SiteRightNow - Instant Websites!

This page explains everything that is needed for anyone wanting to create their own web page.
Below this paragraph is the table of contents. Click on any of the content subjects and it will take
you to that section of the guide. To return to the table of contents at any time, click the "Return to
Index" link in the frame on the side of the page. I hope this guide is helpful.

Getting Started

o Title

Text

o Headings

o Paragraphs

o Lists

o Forced Line Breaks

o Horizontal Rules

o Character Formatting
 Linking

o URLs

o Links to Specific Sections

o Mailto

Graphics

o Putting Images on a page

o Alternate Text for Images

o Animated Graphics

o Background, text, and link Color

o Background Graphics

o Linking with graphics

o Image Maps

Fill-out Forms

o Getting Started

o Form Method/Action

o Single or multiple fields

o Larger Fields

o Checkboxes

o Radio Buttons

o Pull-Down Lists

o Scroll-Down Lists

o Reset Form
 o Submit Entry

Frames

o What are Frames?

Java

o What is Java?

o Programming in Java

Troubleshooting

For More Information

o Other Pages

Getting Started
There are basically two ways to make a web page. The first way is to create the page(s) offline
and then upload them to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) via FTP. The second way is to
create your web page(s) online using a Telnet program by accessing your UNIX account, if you
have one.

If you are creating your web page(s) offline, do so in any text editing or word processing
document. Make sure that when you save your document, you save it as a "text", "plain text" or
"text only" document. Otherwise it will not be read properly by a web browser. Once you have
created your page(s), you will need to contact your ISP about how to go about uploading them to
your server.

If you have a UNIX account, you can create your web page(s) online. You first need to get a
program that can access your UNIX account. I recommend Telnet for the Mac or Ewan for
Windows 95/98.

Once you can access your account, you need to make a new directory called "public_html". You
can do this by typing:

mkdir public_html

After this, change your directory to this new directory called "public_html".

cd public_html
If you want to, you can make other directories, one for all the web pages that you make, and one
for all of the graphics that you have. Follow the same steps as above to do this.

Next, you need to think of a filename for your page (this is not a title, but what will be in the
URL). A common filename for a main web page, is "index". Once you've decided on this, add
".html" to the end of it. Then type (i.e.)

pico index.html

Of course, use your page's filename, instead of this one. Next, you need to gain some knowledge
of the many HTML commands. Lucky for you, I've already gotten some of the basic commands
for you. Follow the index below, to decide what to put on your page, and how to do it. Once
you've gotten started, exit your page. You can do this by pressing control-x. Then you need to
type:

chmod 744 index.html

Only do this with the filename of your page. You only need to do this the very first time that you
leave your web page. This command will make sure that nobody else can delete your page. You
will need to do this to any other pages that you make in the future. Then, look at your page on the
WWW. Lets say that your server is "www.domain.com", your username is "username", and the
name of your page is "index.html". The URL would normally be:

http://www.domain.com/~username/index.html

However, you will need to contact your ISP for your URL.

If you have made separate directories for pages and graphics, then you need to include that in the
URL also. Lets say that you made a directory for all of your web pages, called "Pages". The new
URL would be: http://www.domain.com/~username/Pages/index.html

Title

The first thing to put on your web page, is a title. The title is what will show up in the very top of
the window. Let's say that your title is going to be "John Doe's Web Page", you would type:

<title>John Doe's Web Page</title>

In HTML, every command is surrounded by <'s, and >'s. And in most commands, you need to
tell the web browser when to end this command. You do this by putting a back slash (/) in front
of the ending command, as in above. Since HTML isn't case sensitive, <title> is the same as
<TITLE>, which is the same as <TiTLe>. Next, you need to decide what you want to put on
your page. Text, links, graphics, and text fields, are just a few ideas. Follow the table of contents
above to decide how, and what to put on your page.
Text

Headings

HTML has six levels of headings, numbered 1 through 6, with 1 being the largest. Headings are
displayed in larger, or smaller fonts, and usually bolder. If you wanted to type "Hello", this is
what you would type for each heading, and what the outcome is:

