How do I upload a photo, logo or Microsoft Office/FrontPage file to my website?
First select "Administer Site" then enter your admin password to display the admin selection menu. On the menu find "Upload Image/File". Click on it, then select Browse (near the bottom of the form) and find your file on your PC and select "open" to place the filename into the input form. Then select "Upload This File" to upload the file. Once the file is uploaded you can reference it on the Remake Home Page Form or in an attached article. You can find instructions on how to reference the file on the Remake Home Page input form. Please note that the image is not automatically displayed on your website after it is uploaded. A reference to the uploaded image must be properly added (via Remake Home Page for example) before it displays.

When I reference my uploaded file it does not show up?
In 99.9% of the instances when this problem is reported to InfoSports the reference to the uploaded file is made incorrectly. It is important to note that on your PC the file ABC.JPG is treated the same as abc.jpg. That is, upper and lower case letter are treated the same. On the InfoSports web server though this is not the case. You must match the filename exactely. To determine the proper filename simply click on Display Directory in the Admin Control Menu to display a list of the files in your upload directory. The proper filename can be seen on the right side of the directory display.

What are the common problems seen with images on websites?

• Most common is the photo size. The maximum width of an image is 640 pixels. Widths greater than this cause the page to "widen". Generally when you scan in a photo the size is large (e.g. 640 width or greater). You need to reduce the width to 640 pixels maximum. Most photo scanning programs have the ability to shrink the photo.
• The filename used sometimes is a problem. You should not have an embedded space in the filename. For example 1234 photo.jpg may not work. It would need to be 1234photo.jpg (in this case). Also special characters are not allowed (e.g. !@`0). Generally special characters are not permitted in file names since the browsers can't handle them.
• Very large files. The maximum size of an uploaded image is 150,000 bytes.
• Images created in a .jpg format can be reduced further in size by increasing the amount of "loss" in the photo. A 10% "loss" generally is not visible and usually results in a decrease in file size of close to 50%. Remember the smaller the file size the greater the chance that a visitor will stay on your page long enough to see the photo.
• Using a file extension for your image other than .jpg and .gif. Many people upload .bmp files only to find they will not work and/or they display very slowly due to their LARGE size. Some Internet browsers do not recognize .bmp files.

How much disk storage am I allocated for my website and how can I tell how much space is being used?
InfoSports websites are allocated 10 Megabytes of disk space. Tournament websites are allocated an additional 10 Megabytes of storage per tournament. Typically when the website is created it consumes about 0.1 Megabytes. To tell how much space your website is taking perform a "Display Directory" for the Upload Directory and Private Section. Near the top of the directory display you will see "total nnnnn". Take the value for nnnnn and multiply it by 512. This will give you the number of bytes of storage used. Pages created via Add Article and Add Page are contained in another directory (not displayable) and the amount of space used by them is negligible and is usually ignored.

Will InfoSports send unsolicited e-mail (SPAM) to me once I have created a website?
InfoSports does not send unsolicited e-mail. Only in the rare instance when there is a problem with your page will you receive an e-mail from InfoSports. Many youth sports sites that offer websites will repeately SPAM you with "press announcements" and advertisements.

If we take the time to create and maintain our page how do we know that the InfoSports site will be around in the future.
The InfoSports website is one of the longest running youth sports sites on the web. We began the website in July of 1996 and the site is prepaid (at 300% of its current activity levels) thru December of 2007.

How long does my website remain active?
Youth Sports Websites are purchased in a 4 month increment. Youth Sports Websites which show no activity for a period of 4 or more months are removed. Please note, the process that removes inactive websites is a semi-automatic process and an email removal notice is not sent to you prior to the removal of the site. Therefore to keep your website active you must perform a Remake Home Page in order to keep your website in the Active State.

I have forgotten my password. How do I get it?
When you first submitted the form to create your website it asked you for 2 passwords. The first one is called the Admin password which is used when you want to make changes to your page. The other is the Private Section password which allows visitors to your page to access the private section of your website. The private section password can not be read so if you have forgotten it the way to correct the problem is to simply create a new Private Section password (via the remake Home Page form).

The Admin password can be reset to a random value and emailed to you by selecting Administer Site then clicking on the link near the bottom of the resulting admin password form. Then, assuming that your email address stored with you page is correct, the newly reset password should pop up in your email inbox in a few seconds. If the email address was not entered correctly, the program doesn't know where to send it to so in that case the InfoSports webmaster has to manually reset the password for you. The Admin password is also changeable via a selection on the Administer Page form (you must know the current password though to change it).

How do I purchase an additional 4 months of service (renew my website) and what is the process that I need to follow?
Select Administer Site on your website, enter your password, a purchase link should appear in the left column of the resulting Admin Menu screen. Click on the link and follow the directions.

What causes my page to load slowly at times?
The most likely causes are:

• Your site may be using the weather.com Weather Magnet. For some reason weather.com can be very slow at times in returning weather information to your page.
• Data is being pulled from another website.
• The java fireworks, java ticker and music capabilities do slow your page down slightly due to the increased page size.
• If you are using the free page service then possibly the ad banner display could be slowing down the page.

