I had a site designed by a friend and I'm happy enough but i want to be able to add html code for links but i cant. I told him this and he sent me the ftp password which i used but i still dont know how to add html. Is ftp used to add html? When i click on a folder in ftp alot of time it says it cannot find the folder or file. I have contacted him and asked to be sent the complete site so that i can put it on my hard-drive- will i then be able to access all files in ftp? thanks

FTP feans "File Transfer Protocol".
As it suggest, it's a normalized way for a client (your computer) to send and receive files with a server.

With a ftp program, or the FTP extension or MS window which makes it looks like a folder, you can:
1) upload files from your computer to the server
2) Download files from the server to your computer
3) delete / rename files from the server

To alter your site, you first need to retrieve the files, and put them on your computer.
When you have modified what you wanted to, and checked it by opening the files on your computer (only for static HTML files. If they are PHP or ASP or JSP files, you can only preview them on a server), you can upload them again on the server to update the files on your server.

Then, by entering your site name in your browser, you should be able to see your changes on your site, if everything went ok.

Its a good idea anyway to have a copy of your site on your computer, or somewhere other than the server just as a backup. True, the FTP software allows you to copy files from the web server to your computer so you can modify them. You just have to be sure to upload them back to the server when finished.

If your new to FTP and editing websites, may I suggest you not only download a copy to your local machine but, you also make a backup copy in another directory in case you screw something up.

If you make a serious error, all you would have do is upload the backup on your server. This would save a bunch of time trouble shooting errors if you should run into any.