<h1>Hello</h1>

Hello
<h2>Hello</h2>

Hello

<h3>Hello</h3>

Hello

<h4>Hello</h4>

Hello

<h5>Hello</h5>

Hello

<h6>Hello</h6>
Hello

Paragraphs
Whenever you have more than a sentence of writing, you should have paragraphs. Personally, I
don't see what the difference is, but I do it anyway, because then I can find a certain spot better
when programing. To Make a paragraph of "This is a web page. How do you like what I've done?
Please e-mail me with any suggestions at a@a.com", type:

<P>This is a web page. How do you like what I've done? Please e-mail me with any
suggestions at a@a.com</P>

The outcome is:

This is a web page. How do you like what I've done? Please e-mail me with any suggestions at
a@a.com

Lists

There are two types of lists that you can make in HTML, dotted, and numbered. To make a
dotted list of: red, orange, green, blue, purple, black, and brown, type:

<UL>
<LI> red
<LI> orange
<LI> green
<LI> blue
<LI> purple
<LI> black
<LI> brown
</UL>

The result is:

red

orange

green

blue

purple

black

brown
To make a numbered list of: red, orange, green, blue, purple, black, and brown, type:

<OL>
<LI> red
<LI> orange
<LI> green
<LI> blue
<LI> purple
<LI> black
<LI> brown
</OL>

The result looks like:

1. red

2. orange

3. green

4. blue

5. purple

6. black

7. brown

Forced Line Breaks

There are many cases in which you want to end typing on one line, and start on the next. To do
this, you can use a simple HTML command. This is one of the few commands that you don't
have to put an ending command on. Let's say that you wanted to say "Hello, how are you?", but
with each word on a separate line. All you have to type is:

Hello,<BR>how<BR>are<BR>you?

The outcome is:

Hello,
how
are
you?
Horizontal Rules

Every now and then, you might want to have a horizontal rule, or line in your page. Horizontal
rules can be many different sizes and lengths. You can also have the line be solid black, by typing
NOSHADE. Here are several examples of sizes and widths, and what the outcome is:

<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=100%>

<HR SIZE=5 WIDTH=50%>

<HR SIZE=25 WIDTH=75%>

<HR SIZE=3 WIDTH=100%>

<HR NOSHADE SIZE=1 WIDTH=100%>

<HR NOSHADE SIZE=3 WIDTH=100%>

<HR NOSHADE SIZE=10 WIDTH=20%>

Character Formatting

You may want to format some of your text differently than others using text styles. There are
several types of styles of text that you can use: bold, italic, underline, strikeout, superscript, subscript,
teletype, and blinking text are examples. To do these styles, surround your text with the
following commands:

<b>, </b> for bold

<i>, </i> for italic

<u>, </u> for underlined

<strike>, <strike> for strikeout

^, for superscript

_, for subscript

<tt>, </tt> for teletype

<blink>, </blink> for blinking text (very annoying)

You can also mix styles together like this!

Linking

URLs

When you make a link, you are making colored text or even a graphic (talked about later). When
somebody clicks on this text, it will take them to another web page, or possibly a certain section
of a web page. Let's say that you wanted to make a link from your web page, to Yahoo!. The
URL of Yahoo! is:
http://www.yahoo.com
To do this, you would type:

<A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com">What ever text that you want to be colored goes

here</A>

The result would be:

What ever text that you want to be colored goes here

You can go ahead and try it if you want to.

Links to Specific Sections

Sometimes, you might want to have a link that will take you further down a page, or to a certain
section of another page. An example of this is the index to this web page. You click on the
colored text, and it takes you to that section. To do this, you need to do two things. The first, is to
make the link, and the second, is to make where the link will lead to. NOTE: You cannot make
links to specific sections within a different document unless either you have write permission to
the coded source of that document or that document already contains in-document named links.
1) To make the actual link, think of a name for the certain spot. Let's say you are going to call it
"spot". If this certain spot is on the same page that the link is, you would type:

<A HREF="#spot">Colored Text

Otherwise, you would add "#spot" to the end of the URL.

