Overview

FileZilla is an open source (FREE) FTP client. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. While it all sounds a bit complicated, FileZilla basically helps you transfer files to your website manually. As WordPress has evolved, more and more of these functions have become automatic. However, it is still necessary to transfer files to your site manually. As a WordPress website owner, using an FTP client is something you’re going to want to know how to do. This article will cover FileZilla because it’s what I use and recommend.

Links

http://filezilla-project.org/

How Does It Work

Download FileZilla from the link above and install it. Open it up an take a look. FileZilla has a basic two-pane interface. The files on your computer appear in the left pane, and files uploaded to your website appear in the right pane once your are connected to the server. Again, it sounds complicated, I know, but you can do this.

Setting Up FileZilla

Step 1. Click the Open The Site Manager button. Make sure you don’t click the back arrow beside this button. The Site Manager will open.

Step 2. Click the New Site button. Your New Site will appear under My Sites. Rename your site. As you can see, I just name the sites after what domain they are on.

Step 3. Fill in the information at the right on the General tab as follows:

• Host: Type your domain name in this format: yourdomain.com
• User: Type the username from your main hosting account
• Password: Type the password from your main hosting account

That is all you need to connect to your server. The other tabs you see are merely for personal preferences. I never use them.

Click OK.

Click Connect and make sure you can connect to your server. Once you connect successfully, the files on your server will appear in the right pane of FileZilla.

Now FileZilla is set up and ready anytime you need to use it. FileZilla will save the information you put in about your site and now you can connect to your server anytime with ONE click.

Using FileZilla

 Step 1. Click the black arrow beside the Open the Site Manager button.

Step 2. Click your domain/site name in the the drop-down menu. FileZilla will automatically connect to your server with this one click. Your website files will appear in the right pane.

Transfering Files

Transferring files between your computer and server requires that you know how to navigate the file structure of both your computer and you server space. If you can navigate to a image file in My Pictures on your computer and upload it to Facebook, you can upload files to your server.

For this example, we will transfer a new theme to a WordPress site.

Step 1. Navigate to the theme on your computer by double-clicking through the folders until you reach the theme folder.

I’ve chosen the A_Thousand_Word theme on my computer represented by the left pane in FileZilla. You can see it is highlighted. You can also see the navigation path just above the pane which tells me that the theme is located in a template folder inside my Documents folder.

Step 2. Navigate to the themes folder on your server in the right pane.

When you’re using WordPress, the themes folder is always located using this navigation: public-html>yourdomain.com>wp-content>themes

Step 3. Right-click the selected theme folder in the left pane and select Upload from the pop-up menu.

FileZilla will upload the theme to your WordPress site. You will be able to select the new theme from the Appearance menu in your Dashboard.

You manually upload plugins using these exact steps except you upload them to the plugins folder instead of the themes folder in the right pane. The navigation is as follows: public_html>yourdomain.com>wp-content>plugins

Out of the 16,000+ plugins available for WordPress at the time of this writing, more than a thousand of them allow you to add forms to your site. I have personally used two of them. I started out with Contact Form 7 which I will review at a later date. I recently replaced Contact Form 7 with Formidable Forms. Like most things WordPress, there’s a highly beneficial free version. You can also opt for additional functions with the two paid options.

Overview

Formidable Forms allow you to create custom contact forms for your WordPress site. Formidable doesn’t stop with contact forms. The easy drag and drop interface allows you to establish a point of contact with your users in minutes. Set up custom fields, limit the number of characters, require certain fields, put in the email address you want notified, and include a CAPTCHA.

You can style your forms to match your site. You can display the data input in your forms on your site in a number of ways as well. Formidable is your one stop shop for form building. It’s be far the simplest solution whether you are an advanced user or “not that technical”. Check out the Links section below for more information.

Links

http://formidablepro.com/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/formidable/

Screenshots

Formidable adds a page to your Dashboard where your forms are displayed with general information including shortcodes.

If you can write a Page or Post, you can create a form using Formidable. The interface is incredibly simple and everything is drag and drop.

The Basic Fields available with the FREE version are more than the bare minimum and quite powerful.

You simply drag the type of fields you need into your new form. You can configure each field with the following:

• Title i.e. Name
• Special instructions or other text
• Character length
• Required: Yes or No
• Error message

Once you’ve completed all your fields, you can tack on a CAPTCHA, set your email address under Form Notification Options, then simply copy and paste the short code into the Post or Page where you want the form to appear.

Pros

• Custom styling options
• Quick set up
• User friendly
• Professional
• FREE
• CAPTCHA fights spam
• Not just for contact forms
• Upgradable
• Sends a nice, neat email
• Well documented

Cons

• Additional features come at  a price: $37 for a single site license, $97 for unlimited installs
• Styling is almost a necessity

Rating

As of the time of this writing, Formidable received 4 out of 5 stars. TPI’s rating for Formidable is 5 stars.