Building an Internet Page

If you are interested in building a web site you have three things to consider:

1. Content, i.e. what will you put on the Web
2. Composition, i.e. how will you create it
3. Location, i.e. where will it reside

You are on your own with the first one, but we can make some comments on the other two.

Composition

• The “classical” (i.e. old fashioned) way of building a web page is using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). Unfortunately this is not easy to learn. If you do want to give it a shot, go to Google (www.google.com ) and do a search on learn html. You will find many sites with tutorials and learning aids.
• If you see a web page you like you can view the HTML that created it. In IE click on View and then Source, in Netscape click on View and then Page Source. You can save these pages and then open them with your text editor, you may have to tell it that you want to view the HTML, and then modify them to meet your requirements.
• If you want to buy one of the best web page builders, get Microsoft Front Page. This is what I use to develop and maintain our web site. It allows the page to be typed as if it were a simple document and allows you to see the HTML that is generated and a sample of what the page will look like. It has other tools that simplify such things as linking pages.
• There are other programs that will generate HTML for you, including some that are free. Do a Google search on HTML Builder.
• There are also sites that provide web page templates. Many are even free. You just customize them to meet your needs. Among these are:
• www.designs4sales.com
• www.elated.com
• www.freelayouts.com
• www.guistuff.com
• www.templatemonster.com
• www.webtemplatesonline.com
• This particular page was created using MS Word (I happen to have Word 2002). After typing the document I asked for it to be saved as a Web Page. I can click on View and then HTML Source to see what HTML is being created by Word.

Location

· The first place to look is to see if your ISP vendor supports Personal Web Pages. Most do and there is no additional charge. They will tell you how to sign up, and how to upload your Web page to their site. Mine, ATTBI, includes a Web Site Builder which I could have used to maintain this site. If your ISP does support personal web pages you will get an address something like mine http://home.attbi.com/~wolmo/ which includes your ISP.

· If your ISP does not support personal web pages you will need another alternative, two possibilities are http://geocities.yahoo.com/ (you will need a Yahoo user Id), and http://www.tripod.lycos.com/ (this one is not free).

· Jack Carver and I have both made a Geocities web page, just to show that we could. His is http://www.geocities.com/jackcarver/index.html and mine is http://www.geocities.com/wolmo1/sir128.html

If you do create a Web site let me know and I will share your success with the group. Good luck!