Your Page

Well people.. now is the time of truth. This is where everything you've learned, finally gets pulled together. Will it work? Let's find out. As you've figured out by now, there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes in doing a web page.. the HTML is a large portion of it.. and you know what? the results is what is easily seen to the naked eye.. it's what's not seen that is and can be tricky.. This page here will show you the very last things you need to know to put together a page.. from top.. to bottom.. and a few little tricks in between. What you put in that middle area.. is up to you.

Let's start with some of the REALLY invisible stuff:

<HTML> this tells your browser that you are creating an HTML document

<head> now we're staring the invisible stuff

<title> this is the TITLE of your page *no HTML allowed in here*.. look up at the VERY top of your browser.. see how it says "Finished Product"? that is the title of this page

</title> the title is ending

</head> we're ending some of the invisible stuff

Everything that is listed above.. MUST be there in order for a page to even appear on the internet... sure.. maybe you forget to put a title in it'll work.. but you have to have the rest in there.. or your page will be totally invisible.

Let's move onto the very next thing that you need here

<body>
Simple enough that is telling the browser that the body of the document is gonna start.. but.. Hmmmmmmm.. you know what? that one little tag, <body> can make.. or break a page.. here's why....................... There's a few other elements to it such as this:

WHOA! She did it to us again! went and made things complicated! YUP.. sorry.. it had to be done.. but most importantly.. here's what it all means!

background .... this is the image that you want to use as a background wall paper type of thing.
text ...... this is the color that you want the majority of your text to appear in.
bgcolor ... this is, in essance, a background color.
link ... this is the color that you want your links to appear
vlink .. this is the color that you want visited links to appear

Yup.. right back to colors again.. use this color chart .. it's a good one!

Ok.. here's a little lecture.. now you don't have to read it.. but I highly advise that you do!

One of the most imporant reasons.. for predetermining all document color in your body tags.. is this.. if you don't.. then your page .. that you have worked so incredibly hard on.. will not appear as you think it will. The links.. will turn into the default colors that a person has their browser set for... which.. if your background image *wallpaper* happens to match it .. no one is gonna be able to find your links easily.
Text is the same way .. Someone may have their settings, for text,set on white, for example.. your page will be invisible.
Bgcolor.. this is the one that very few people think about.. they figure.. "Hey! I've got a background up.. I don't need any bgcolor"............. WRONG! Without the you predetermining the bgcolor on your document.. you are setting yourself up for a big surprise.. that you will never know about. Here's why... that 'bgcolor' is what you see loading while you're waiting for the background to even load... ok.. that was simple enough.. but I know you're still sitting there going.. "so what?" If you don't say what color people are going to be seeing.. then it's left up to the individual viewer's computer.. not the browser.. but the computer. If their desktop theme consists of a purple background color.. then whoa! they're watching YOUR page load with a purple bgcolor.. hmmmm.. could be scary.. there's lots of colors out there.. and everyone has their computer set up differently... *think about it*.

Ok.. done with lecture.. now the rest of the pages.. after all the *body* stuff.. is what you get to play in.. consider it a playground! One would hope you have some sort of beginning to your page.. such as a

Bob's Homepage

Images work just as nicely ... Let's see.. what else can we do.. tell us a bit about yourself! You hobbies! What you're studying in school! What you do for a living! About your animals! About your family! ANYTHING WORKS!!!! This is where all your imagination can come out. Create something that people will want to bookmark, to come back too. Have links! Those are fun! but PLEASE... give people a reason to push that link.. I don't push 'em just because they're there.. I want to be tempted and enticed into it.. and so do lots of other people.

You want a midi on your page? A good spot to put it would be right after the <body> elements.. Midi's are generally pretty large loading.. so it will start loading right away.. unless you have another idea of where you'd like to put it..

Use all the HTML resources available to you.. this will create a page that loads within a reasonable time frame.. do NOT create one REALLY long page.. break it up into different page sections.. that allows you more freedom at what you can put on each page.. without clashing themes.. colors.. images.. etc.. Here at Geocities you're allowed 3MB of free disk space.. USE IT!.. it's fun!

Ok.. we're onto the final parts now .. Let's say your page is almost done.. some of the things you want to keep in mind..

Give people a way to get hold of you.. and tell you about your page..
- through the use of a guestbook
- through the use of a 'mailto' link
If you have more than one page ...
- ALWAYS use a "return to home" link
- ALWAYS use links that follow directly to the next page
- This allows for people to easily surf your pages
Counters are not always necessary .. it's an individual taste thing.

One little note here on all of this that I should add in .. animated gifs are wonderful.. they add movement to a page... and some pages.. especially ones that have midis on them.. cry for movement.. but do NOT overdo them. They can make pages hard loading.

Ok... we're ready to wrap this up...
</body>.. We're gonna tell the browser that the body of the document is done
</HTML>.. We've totally stopped.. the page is complete..

Those are the last two things that go onto your page.. and it's ready for upload onto any server that you want.

If you thought I was gonna tell you all MY secrets to putting together a page.. nope.. I just showed you all the basics of what you need to know to put it together.. Half the fun is in the learning.....

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