Beginners Web Site
In addition to this site hosted by http://www.streamlinenet.co.uk/ I
manage a free space site at http://www.g4cus.freeserve.co.uk/ My site also contains pages of weekly amusing
contributions at http://www.sigord.co.uk/Artistry.htm Perhaps the younger Internet Enthusiasts will
bear with me if they do not embody all the latest gimmickry of more
sophisticated sites. Nevertheless for those contemplating building a Site for
the first time, for what it is worth, here are few tips.
Do not be deterred into thinking creating web pages for your
own site or for another site. It is not all very complicated providing you keep
it fairly simple at least at first. Remember the important element in creating
a site is in the content, not the gimmickry trying to impress visitors. If you
are capable of creating a DOC file using Word especially including say photos,
then you must be capable of producing a web page, since you can see all you
need to do is ensure you save the result as a HTM or HTML Web page. Note how
the more elaborate and complicated a site involving a great deal of Graphic,
sounds, Java and Applets etc, take a great deal longer to load than the simpler
sites, perhaps containing say only text. This especially applies if you are
using a slow broadband or dialup connection. How often when surfing, have you
abandoned downloading a site, because of the time taken. First decide what it
you want to tell the big wide Internet world; if you cannot think of anything,
do not bother to produce a web site. There is enough rubbish on the Internet
already without cluttering it up with more! For a few ideas, if you are really
at a loss, and you have a family and children, and friends etc using the
Internet, then just put a number of photos up for them to view/download. If you
have a hobby, pass on your hints and ideas for others to see, as I have done here.
There is nice Free software for creating web pages etc at http://kompozer.net/
but you need
to go online to use the Help notes.
Before rushing into buying Web space along with probably
buying a personal Domain Name, or setting up free space perhaps allocated to
you by your server, try creating a web page or two on your PC. This especially
applies to the opening page, which should always saved as an index.htm
to ensure the server hosting your pages etc allows visitors to log onto
it as your Homepage. You do not need to
learn the HTML Code, there is plenty of software available enabling you to
create pages, such as Microsoft Office containing Word or Front Page. You can
also create fairly simple web pages using any ASCII software such as Notepad,
once you learn the elements of HTML code, and your code will be far simpler
that that produced my MS Word or FrontPage etc, There is also numerous
Shareware etc available. The problem is that some of these programs are not WYSIWYG
- what you see on the screen is not necessarily what will appear on the web
such as Word. Many do give you the option of feeding the page into your default
browser to see the true layout. Otherwise you will need to open each completed
page to see how it displays on you default browser. Some like FrontPage also
allows FTP transfer of your efforts onto your web space. I prefer to use a
Freeware FTP manager like WS_FTP to upload to this site, as it clearly shows
the directory on the hard drive holding the files on the left, and the files on
the web site on the right.
Study how the professional designers create sites, though
you do not have to abide by their popular trends of course. For example you
will notice in designing my sites I try to take account of visitors like me
with poor eyesight. So I avoid using print on dark backgrounds and print
smaller than 10 TPI. Also I am not in favour of using numerous menu boxes, and
avoid the need for visitors to rush around the screen to activate different
options. Likewise I try to avoid presenting too much information on one page or
a box, and the need to keep scrolling down. In viewing other sites and the
contributions on my site, you will see you can insert Graphics, Sounds,
Animations, Videos, presentations etc, and also install links to additional
pages, other web sites, email addresses etc. Also you can allow visitors to
your Site to download any kind of file onto their hard disk as a ZIP file. Take
care to check all links work on your hard drive before you upload to the site,
and check again online after uploading . Something we all find annoying is a
website displaying the message 'UNDER CONSTRUCTION'. If it is being amended, we
have unlimited time to reconstruct a site while offline. Beware the Internet is
not as lawless as some would believe. You can be prosecuted for what you print,
and for using such things as Videos, Photos and MP3 Music subject to copyright
without permission. There seems to be no
copyright restriction on using any of the million or so MID music files
available. You are also strongly advised to install and run reliable ant virus
and spyware software and run checks regularly, and quote this fact on your
site.
When you have finished building your Web site at least for
the time being, you will of course need to find someone willing to provide you
with Web Space. Some servers allow Free Space, so long as you are a subscriber.
You can also buy annual space and a personal Domain Name such as Streamlinenet.
Be very careful NOT to choose a descriptive name someone else might wish to
use, especially if they find your site is receiving numerous visitors. Remember
you need to pay for the Domain Name forever to prevent someone else using it,
even so others can buy the same name with a different extension such as ORG,
CO, COM, NET etc, etc. Many web site
hosts provide help in getting your site mentioned on the popular search engines
such as Google and Yahoo, but you often need to pay handsomely if you want it
to be given high priority on their listing, if others have a similar name. So
try to give your site a very individual title, and remember the title and a
following simple description is more important to a search engine, than the
name of the site. In fact you can insert
Good Luck. Gordon
HOMEPAGE