Getting started with Litesum Web

Your first site, from nothing to a copy you can put on a server. Every step is something you can undo, and nothing here sends anything off your computer.

1. Make a site

File ▸ New Site from Starter… and choose one of the three sites that come with Litesum Web:

Starter	What you get
One page	A single page and a stylesheet: a doctype, a language, a title, a description, a heading, and type that reads well on a phone.
A small site	Three pages that link to each other, a shared stylesheet and a picture.
A site with a template	The same three pages on a template with a shared header and footer, and a component for the sign-off.

Then choose an empty folder for it. A folder with anything in it is refused, so nothing of yours can be written over. Nothing is downloaded: the starters are installed with the application.

Already have a site? File ▸ Open Site… and choose its folder instead. Your files are edited where they are, in place, and are never reformatted.

2. Look at the page

The toolbar under the menu bar switches between four views. Start with Split: the code on one side and the page on the other, drawn by a real browser. Preview shows the page exactly as a visitor will see it.

3. Change something by clicking

Click the heading in the page. An outline appears around it, the matching code is highlighted in the editor, and the panels on the right describe it.

Double-click the heading's text and type something of your own. Enter keeps it; Escape leaves it alone.

4. Change something by typing

Click in the code, change a word, and watch the page follow a moment later. It has not been saved yet; the preview shows what you have typed. Ctrl+S saves the file you are looking at.

5. Change the style

With the heading still selected, the CSS panel lists every rule that applies to it. Change a value, a colour or a size, and Litesum Web writes it into the rule it came from, in the stylesheet where that rule lives.

Drag the handle on the width bar above the page to see the site as a phone would.

6. Undo anything

Ctrl+Z takes back the last change, wherever you made it: typed, clicked, or from a panel. A change made across many files at once is one Undo.

7. Check it, then take a copy

Problems lists anything the site checker finds, such as a broken link, a missing description or a picture with no alt text, each with a place to go. The starters begin with none.

Site ▸ Export Site… copies the finished site into a folder you choose, ready to put on any web server. Litesum Web's own working files stay behind. Nothing in your site is changed by exporting it.

When you have your own server, the Publishing panel sends the site to it over SFTP, FTPS or FTP, and shows you what would change before anything moves. Press Test Connection first: it checks the address, the password and the folder in one go. Your password is kept in Windows Credential Manager, never in a file. Nothing on the server is deleted, and nothing newer there is overwritten, unless you tick that file yourself, and Dry run shows what a publish would do without sending anything.

If you want to stop

Close the window. Your site is ordinary files in the folder you chose, so any other editor opens it, and every page works without Litesum. Nothing here needs Litesum Web to keep running.