A REAL Beginner's Guide to
Designing a Web Site

BY MARK HASLETT

So you’ve managed to get on the World Wide Web and you feel good about your surfing skills. But now you want to produce a “home page” of your own and you haven’t the slightest idea where to start.

Start here. This article explains what you need and what you need to do. And what you need to do first .... is relax. Say to yourself: “My first home page on the Web will be an exercise, just to see how it’s done”. You will make a few mistakes, but so what? You’re a teacher; you know that making mistakes is how you learn. And remember this: no matter how many mistakes you make, there is absolutely no way you can destroy the Internet. (Or if you do, just don’t tell anybody.)

The Basics

When you visit a site on the World Wide Web, the first page of that site is called the “home page”. This home page is nothing more than a computer file (just like a word processing file) which has been put on a special computer attached to the Internet. This special computer is called the “server” because it “serves” out files.

The home page file includes formatting codes which specify type size, colour, image placement, possible linkages to other web pages as well as other attributes or activities. The codes are collectively known as HTML -HyperText Markup Language.

Once the file is created it is transfered from the the computer of the creator (you!) to the server. And voila! The home page is on the Web for millions of people to see. Any questions? Well, maybe a few such as... How do you create a file if you don’t know HTML? How do you find a server which will hold your Web page? How do you transfer the file from your computer to the server? All good questions; here are some good answers:

1. Creating the HTML File
In the “olden days” - maybe three or four years ago - HTML files were created by laboriously typing in each of the codes which would tell Web browsers (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) how to display the page or activate certain procedures. For example, to tell the browser that a certain line should be displayed in bold type you would have to surround the line with particular codes, like this: <B>This line will be displayed as bold type</B>. But that was <B>ORING, to say the least.

Today, most Web pages are produced with Web editors which are programs which take care of adding in the angle brackets and prompt you with lots of help when you want to do something, such as add a graphic. Word processing programs such as MS Word or WordPerfect both have sections in which you can create Web pages. Just click through the top menu until you see something like “Create Web Page” or “Internet Publisher”. Then scroll your mouse over the various icons or search the top menu to see what Web commands (such as font size) are available to you. Study the help section for tips. Dust off the manual. Have fun.

If you find that creating a Web page with a word processor is confusing (which many people do because word processors are word processors not Web editors), then do this: get yourself a copy of Netscape Communicator. (Careful here, there are two versions of Netscape: Netscape Communicator and Netscape Navigator. You want Netscape Communicator). The Communicator version of Netscape includes a program called 'Composer' which is an easy to use Web page editor. ...continued on next page.

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