the Spanish version.

If you still can't figure it out, please post the URL of your site and we
will try to help you troubleshoot the issue.

DavidF

 

[Susan]

Dear David,
Thank you for your reply. However, I feel I have done exactly that; the
original Dutch page is in the main folder and the translation in German is in
the subfolder /deutsch, both the html file and the file folder. I have now
tried to make the hyperlink to the pub file instead of the html file, but
that does not help. When you click on the hyperlink, you just see the pathway
to the file on my hard disk.
The URL for our site is http://www.drei-tuerme.com (nice site!?); the
hyperlinks to the sites in English and French are links to copied pages
within the same pub file, which is an emergency solution untill the other
linking stuff works (since if I copy pages within the same pub file, the
navigation bar changes too - as you know of course - ). Hope that you can
help out here - we are a small guesthouse, and are sort of handicaped without
website for the international guests...
Thanks,
Susan

 

[DavidF]

Hi Susan,

The German version of your site is not in a subfolder called "deutsch". If
it were, then the following link would work:
http://www.drei-tuerme.com/deutsch/ or to be more complete, you would write
the link http://www.drei-tuerme.com/deutsch/index.htm This implies that you
do not have your host directory setup correctly, or you have not uploaded
the German version of your site, or you uploaded it to the wrong
place/folder.

You do not say how you are uploading your files to your host. If you are not
using a form in your site, I would suggest that you use FTP uploading
protocol. If you are using a form, then you will have to HTTP uploading
which complicates matters a bit.

To make matters easier in the long run I would suggest that if you choose to
use FTP uploading then consider downloading and installing the free FTP
client FileZilla: http://filezilla-project.org/ It is likely to be easier
for you to manage your site in the future. Set the default to Auto File Type
instead of the ASCII File Type .

In the short term, log in to your host and the control panel. There will be
some sort of file manager. Use it to view your root directory. Right now
there should be an "index.htm" file and an "index_files" folder that makes
up your Dutch version of your site...the version that will load when someone
clicks on your domain URL. You will also most likely have some other folders
at the same level in the host directory that contain files and such that
your host put there. Be careful to not delete those. Now create a new folder
at the same level as the current index_files folder, and call it "deutsch".
And assuming that you will eventually create English and French versions of
your site, go ahead and create folders to contain those web files. I would
suggest that you avoid upper case, and always avoid spaces in any file or
folder...and no special characters. If you must use dashes ( - ) to separate
words in a file. I don't like underscores as they cannot be distinguished
from a space when you have the hyperlink underline. (Note that you can do
all of this via an FTP connection using FileZilla or a current FTP
connection via Windows Explorer if that is how you have been uploading your
files. It would be under My Network Places.

If you have any other Publisher generated files or folder...other index.htm
files or index_files folder, then delete them from your host leaving only
the ones for the Dutch version of your site. Once again, be careful about
deleting any hosts sites...you might eventually need them.

Now you are ready to upload your German version. Open the Publisher file
that is in German, and Publish to the Web and upload the index.htm file and
the index_files folder (intact) to the newly created "deutsch" folder on
your site....and in the future, you will upload the French and English
versions to their folders. Now the link:
http://www.drei-tuerme.com/deutsch/index.htm should open your German
version.

I understand why you used index_EN.htm instead of index.htm for the English
version, and if you wanted all version in one folder that would be a way of
doing it. When you Publish to the Web and instead of using the default
index.htm and instead use index_EM.htm then you will also get a
index_EM_files folder instead of a index_files. But, in general I would
suggest that as long as you are organizing your different versions in
subfolder on your host, that you stay with index.htm, the default.

You are certainly ambitious by having so many languages...and certainly
exceptional to speak so many languages, and hopefully once you get things
tweaked out you won't have to update them all very often. If I get some time
I will try to check out your site for other issues and compatibility issues
between IE and FireFox. If it were me, I would download and install FireFox
(7.8 MB): http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ and test your primary site
to make sure it views well in both, before I invested a lot of time building
the other language versions.

I hope these more specific instructions help you sort things out. Let us
know if you have a chance.

Good luck.

DavidF