Time for action – transferring files to your web host

To make this as quick and easy as it can be, I will use a few Windows shortcuts in this short click-by-click guide. Just before you dive in, you will need your FTP username and password. If you don’t know it already, you can usually find this quite easily by looking in your account details in your web host’s control panel. Any doubts, give them a ring or send an them an email – after all, that’s what you pay them for!

1. Press the Windows key and tap the E key twice. You will have two Explorer windows pop up. Arrange them neatly one above the other. Alternatively, you can grab a copy of a dedicated FTP program such as FileZilla from www.sourceforge.net. There is a small learning curve doing this, but once you’re used to it, you will have more options when using FTP. This guide assumes you do not have FileZilla, but if you do, it won’t be a problem to interpret the guide.

2. Browse to the unzipped prestashop folder at the bottom of the window and click on it. We do not need the folder itself, just the contents.

3. At the top window, you need to log into your website via FTP. In the address bar at the top of the screen, type ftp://yourdomain.xxx and press Enter. When a pop-up window appears, enter your FTP username and password that you obtained earlier.

4. Now at the bottom of the window, left-click on the very first file. Press the Shift key and then, using the down arrow key while still pressing Shift, scroll to the very bottom of the screen so that every single file and folder is highlighted.

5. Now let go of all the keys on the keyboard. Left-click and hold the left mouse button. You can now drag all the files from the prestashop folder on your PC up to your website in the top window.

6. Wait for the files to upload. The time will vary according to the speed of your Internet connection.

What just happened?

What you have done is put all of the files and folders containing the entire computer code, data, images, and other resources into your web host’s server, ready for the next phase of installation.

So let’s move on.