Starting your own Website

Want your own website? Splendid. Go for it. It is fun and a challenge, and may even bring you attention, praise, kudos ... or even increased business. All the programs mentioned are listed in the Resource page    1. Which Browser I will assume that you have Netscape and/or Internet Explorer installed, and that you are signed up with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). It is very easy to download the latest version of NS and IE browsers. Just click the boxes that appear on many, many sites and choose the version for Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 that you need. Netscape v4.5 is good. You probably do not want the Communicator version. Internet Explorer v5 is good; load it up. But the active desktop option seems to have a few bugs, you can enjoy the other bits. If you are serious about this, you should have both, and check your work on both before you publish. Which is best? Each has its enthusiasts and they both have their snags. (I use Netscape most of the time....)    2. Lets be Professional You need an objective. Decide what you want to achieve. Your choice could be one or more of the following: For fun As an Ego Trip As a directory, or a store for resources Promote our enthusiasms, wave the flag Company advertising Customer Support help line An integral part of the product you are selling Selling Products - electronic mail-order Prestige Advertising When you have chosen your objective, how will you know whether you have been successful. Measurement is important. At the start you should keep it simple. You should do as little as your objective will allow. Once the site is up-loaded and available for others to see, then you can add more bells and whistles as you master them. Detailed discussion of Website Objectives      3. Browse First, Create Second Look around the Internet and see which sites impress you. What is the image you want to project. When you have seen some sites that you like, choose the simplest one and download it to your hard disk for closer examination Save the Text using File: Save-As Save the images by Right-Click on the image and select Save-As Backgrounds, in IE Right-Click and Save Background. In NS select View: Document Info, click the entry for background to display it, then Right-Click in the image The only good news about this tedious business is that once you have set up the path to the directory into which you want the pages and images to go, it stays set for that directory. Having downloaded it, check out the HTML code that creates each page using WordPad, or whatever text reader you have. HTML is all quite logical, and you should start to understand what it is about. Do not just use the code you have downloaded. The code belongs to the author and has the author's copyright. But learn from the author's work how to do it. Images for your website are freely available from many sources, not least on this site under Buttons and Arrows You use the same technique as above: right-click on the image you want and say what name and where you want to store it. There is a list of other sources of images in the Resource page.    4. Instant Start using Homepage Wizard Many authoring tools have a website creation wizard. For Compuserve users there there is an instant Homepage tool called HP Wizard. In Compuserve GO HPWIZ. Even a beginner can produce an impressive page in a few minutes. Then you can upload it to your Compuserve free webspace using HPPub which is bundled with the HPWiz package. Note that websites on Ourworld cannot handle domain names or CGI. HPPub cannot handle sub-directories. You can use whatever tool you like to author your pages, and then upload them to Compuserve using HPPub as above, or Webpost which handles long names and subdirectories. You want Webpost 1.1 for Compuserve, not 1.5: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/webpost/ If you have altered the pages with another tool you cannot go back to the original Wizard. When you have grown out of HPWiz, junk the site that you have produced and start over properly.

