First, create a folder on your computer to hold all the pitcures, sounds and pages that you will eventually use on your site. Everything that will be on your site should be kept in this folder. This will make it accessable to your browser for viewing while you are editing, and make it easier to find when you upload it to the space your Homepage Provider has given you. Copy any GIF's, JPG's, MID's, WAV's, etc that you plan to use on your site into the folder.
Now, lets make a very simple page to start with. Open a New Document with a text editor. (I strongly recommend either WordPad or Note Pad). Think of a title for your home page...for example..."My Home Page". Now type the following:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>type the title of your page here</TITLE>
</HEAD>
Now, choose a short one word name for your page...for example..."mypage"...that you can use to save your page as. When you save you need to do three very important things:
- Save to the folder you created on your computer.
- Save as either a plain text document or All Files
- Save with the extension .html. For example; mypage.html
For example: You would click File and then Save As. Then you would select the folder you created to save your new document in. Next you would type mypage.html as the name and select either "All Files" or "TXT" as the file type.
Now that you've Titled and Saved your page try opening it with your browser. Don't worry, you can still use your Browser even if your not on line (on the Internet).
- An easy way to open your page with your browser would be to open your folder in the usual manner and then double click the page you just made. It should automaticly open in a browser window.
- Another way to open your browser, if you have Windows 95, is to hit the Start button and go to Programs. Go to your Browser. (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or whatever Browser you use) When the Browser is done loading use the file command at the top of it to open your folder. Double click the HTML file you just created.
See! It's no more than just a blank page right now, but look at the Title Bar! You're on your way! Now to put something in it!
! Let me explain a little bit about the HTML you used to create this page:
- Each of the < > that you put around the words are called "tags". You told the browser what language you are using when you typed the word <HTML>.
When you typed the word <HEAD>, you told the browser that's where the title bar for your page begins.
When you typed the word <TITLE>, you told the browser that was the beginning of the title to place in the title bar. You told the Browser that the title ended when you typed </TITLE>.
Then you typed </HEAD> which told the browser that was the end of the title bar.
Now you need to tell the browser that you are starting the body of the page. So tell it that you are beginning the body by typing <BODY>.
Now you can ramble on all you want about your favorite subject without using any tags. Type some information about yourself, talk about your hobby, talk about your dog, or your favorite music group, whatever you want. When you are done, type </BODY> and </HTML> to let the browser know that's the end of the page.
Now save your page and press refresh (reload) on your browser to see the results.
It probably looks a little plain to you right now, but that's ok. We're going to add some color to that page of yours!
Now you're ready to add some color to your page! Let's start by giving the background some color. Go back to where you typed <BODY> and change that code from <BODY> to
See! You are learning HTML!! It's not hard at all. You just told the browser that you are starting the body and you want the body to be a specific color.
How about adding some color to the text? Insert the code TEXT=#2F2F4F so that the body tag now reads
Save and press refresh.
Here is a complete list of color codes you can use:
To publish your pages on the web you need access to an FTP provider (FTP=File Transfer Protocol). Many sites offer free web space. Yahoo! Geocities, Home Stead, Freeservers, Angelfire, Tripod.... the list goes on. Before signing up for anything be sure to read the user agreements carefully and print any agreements and instructions provided. Save your username and password in a safe place. Most providers are very user friendly and easy to understand, with plenty of help forums available. I have web space with nearly all of the above providers, but my primary provider is Freeservers. I find them to be the least restricting, although not necessarily the easiest to use for beginners.
Once you have located your space, upload the pages you created, along with all the MID's, Pics, etc. that you want to have on them. Keep everything in one general area, rather than seperating them into seperate folders. Things get too complicated if everything gets seperated.
Making changes is easier than ever now. You already have a copy of your page in your folder on your computer, because that's where you created it. Now, just open it with your text editor, make your changes, save, view the changes you've made with your browser and if you like what you see, upload it to your space on the Internet. It will automaticly replace any previous versions of the page that you uploaded before.
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Created using WordPad by ~Marie
<BODY BGCOLOR="#E9C2A6">
Save your page and press refresh on your browser.
<BODY BGCOLOR="#E9C2A6" TEXT="#2F2F4F">
