Before you start, you should look at other home pages to get an idea of what you want yours to look like, and what you want to put in it. Try not to bite off too much initially. Instead, get it started, and then edit it as often as you want. Keep in mind what kind of background you want, what you want the title of your page to be, font types, which pictures, counter, etc?
The links I have provided in the Home Page Help section of Barkley's Home Page will explain the structuring of HTML, and the use of "Tags" and "Attributes".
See how other home pages are constructed using the "View Document Source" feature in Netscape, or "View Source" in Internet Explorer for example. The more you learn from other pages, the better you will be able to make yours look.
When you're ready, go to Web Wizard and make the initial start to your page. This is a very simple application to use, but it does get you started properly, so you don't have anything to worry about. If you are using Windows 95, name your page: homepage.html, otherwise name it: homepage.htm. I would hold off on using pictures until you are more confident.
Now that you have a beginning, you can load this 'new' page into Hot
Dog, and add some pizazz to your page. Note the differences that are
made each time you change something. Basically, a simple home page looks
like this:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Your Home Page Title </TITLE>.....As viewed in a Bookmark
</HEAD>
<BODY>........................................................Start
of the viewable part of your Home Page
<H1> Your Home Page Header </H1>...........As viewed in a Browser
"Your Home Page Text - 1st Paragraph"
<HR>..............................................................Makes
a horizontal line to separate sections of text
"Some More Text - 2nd Paragraph"
</BODY>
</HTML>
These are some additional tags that were used in my home page:
Don't forget to end the applicable text with a slash in the end tag
(ie </STRONG>).
These tags don't need end tags:
Now you're ready for HYPERTEXT! Here's a good example of what
can be done:
If we were to write: Welcome to <A HREF="http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/babbage/">Babbages Guide</A> to the World Wide Web, the result would be:
Welcome to Babbages Guide to the World Wide Web
where the text in quotes is the actual URL of the site, and the text between <A......> and </A> is what ends up being the interactive link to the URL site, and will be the link default color (Blue), unless you make it different in your browser. This is what is meant by the term "HYPERTEXT". Text either before the <A> or after the </A> will be plain text. Don't forget to use spaces where appropriate.
What about getting from one of your pages to another? "My son Craig's First Home Page" is a good example. Note that I only needed to type the directories after the server: My son Craig's <A HREF="airline.html">First Home Page</A>, where the text in quotes is just the name of the page.
Wondering how you can zip from one part of your page to another? This is a little more work, but still simple. First you have to put a marker where you want the speedlink to go to on the page, like: <A NAME="Here"></A>, where "Here" is the 'nickname' you give the section of the page. Then type <A HREF="#Top">Return to Here</A>, and you will have a Hypertext Link that will take you to the beginning of that section!
Can an image be Hypered as well? Yes - in two ways. An image can be made downloadable, or it can also be used like text to get you to another place.
ALWAYS test your home page in your browser before you "publish" it on the Web, by using the 'Open File' option under File in your browser. You will normaly have to minimize your TCP first.
Finally, when you're ready to publish your home page, you will have to FTP the files and any pictures to your allocated space at your server, and rename your home page to index.html. You will need to check with your server for the maximum size allowed for home page files. Most servers allow 5Mb, which is more than ample.
Now that you have a home page online, you will want people to know about it. How do you do that? E-mail your friends first, and then use Submit-It located in the Home Page Help section of Barkley's Home Page.
If you find this page helpful, I would appreciate your feedback, as well as the URL for your 'new' home page, so I can check it out!