5. Web Authoring Tools All these programs are listed in the Resource page   Writing HTML Code You can write HTML in any way you like. When you have checked out how it looks in your browser, upload it using HP Pub or Webpost if you are on Compuserve Ourworld, or an FTP programme on any other ISP. FTP File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used to upload files to your website on servers other than Ourworld which uses another method. And is useful to download material from other sites.The best FTP program is probably CuteFTP from http://www.cuteFTP.com/ but WS-FTP is almost as good. Author Packages At the primitive end you can use Notepad or WordPad, whatever your operating system comes with. Or you can use WordPerfect, or Word, and there is probably a program for doing a basic formatting to HTML. Always save it as a text file. If you can spend a little money there are several good author programs, most of which are available on a months free evaluation. For a full analysis of the popular programs Compuserve users can GO INETPUB Library 6 and search for HTMLTOOL.RPT I recommend Homesite from http://www.allaire.com/ It does require that you learn some HTML code but I believe this is one of the skills you do need to create web pages. It comes with a copy of the HTML Library help system, a validator and a link checker. http://hshelp.com/ - The Homesite help pages are run by Marjolein Katsma based in Amsterdam, who has dedicated a lot of time to understanding and improving this excellent package. WYSIWYG authoring http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage is relatively expensive but provides a way of dragging and dropping text and images into the page. WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get. The snag comes if you change your mind and try and dig into the code to sort out it out. I do not like them for this reason. http://www.fpnow.com/help/ourworld/ - contains a list of run-time bots that do not work if your site is hosted on Ourworld, or any other ISP that does not support Frontpage. If you would like a WYSIWYG editor for free, (bearing in mind I do not recommend WYSIWYG), try http://www.aolpress.com/ Frontpage Express is an optional free download when your install Internet Explorer. It is simple to use, is not confused with the many features in FrontPage itself, and a good starter. There many others. Graphics If you are getting into graphics instead of just inheriting .GIF images from other sources, you are going to need a graphics package like Paint Shop Pro from http://www.jasc.com/ Using a scanner will be a skill which you will eventually need. For advice on this the definitive site is http://www.scantips.com/    6. Read Magazines and Books (UK surfers) Internet, from EMap is at: http://www.internet-magazine.com/ There are many many others; you will choose the one whose editorial style matches the music of your soul; or has a CD-ROM with programs you need. There is a wide choice of books in your local bookshop. Or order off the Internet. I have a list of Internet bookshops in the Writing Theme section. Do not buy too many thick expensive ones because they all go out of date very quickly. My choice? Raggett on HTML 4 Teach yourself Web Publishing with HTML in 14 days by Laura Lemay published by SAMS ISBN 0-7897-0965-1 HTML: The definitive guide, 3rd edition HTML Quick Reference by Robert Mullen published by QUE ISBN 0-7897-0867-1. Instant HTML by Steve Wright published by Wrox Press Ltd Creating Killer Websites by David Siegal ISBN 1-56830-289-4, also obtainable direct from http://killersites.com David Siegal has achieved cult status in the Internet website creation business. But even Siegal has drifted away from some of his thoughts in this book. Cascading Style Sheets, by Lie and Bos For advanced users who want to use the very latest design techniques.    7. On-Line Help and Reference The Internet Publishing Forum on http://go.compuserve.com/inetpub is invaluable for any newbee. Browse the messages for a few days. If you are on Compuserve then GO INETPUB Or for a basic Internet course GO ICOLLEGE with reference material in GO INETWC. There is a lot of good advice freely offered. Also in Compuserve GO INETPUB and look in Library 11 Webpub 101 for a ten lesson course on how to create pages. When you have made a start and have a problem, INETPUB can sort you out. Some good sources of knowledge and guidance are: http://www.pagetutor.com/index.html which I have not tried but was recommended to me. HTML Reference Library Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Stephen Le Hunte's HTML Reference Library Ver. 3.0, located in the INETPUB forum library section 4, HTML Language. Or you can get the same material on http://www.digitaldaze.com/web/htmlib The HTML Reference Library comes in three flavors: HTMLIB30.ZIP - Win 3.x Help file HLIB953F.ZIP - Win95 Help file, including VB4 support files HLIB953L.ZIP - Win95 Help file, excluding VB4 support files If you are running Win95 and have VB4 installed then get the third file listed rather than the second. HTML 3.2 Reference (Wilbur) help file The Web Design Group's HTML 3.2 Reference (Wilbur) help file is intended to provide a quick overview of all HTML 3.2 elements, their attributes and brief descriptions. Surf to: http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/ The help file includes: Introduction to HTML 3.2 Structure of an HTML document Overview of all HTML 3.2 elements Alphabetical listing of all tags Glossary of terms Each element has full annotations regarding appearance, attributes, permitted contents, and a list of elements in which it may be used. All elements are fully hyperlinked to allow for quick and easy navigation from one element to another, and a searchable index and table of contents are only a click away. The file is available for Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and a Mac version is currently in the works. The WDG encourages suggestions and requests from end users in regards to the content of the help file, or additions they would like to see implemented. There are a number of others. Try: http://www.weballey.net/index.html http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerAll.html

8. Keep it Simple A general warning. It is a challenge even to get a very simple website with just your name on it up and visible on the web. Do this first and then add to it. If you try and make all sorts of complex things work at the same time it will almost certainly contain an error and you will have all sorts of problems figuring out which part is not working.    9. Or you can get me to do it for you I shall be please to work with you to create your first couple of pages. Then you can take it over and carry on from there.