The words in
blue
can be found in the Web Page Glossary
below.
Writing your page
To make a web page, you can use one of the page builders that your web
community offers, like Personal Publisher from AOL (click on "my AOL" to get
there).
Geocities
,
Xoom
,
Tripod
, and all the rest have a section (after you sign up) called
Page Builder
or something similar.
But if you really want to be in charge of your page, you need to know HTML.
Without it, your page has to follow the
template
. In other words, you can't put the words and pictures where
you
want them. You can only make minimal changes to the
font
, the color of your
text
, and your background. You certainly couldn't have anything moving, wiggling,
or zooming. And no fill-out forms, music, or other fun stuff.
Once you learn HTML, you'll wonder how you ever made a web page without it!
STEP 1:
What is HTML?
STEP 2:
How do I write HTML?
STEP 3:
Where do I write the HTML down?
STEP 4:
How do I change the colors?
STEP 5:
How do I add pictures?
STEP 6:
How do I get the stuff to go where I want it? TablesFrames
STEP 7:
How do I make links?
Publishing Your Page
Now you have your page ready to go. How do you get your pride and joy to appear
on the WWW? And how do you find your page once you get there? Read on...
STEP 1:
Know your URL
STEP 2:
Publishing within a web community
STEP 3:
Using FTP
STEP 4:
Finishing Touches Web Page Glossary
HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language is a programming language ( also called
code
) that computer programmers use to tell the computer what to do. Hypertext is a
link
. There are many computer languages, and each serves certain purposes. HTML
happens to be the best language for writing web pages, because it knows how to
do
links
, certain types of formatting, and changes in color. HTML also allows other
languages to be used within the same web page.
FONT
The design and shape of the
text
(letters) you use.
LINKS
The words (or pictures) in the page that take you to other pages when you click
on them. You can tell a link because your cursor will change from a little
arrow to a little hand when it passes over the link. Not all links are
underlined text..nowadays a link could be anything. So use the "little hand"
method and you can't go wrong!
URL Stands for "Uniform Resource Locator."
This is your web address. It is a
path
that the computer follows in order to reach your page. Your URL looks
something like this:
"http://
is telling the computer that you want to go somewhere.
www
means you want to go somewhere on the world wide web.
tripod
means you want to go to the tripod web community in the www.
.com
is the type of site that tripod is, (commercial) and helps pinpoint its
location.
members
means the page you seek is in the tripod
members
area.
(further pinpointing the page's location)
vividpages
is the tripod member's name
(further pinpointing the page's location)
vividpages.html
is the name of the page you created using html.
(You saved it as an html file called
vividpages
)
//, .
and
"
are marks that separate the different parts of the address (URL.) If they are
not in place, the computer will not know (for example,) when to stop looking in
tripod's
main
page and start looking in tripod's
member
page.
If the URL is not typed in
exactly right
, the computer won't be able to find your page. Unfortunately, URLs can get
extremely long.
One final note:
(I know! This is awfully long!)
Most URLs can be typed in either upper- or lower case letters; the computer
doesn't care (upper case = capital letters.) But some are picky, and must be
typed in
exactly
as you see them, or they won't work. If this is the case, there will usually be
a warning somewhere nearby that the URL is
case sensitive
.
FTP
Stands for "File Transfer Protocol." A program that tells the computer to take
files from one location and transfer them to another location. Used to take
your html and image files (image=picture) and send them over the wires to the
spot in your web community that you were assigned.
PATH
Just as it sounds. Directions through cyberspace to a certain web page.
TEMPLATE
A pre-made web page (like a stencil) for people who cannot write their own
code. You choose from different colors, pictures and fonts, and the page
building program plugs your choices in. Viola! your web page is built, but it
looks just like hundreds of others.
CASE SENSITIVE
Means that the URL or password
must
be typed in exactly as it was the very first time. If your password is
VIVIDpages, you can't type in vividpages...it won't work! To avoid problems
most people just type everything in lower-case.
TEXT
I know, you probably already know this, but text is the
words
on your page.
Disclaimer: I'm still learning, and all I know is what works for me...some of
this may not be exactly perfect. So if there's an error, email me and I'll fix
it :)
