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Ok so you've been surfing a while you have seen numerous web sites with information
on all subjects imaginable but you cant find what you're looking for.
Ok you have two choices either give up or build a site and let the
world know all about your chosen subject. Within this guide I will
try to show you how to get up and running with your own basic site,
you will need a few things to achieve this but mostly an awfully large
amount of patience. My first site was compiled
with a copy of word 97. Which is packaged with most versions of windows
98. All instructions within this guide are relevant for word. Most
of them can be used with other programmes such as Microsoft FrontPage
Express or similar. Again FrontPage is packaged with most windows
versions if not you can get a copy from the Microsoft download site
for free. Once you have produced your
first pages you will need to get them online for this you will need
a programme, which is capable of sending your files to the server.
This is called an ftp programme(File Transfer Protocol). The Programme
I use is called Acexftp it is very easy to use and works on the drag
and drop theory and does most of the work for you. I will provide links for you to gain free copies of any relevant programmes later in this document. Please bear in mind, to make sure you are comfortable with the basic set up of a page before you start downloading any of the ftp programmes. As this just confuses the issue and gets you muddled.
To get started you need to get used to working with word the easiest way to learn is practice, practice, practice, and don't be bothered if you make mistakes, I made about three million to begin with and still do the odd dozen or so an hour. The first thing you need to do is create a file directory for your site. The
easiest way to do this is right click your desktop and create a new
folder and rename it. I called mine WWW but you could call yours anything
you wish such as MY SITE etc. You will have to decide what you want to place on the page the best way is to sit down and write down a few ideas i.e. page title, colours, music etc etc. Once you have an idea of the way you want it to look like go for it. You now have two choices with word you can use some ready made templates or you can start your own page from scratch the easiest is to use a template.
Open word, click file, new, Web pages, Web page wizard, now choose the look and style you want, it will give you a preview of what ever you pick. Click the ones you want and your ready to begin, to make life easy these templates come with a set of backgrounds and all you need to do is change the text and insert some hyper links. Click ok when you have decided then go to view, Toolbars you have a few choices here but I generally have standard, formatting, Database and tables and borders checked. These are the ones I use the most. Click the area of text you want to change and insert your own. To select a style click the downward arrow on the left of where it says Arial. To increase your text size click the large capital A, to decrease use the other A. next to this is a B I U highlight some text then click these watch what happens to the text. The other buttons do lots of different things like I said click a few see what happens this is the best way to improve your understanding.
A hyperlink will send the person to a page or site you choose. So if for instance you want to send them to another page in your site such as the about yourself page (when you have created it) type "about me" or whatever you think best describes the page. This is just the text your viewers see at this point. You now need to make the link. When you have typed the text select it, right click it and select hyperlink, edit, in the window that appears you can type the address of the site you want to connect to. So for instance to create a hyperlink to connect to this site we would, right click the hyperlink text, edit hyperlink, then type. Http://www.oocities.org/stonedman_uk. To connect to one of your own pages in your WWW file, Click browse then find your file on the desktop, you will need to have designed a few pages before you can use it.
When you have changed all the text and it looks the way you want you need to save the document. Click file, save as, (Your first page should always be called index.html. Please bear in mind when naming pages that they should always be in lower case and with no spaces. You won’t believe the fun I had originally having to rename my pages then my links etc etc.) When the dialogue box appears you need to save the document as an html format and also choose where you want to save it. This should be your WWW file on your desktop that you created earlier. Please note when you save it you will notice that it also saves your background pictures but they don't go into your pics file so you need to drag them into that file.
Then you need to go back
to word and tell your page that the pic has been moved. The way to
do this is as follows; click view, Html source; word will convert
your page to Html. This is the hard way of producing web pages but
all you are going to do is tell it that you have moved your pics,
you are going to look for a line that looks like this it is very close
to the top <BODY TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000ff" VLINK="#800080" BACKGROUND="Image2.jpg"> You need to change it so
that it looks like this <BODY TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000ff" VLINK="#800080" BACKGROUND="pics/Image2.jpg"> So all you are adding is
four characters pics/ you then need to exit the html source by clicking
the top left of the screen "exit html source" it will ask
you if you want to save do so. What you have just done is tell it
where to find that picture. It may seem like a lot of messing about
but when you become proficient you will appreciate the time spent
sorting out your pics from sounds from pages etc The procedure is the same
for any sound files. Again if you notice, when you save a page with
a sound in it, word saves it with the page in your WWW file. Again
you need to move it to your sound folder and then repeat the above
procedure changing your html source and finding the background sound
putting sounds/ or tunes/ depending what you called it before the
sounds name i.e. you will look for a line similar to this <BGSOUND SRC="ace_of_base_beautiful_life.mid"> And change it to this <BGSOUND SRC="tunes/ace_of_base_beautiful_life.mid"> Always remember to save
your work often. Now your first page is complete you can design a
few others. Why not tell people where you are from or about yourself.
Lets say you are going to make a page that's called "aboutme"
and you have it completed and saved in your WWW folder and carried
out the relevant picture saves as above for the new page. Now you
want people to find it, this is where your hyperlinks come into play.
When you have used a template the hyperlink appears as a blue
text area like this. Click the centre and right click,
select hyperlink click browse and point it to your WWW folder then
click the page you wish it to link to ice, in this case "aboutme.html"
then click ok you have just told the link where to find your "aboutme"
page. You are now able to create pages. When you have enough pages ready and you want to show the world you need to use a file transfer protocol program.
Most FTP Programs are really easy to use. I use AcexFTP to get your copy free
follow the link below. It comes with a very easy to use help feature
and is very easy to learn. To transfer files to the Internet you will need an Internet service provider that provides you with free web Space. I use Geocities but most servers provide some space. Go to your chosen providers help section on web space building it will tell you if you need an FTP Program or if they have an FTP facility and learn there procedure for publishing to the web.
I wish you luck and remember if you need some help email me
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