Why doesn't my image/PDF/webpage show up?

If your images aren't displaying, try this:

1. Click your right mouse button on the icon where your image should be.
2. Choose 'View Image'.

The Information Systems department has setup some helpful messages to let you know why something isn't showing up on your page. One of two messages will likely appear, and, interpreted correctly, will tell you precisely what the problem is.

If the message says "Document Does Not Exist" then you haven't put the document onto the web server. (At least, you haven't put the image or file whatever it is in the location you specify in a link.)
You should see a line on the error message page that says "Broken link". This line will tell you how you've directed the link to the find the file (image, web page or whatever). Make sure that the file is actually in this location, because this message means that the web server isn't finding it in that location.

If the error message says, "Document isn't available." then you have forgotten to make the document 'public'. When you upload (send) files to the web server, depending on how you send it, the web server may not assume that you want to let just anyone get to it. Since some portions of your ACFILES directory (the same place your web pages are located) are there to store your email until you get it, and to provide some space where you can back up important stuff, you don't want to let everyone access it.
Essentially, this message means you need to make your web page files (html files, images, etc.) public.

The Information Systems department has setup a web page to make this simple:

1. Go to www.wfu.edu/update.html and login with your network username and password. (Your username is the first part of your email address, before the '@' symbol, and your password is the one you use to download your email and logon to your computer.)
2. You will now see a list of options you can turn on and off. Remember this page, as there are several thing you might want when you go on vacation, start using an off-campus email address, or various other things.
3. To make everything in your personal webpage directory available to the public, put a dot next to the option that says "Set permissions for personal home page."
4. Click Submit at the bottom of the page. You will be directed to a page which will attempt to explain again what you are about to do, to make sure you understand, and haven't put anything in your web page directory that you don't want to be available to everyone on the internet.
5. Follow the directions on this page, and press Submit. Check your webpage again, and see if the problem has been solved.

Examples of broken image problems:

"Document Does Not exist"
This first example is an example of what happens when you forget to upload (send to the server) your image. (Remember, the image isn't automatically sent with the webpage; they are still separate parts which are put back together when someone visiting your site asks for the page with its images.)

The following icon means that this webpage is supposed to have an image below this sentence, but there is a problem. Right-click on the icon below, and choose 'View Image' to get an error message for this image, which will tell you more about what the problem is.

The error message should have said "Document Does Not exist." That's because the image doesn't exist in the location I told the webpage to look for it.
In other words, if I looked in the 'images' folder in the 'lab' folder which is in the 'education' folder, I won't find an image called missingimage.jpg. Note that there could have been an image called missssingimage.jpg in that folder, and it wouldn't have worked. Or, I could have misspelled one of the folder names. Web pages must be written very literally. Go to the directions above to fix this problem.

"Document is Not Available"
This example illustrates what happens when you don't make part of your webpage (an image, pdf file, or whatever) publicly available.

Right click on the following image, and choose 'View Image'. You should get an error message that says, "Document is Not Available." (Hit the Back button after you read the error message, to return here.)

This message indicates that the file is exactly where you pointed the link, but the file is not public. Go to the directions above to fix this problem, by making all your web page files publicly available.