What is the difference between "Add Article" and "Add Page"?
The "Add Article" feature is used to create a standard appearing article which does not contain (or a minimum amount of) special HTML coding. Please note you may still add some types of HTML coding to your article. However, if you need to insert an HTML table into your article you should use the "Add Page" capability. When using "Add Article" if you insert a new line into the text a new line is automatically inserted into the article. Two newlines automatically creates a new paragraph.

The "Add Page" feature is used for creating a page containing mostly unique HTML code. The "Add Page" capability allows you to create virtually any style of article text that you like within the common page format (left column links, page title, top of page banner, etc). New lines are not inserted into the article when you insert a new line into the text. To add a new line use the HTML code of <BR> for a single spaced new line, or <P> for a new paragraph.

How can I add a contact person to my No Advertising website?
To add a contact person you would first add that person using the "Administer Email Names and Addresses" capability of the Admin Control Panel. Up to 50 unique contacts may be used with your website. After you add the contact person you would then insert a fragment of HTML code into the page to create the "Contact XYZ" type link. The code fragment to use is displayed on the "Administer Email Names and Addresses" page. Note: All pages come standard with one "Contact Person". That person is the person whose name and e-mail address is displayed in the "Remake Home Page" form.

I would like for my page to be browsed by others (not associated with my organization). How can others find my page when it is not automatically added to a searchable index?
If you want your page searchable to the general public then please add your link using the add link capability of the Admin Control Menu.

I made a change to my website but when I go to the page the change is not shown. Why not?
You must hit "refresh" or "reload" on your Internet browser to tell it the page has changed so that it knows to go out and get the new page. Otherwise it loads the page from its internal cache (which has the page the way it was before your change was made).

Can I search the InfoSports website to find my page in the event I forgot my website abbreviation or URL?
No. In order to provide a high level of privacy for our Youth Sports Pages, a direct search on the website index is not provided. If you are the creator of a website and have forgotten your website abbreviation then please email us with the sport, state/country and description of your website. If you email address matches that of the website creator then we will respond with the abbreviation and the URL of your website.

If you want your website to be accessable to the general public then you may add a link to your website. To do so please use the "website link" capability displayed on the Admin Control Menu.

How do I add an article to my website?
First select "Administer Site" then enter your admin password to display the admin selection menu. On the menu find "Add article". Click on it and enter your article into the displayed form. Note: You can also add articles to the private section of your website.

How do I remove outdated and/or unneeded image files (or any other type of uploaded files) from my website image directory?
On the admin screen (displayed after you login to Administer Site) is a selection called Remove File. Use it to remove your outdated files. Use Display Directory to show the filenames of all files in the uploaded files directory.

How can I put music on my page?
To add music you will need to use "HTML Code Block" on the "Remake Home Page" form (selected via the Administer Site link).

Add HTML code similar to the following...

<center>
<EMBED SRC="/yourabbrev/images/uploadedsong.mid" AUTOSTART="TRUE" REPEAT="False" height="24" width="70">
</center>

Where "yourabbrev" is your website page abbreviation and "uploadedsong.mid" is the name of the .mid file that you may have uploaded (using the image upload capability). To pull music from another site on the web simply enter its URL in the SRC field (be sure to include http:// in the URL).

If you would like to use some of the songs we have on the website you can look at the songs directory and pick one to use on your page. To reference these songs set the song to /songs/selectedtune.mid. So for example let's say you wanted to put Ghostbusters on your page. Then copy and paste the following HTML code onto the "remake home page" form...

<center>
<EMBED SRC="/songs/ghostbusters.mid" AUTOSTART="TRUE" REPEAT="False" height="24" width="70">
</center>

Windows XP music problem: It has been noticed that music does not play properly using the above code with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP. The above code works OK with Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows 98. The following code will work with IE 6.0 on both Windows 98 and XP. Please note that it may not work with earlier browsers.

Where can I get clip art to use with my page?
A set of clip art is available on this site. When you use this set you would reference it as /art/soccer/soccer.gif if for example you wanted to use the soccer ball image on your website.

What is the "private" area of the website for?
The private area is used for sharing information with members of your team or organization that you would not want visible to anyone surfing the web. This area of your page has its own changeable password.

What do I enter into the User ID of the box displayed when I try to access the private area of my website?
You enter your site's abbreviation. Note: The abbreviation is always in lowercase. The password can be upper or lower case and must match exactely to gain access.

What is the "HTML Code Block" input area on the "Remake Page" form used for?
You can use it to place HTML code directly onto your website. This HTML code is placed near the bottom of the page. One possible use of the HTML Code Block is to add music to your website. However, this capability is general in nature and is limited only by your imagination.

What does "Use League Assistant Data" mean and how do I use it?
For the past 8 years InfoSports has made available to the youth sports community a database that is used to manage the league's teams, sponsors, coaches etc. For more information about League Assistant click here. The Professional version (free 45 day trial) of League Assistant supports the exporting of data to the Internet. It is important to note that no phone numbers (except for sponsor's business phone numbers) are included in the exported data. Information which can be displayed on your website includes:

• Board Members names and their position.
• Divisions in your league (for example majors, minors, junior, etc)
• Names of the Teams in each division.
• Managers and Coaches and their position.
• Sponsors. Each sponsor has their own page containing their address, phone number and an "advertising message".

