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…after navigating to the folder in which you wish to download the file, hit ‘Download’.
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so that the file is now called simply ‘htaccess’ and NOT ‘.htaccess’) and click the little downward-facing triangle to the right of the download box to expand the options and navigate to your new folder. Then, most importantly, delete the ‘.’ from the file name (i.e. htaccess file and then select ‘Download As…’ from the resulting drop-down menu. control-click since we’re using a Mac) on the. Note: don’t skip this step because you’ll later on have a hidden dot file in this folder - better to have an invisible file somewhere specific so that you can simply delete it later by deleting the folder it’s contained in! Now, head back to Cyberduck and right-click (i.e. Like so:Ĭreate a new folder somewhere on your computer (like the desktop, for example) and give it a name (we’ll call ours ‘htaccess file edits’). Find the directory that contains the htaccess file you want to edit and select ‘View Hidden Files’ in the drop-down menu under ‘View’. Open Cyberduck (an extremely popular FTP client for Macs - give it a try if you haven’t already) and connect to your server with your usual FTP/ SFTP details. There is, however, another way of dealing with this particularly troublesome file that negates the headache of having to change your Mac’s file-visibility settings altogether (note: while the following method appears quite long-winded, once you’ve done it once you’ll see how easy/simple it is). Changing the visibility settings of your FTP client is usually pretty simple (some, like FileZilla and Transmit, etc, will even show hidden files by default), however, as anybody who’s ever tried to do so will testify, changing the file-visibility settings on your computer (the most sensible place to make edits to files*) is usually anything but simple with a Mac – the most commonly used method being to boot up the dreaded Terminal and run a bunch scary commands… An altogether easier way: But how to make such edits? Or, more specifically, how to gain access to the htaccess file itself? Well, what with this being a dot-file (making the file hidden from view on most machines), it is - as you’ll already no doubt be aware - a particularly tricky file to deal with. From redirects to controlling IP access, the htaccess file is an incredibly useful tool for achieving all kinds of modifications, tweaks and improvements to your website – the majority of which have, of course, already been expertly covered by Jeff Starr in the excellent htaccess made easy.
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