Hi Maria,

> We are wondering what software is used when people
> upload their files to a website. We want people to
> be able to upload a flyer (.doc or .pdf file) to our
> website. Is this something fairly easy to do?

Quite. Most servers use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to copy files
(html, images, word and pdf files) to and from the server.

There are hundreds of programs out there that can perform FTP, but my
own favorites are FileZilla (Free: http://filezilla.sf.net/ ) and WS_FTP
Pro ($55: http://www.ipswitch.com/purchase/products/ws_ftp.asp ). The
only thing WS_FTP Pro has over FileZilla is an outstanding automation
and synchronization platform - but unless you do a TON of FTP, this
probably will not be useful to you. Internet Explorer can be used to
perform FTP, as well, but has some flaky methods that can cause
problems. And it doesn't really give you much as far as features.

FileZilla, however, is more than capable of doing anything you'll need.
And it supports some very capable compression providing the ability to
shrink the size of files you upload and download, significantly reducing
the amount of time you spend in your FTP program.

Anyway... After you've installed the FTP program you will usually setup
an "FTP account" within the program. Usually these will have the user
name, password, remote (server) path and local (your computer) path to
apply during login. That way you automatically have a "left and right"
view of the local computer and the remote server so it's simple enough
to copy fiels across from one place to the other by dragging the file or
by clicking the file and an upload/download button.

Then it's just a matter of dragging and dropping files where you want
them.

Regards,

Shawn K. Hall
http://12PointDesign.com/
http://ReliableAnswers.com/

'// ========================================================
"I don't have a keyboard site on my computer. We have to
download it." --Zachary Hall (my son), after being asked if
he wanted me to hook up my MIDI keyboard to his computer