I've been using this program for about a month now. It's very easy to use but has one serious problem. You can't backup your work. When I save the .ims file with the relative option, the graphic files disappear. I've lost about 30 pages of hard work in the month or so I've been using this program. I still have no idea how I'm going to backup my work.

Hello rm,

It is not that your graphics have disappeared, it is that you have backed-up your file to a new directory. You have 2 options, you can either take your backup and place it in the original directory, or you can change the path to each of your files. I would think that the 1st option would be the easiest.

It would not make any difference if you used the Relative option or the Gather option. When you create a Project SiteSpinner references the files on your computer. If you move the .ims file then there is no way of it knowing where the images are.

If you want to backup your ims file, you can simply do a 'save as', save to the new location and the paths to your images will be set for the new location. However, if you want to backup your images, then you either need to do that yourself, of you could Publish your Project to a specific location and use the Gather option.


- Derry

What about the "auto back up" when ftp-ing them
to your host ? that makes a backup at your host right (in ims format) so at your host you
will have everything 2 times...1 in html 1 in ims ?
Say you loose your files at your (local) computer...then you would still be able to get them back from your host (copy them back)even if you do'nt have the autoback up on

Right not right ?

Hi Ron,

That is right, when you Publish your .ims file is automatically backed up to the directory (or server) you have Published to (assuming you did not turn this function off in the Publisher).


- Derry

But remember, this doesn't back up your original image files!

The images on the server will be modified versions (if you modified them in some way e.g re-render resize)

What everyone fails to recognize is that, without the images, the project is just text with a bunch of blank squares. The spinner backup will only function if the original images have not been moved. Once you move the images, they will no longer appear in the project. If your hard drive crashes, you can't reload the images from a CD backup unless you replicate the exact folder system you had before and put each image in the folder it originally came from. I'm using images from many different folders. All I want to do is gather these images into one directory with the project and have it work. Spinner won't do this. Unless all the images came from the same folder to begin with, the project won't display them. This makes backup to CD problematic, if not impossible. I guess you have to make sure every image starts in the same folder as the project before you insert it. This is an extra step when working with many pictures from different folders.

Don't forget: If you want to move a directory full of images that you used in a project or if the images can't be found for whatever reason, you can tell SiteSpinner to look in the new location by clicking on an image, opening the Geometry Editor and clicking on 'New Dir'. This will let you tell SiteSpinner to look in a new location for all the images that were in the old location

Did you get a chance to read the response to
Gather Pictures ? That describes possible backup scenarios.