Sites for Budding Beginners
So you want to put up a web page? As a relative newcomer myself
to the magical world of web sites - I only went online in July
of '99, and I didn't even know how to send emails - I have
picked up many valuable tips from the Jaydee newsletter. Most of
the articles though are directed towards the pro and semi pro,
but what about the budding beginner? Before you can get to
appreciating the finer points of the Jaydee feature articles on
web site design and promotion etcetera, you have to get that
page up, and where do you start? The following is a basic step
by step for the beginner that will help get them onto the main
road of web site construction.
To start: First, set up a file, and keep everything that is
going to be related to your page/site together in this file.
Then open a blank web page on your browser. If you were in
Netscape, you would do this through COMPOSER. When you have a
page opened and saved, insert an image, any image, just for the
sake of this example.
To do this, you go to INSERT, choose your image from the menu,
and click it into your page. Then (if in COMPOSER) go to FORMAT
and choose PAGE COLORS AND PROPERTIES, and pick a color for your
page background. Then place a button at the bottom of your page.
Buttons are used to link your pages.
Repeat this process again, and create a second page with a
button. Choose LINK on the main menu, and link your first page
to the second. Now go back to the first page, and link the
button there to your second page. Then link the button on your
second page, back to the first. Now test out your links in the
preview mode on your browser. If the links work okay, then
you're ready to upload these example pages to your site.
To upload pages to your site space, you will need and FTP
engine. FTP, means File Transfer Protocol. An FTP engine, is a
software device which enables you to transfer your pages (files)
from your hard drive to your site. The most recommended FTP
engine for beginners, is the WS-FTP PRO 6.5. Here is how you can
get one.
Go into a site called Tucows at , where
you'll find almost everything under the sun that any computer
buff could want. When you get into Tucows, in the first screen,
click on Win 95/98, or Mac, whatever your system is. In the
second screen, click on your region, general; and in the third
screen, on your region local. This will take you to the fourth
screen where you find the box: NETWORK TOOLS, and here you click
on FTP ARCHIE. This will take you into the final screen, where
you will scroll down to the very last item on the page: which is
the WS-FTP PRO 6.5, and download it. This may take about fifteen
minutes. After down loading, you will find two little yellow
icons on your desktop.
Double click on the top one, the FTP-pro, not the FTP-explorer.
When you open the FTP engine, fill in the boxes with your server
address, your user name and password, and then click on QUICK
CONNECT. This will bring up a split screen. What is on the left
side of the screen, is what is on your hard drive, and what is
on the right screen, is what is on your site.
To upload, in the left hand box, choose your web page file in
whatever drive it's in, click and open it. You will see the two
entries for the web pages you have just designed. Hi-light the
first one, and then in the middle of the two screens, where you
see two arrows, one pointing left and one pointing right, click
on the one pointing right and this will upload your page to your
site. Follow through the same way for the second page, and your
site is up!
This is a very, very basic step by step, and there is a whole
lot more to learn, but I know that I would have liked to read
something like this when I was starting out back in July. Good
luck!