OR
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT HTML
IF YOU TAKE TIME TO SEARCH FOR IT!
The following information is a compiled list of information, guides, etc to assist you
in creating your own web page. It is not a step by step tutorial on how to create your
page. Other people have done that, probably a lot better than I could. Except for a few
thoughts of mine at the beginning, "everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask"
should be here. First a small "editorial", then a list of pages with extensive links
divided into categories to make it easier to "surf".
The following are my personal opinions and won't necessarily agree with anyone else,
but it is my page, so there.
AN EDITORIAL
For those of you who don't think you can create your own web page, think again.
Everything you need to know is right here on the web. Granted, you may not find
the perfect custom background or graphic you want, but with all there is to search
through, if you don't, you probably will never be happy.
If you have never experimented with writing code then you may want to begin with
one of the commercial editors that can be purchased at your favorite software
store. When I started creating my pages, I used the WordPerfect Internet
Publisher, which was an add on to WordPerfect 6x. It comes included with the newer
releases of WordPerfect. This program
created a decent basic page with text, graphics, hyper links etc, but as I surfed
the web, I found that as good and easy to use as it was, there were many things
I couldn't get it to do, so I started "hand" coding my pages. To my astonishment,
I found that if you can use a text editor, and follow basic instructions, "hand
coding" your own page is really pretty easy (and a lot cheaper than buying one
of those expensive commercial editors). You can go out and buy a book or two,
but most of them will not have any more information than what is available on
the web for free. I'll admit, early on, I bought one book,.
In spite of the name, it is very well written and I highly recommend it for beginners.
You can find out more about it by visiting their web site.
Later I will give you a list of other sites which are full of information and examples.
1. As a minimum, install Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. These browsers
probably make up 95% of the browsers that will be viewing your site. You must check what you
have written on both browsers. I guarantee that your page will not look quite like you thought
it would, and on top of that, it will look a little different on each browser you use. You will
find that you will have to "give and take" a little to tune up your page so it will look good on
all browsers. If you write for only one browser, you risk losing visitors to your site due to
problems encountered trying to view the pages.
2. Make sure you create your page using a monitor set at a resolution of 640 x 480 (This is
experience speaking now). Normally my monitor is set at 1024 x 768 which lets me get a lot more
on the screen. The catch is that anything I created that looked good on my monitor, scrolled off
the screen, word wrapped in funny places, and generally was a jumbled mess on most other monitors.
The first thing that needs to be done is an outline or list of what you want to accomplish with your
page. Then I recommend reading
"A Beginners Guide To HTML." In fact, you will probably want to print
off your own copy of this Guide to make referring back to it easier. The next and maybe most important
thing to do is to learn from others. "Surf" around till you find someone's page you like, then "view the
source". Your browser will have a way to view the source code on any page you have loaded in your browser
window. Look at the source and see how it's done. This is one of the quickest ways to find answers to
your questions.
The following lists are links where you can find icons, buttons, bars, backgrounds, graphics, and most important,
instructions.
Just because it is on the web and easy to download doesn't mean it isn't copyrighted material!
Copyright laws apply to the web just as they do to all other forms of media. Most graphics sites
will let you use their graphics on your own pages, but check the fine print. The "owners" of those
sites may require a simple "credit" or link to their page in return for the use of their graphics.
A good place to find out about these things is the
"Trademarks and Copyrights Frequently Asked Questions" page.