Each of these items are seperately selectable. Team player names, although exported from League Assistant, are not permitted to be uploaded and can not be displayed.

To make your League Assistant data available for display on the Internet please follow the following steps:

• "Export" the League Assistant data to a floppy disk. To accomplish this choose the "Export Internet Data" option under the Admin tab of League Assistant.
• Go to your website on the Internet and select "Administer Site", then "Image/File Uploader". Enter your password to display the file upload page.
• On the file upload page select "Browse" and pick the file(s) from your floppy disk (usually disk A) to upload. Note the files are uploaded one at a time.
  • To upload Board Member data select the "brdmbr.txt" file.
  • To upload Division data select the "division.txt" file.
  • To upload Team data select the "team.txt" file.
  • To upload Manager and Coach data select the "mgrcoach.txt" file.
  • To upload Sponsor data select the "sponsor.txt" file.
• Go back to the "Administer Site". Then on the "Remake Home Page" input form click ON the appropriate League Assistant database check boxes.
• Select Submit and your website is re-generated with the appropriate references to the uploaded data.

How can I use my tournament website?
Typical uses could be:

• Provide online registration.
• Display your tournament schedules, scores and standings.
• List motels/hotels in the area. Check with the motel/hotel because they may give you a rebate on rooms booked.
• Display the teams who have already signed up. Each team has their own profile page which they can update themselves.
• Upload action photos during the tournament.
• Use it in conjuction with the "headline article" capability to post news from your tournament.
• List sponsors of your tournament.
• For additional information about our tournament websites please click here.

When I type

aaa    bbb     ccc

Can I do anything to make my articles posts look a little nicer?
Yes. The easiest ways to improve the readability of your message is to enter your paragraph text without newline characters. To do this simply keep typing on the same line in the input text box. To create a new paragraph enter newline twice. If you want to really get fancy (and learn a little HTML) you can make portions of your message bold, italicized or bold and italicized. To make bold enter <B>text</B> italicized <I>text</I>, or bold and italicized <B><I>text</I></B>. If you have column type information, e.g. game dates and times; then use the <pre>your text</pre> HTML commands mentioned above to make the information more readable.

You may also include a graphic from the clip art gallery in your post.

Can I change the background color or use a "wallpaper" on my website?
Yes there is a selection on the admin form to use for changing the colors and background for your page. Note: If the wallpaper is being pulled from another site you will need to enter the full URL (e.g. http://something...). To view the background color or wallpaper requires that your browser be at least Netscape 4.x or Microsoft IE 3.x or higher.

When I add a ticker message or article it doesn't appear. Why not?
In all instances you must select reload or refresh on your browser to tell your browser that the page has changed. Some Netscape browsers will not reload the ticker though. In these cases you will need to shut down the Netscape browser and restart it to tell it to reload the ticker contents.

Can I upload a team or action photo to my website?
Yes. However, the size of it is limited to 150K or less and it must be in either .gif or .jpg format. To reference the photo in your article(s), use the URL /yourabbrev/images/yourfile.gif if GIF format or /yourabbrev/images/yourfile.jpg if JPEG format. The width of the image should 640 pixels or less to neatly fit into the alloted area. Please remember that the image needs to be in .gif or .jpg format. Images of other formats (e.g. .bmp, .wmf, .tif) do not display in the browser. Also, please keep your image file size within reason.

The image filename is case sensitive so 1234MyPhoto.jpg is different than 1234myphoto.jpg. Also, the filename used can not have an embedded space (e.g. "1234 my photo.jpg" doesn't work).

What is the purpose of the ticker on the Youth Sports Page?
The ticker provides a way for you to add a short message/greeting or to add a game score to your page.

What type of information do I enter in the description section of the page?
The type of information you want to place here is a general description of your team / organization / tournament as well as information that wouldn't become outdated. For example if you had a tournament coming up next month you would post an article about the tournament onto your website. You can later delete the article after the tournament is over. Also, during the tournament you can post your tournament results to the page. That way, the folks back home can keep track of how their team is doing by visiting your website.

Do you have a service agreement for your Youth Sports Pages?
Yes. Click here to display the service agreement.

If I remove the "Administer Site" selection from my home page then how can I modify my website?
It is now possible to safely remove the "Administer Site" section (via a checkbox on the Remake Home Page Form) of your home page. An "Administer Site" selection has now been permanently added in the left column of your private section. Therefore if you do not wish this selection to appear on your home page you can always administer your site via the Private Section of your website. Please note: For websites created prior to May 15, 2003 you must first perform a Remake Private Section operation first to rebuild your private section before removing the Administer Site selection from your home page.

The question I have is not covered here. How do I contact you to get my question answered.?
Please click here to go to the contact page.

Note: The term Youth Sports website and Youth Sports Page (YSP) are used interchangeably on InfoSports.