2) Now, you need to make where the link will take you. Go to the spot where you want the link
to take you, and type:

<A NAME = "spot">

Mailto Links

Most people like to have a link on their web page that automatically sends e-mail to an address.
If you want to do this, and your name is Dan, and your e-mail address is a@a.com, type:

<A HREF="mailto:a@a.com">Dan</a>

Here is the result of typing this:

Dan

Graphics

Putting Images On A Page

On almost EVERY web page on the net, there is some kind of graphic. I would HIGHLY
RECOMMEND that you have AT LEAST one picture on your page. There are mainly two kinds
of ways to have graphics on your web page. The first, is to use a graphic that is on another web
page somewhere on the web. The second, is to upload the graphic to your own account.
Personally, I prefer to use the upload method. If you are using the other way, there is always a
chance that the person who made that page will decide to delete that graphic. Then a symbol with
a circle, square, and triangle will appear where the graphic was supposed to be, sometimes it will
look like it has been torn through the middle:

1)
To display a graphic on some one else's page, you need to find the URL. To do this, I recommend
that you have Netscape Navigator. Right click or click and hold down on the graphic, until a
menu comes up. Choose "View this Image". Then , copy the URL that appears at the top of the
screen, in the "location" box. Let's say that the URL was:
http://www.infhost.com/members/web/Images/pic.gif You would type:

<IMG SRC="http://www.infhost.com/members/web/Images/pic.gif">

The result is:

2)
To display a graphic that is in your account, all you have to do is type in the filename. If you
didn't make separate directories for graphics and pages, then you just need to type the graphic's
name.(i.e. <IMG SRC="pic.gif">

Alternate Text for Images

Some World Wide Web browsers cannot display images. Some users turn off image loading even
if their software can display images (especially if they are using a modem or have a slow
connection). HTML provides a command to tell readers what they are missing on your pages.
The "ALT" attribute lets you specify text to be displayed instead of an image. For example:

<IMG SRC="pic.gif" ALT="How to make a web page">

In this example, "pic.gif" is the picture of a sign. With graphics-capable viewers that have image-
loading turned on, you see the graphic. With a non-graphic browser or if image-loading is turned
off, the words "How to make a web page" is shown in your window. You should try to include
alternate text for each image you use in your document, as it is a courtesy for your readers.

Animated Graphics

Some people like to put animation on their web pages. It actually is not that hard. Here is some
background history. Most GIFs over the years have only one image per file. According to
"technical specifications from 1987", a GIF could have had more than one image per file, making
it like a slide show presentation and not a single image. However, most programs that work with
GIF are designed around the idea of one image per file. So the multi-image aspect of GIFs was
forgotten. In 1989, they added timing and various other abilities to the GIF format, including
transparency. Nobody used these new additions either. Then the Web took off. Transparency and
interlacing became features people wanted to use and software companies began supporting
those features. In order to have animation on your web page, you need to download a program
that was made to fit more that one GIF in a file. I recommend GifBuilder for the Mac. Windows
users can go here to download another program. Here is one example of a small animation:
Background, text, and link Color

On most pages, you want to have a specific color for the background, text, unvisited links,
visited links, and active links. In order to do this, you need to find the code number for the
specific color that you are looking for. Here is a HUGE list of code numbers, and here is how
you would display this in your page. NOTE: Type these ONLY right below your title. NOTE:
You must have the "#" sign before the actual code.

<body bgcolor="#code">for background color

<body text="#code">for color of text (all non-links)

<body link="#code">for color of unvisited links

<body vlink="#code">for color of visited links

<body alink="#code">for color of active links (while being selected)

You can also string two or more of these commands together:

<body bgcolor="#000015" text="#000020" link="#000050" vlink="#7a7777"

alink="#8f8e8d">

Background Graphics

Instead of having a solid color as a background, you might want to have one graphic that repeats
over and over to create a background. Here are several places that you can go to find background
graphics. The text that you would type in for a background called "bk.gif" would be:

<body background="bk.gif">

Linking with graphics

Sometimes on your web page, you might want to have a graphic that is a link. This is quite
simple, since you just mix the two commands of linking, and displaying graphics. Here is an
example of a graphic that leads to Yahoo:

You can also have a text link next to the graphic that leads to the same place.

Yahoo!
Here is what you would type in for, first the plain graphic-link, and second, the graphic-link with
text:

<A href="http://www.yahoo.com"><IMG
SRC="http://www.infhost.com/members/web/Images/yahoo.gif"></A>

<A href="http://www.yahoo.com"><IMG
SRC="http://www.infhost.com/members/web/Images/yahoo.gif">Yahoo!</A>

Image Maps

Before you create an image map, you need to make sure that your server supports them. Then,
you can follow these steps. First, you need to create an image. Draw a picture with sections that
could lead to certain places. Second, you need to create an image map file. There are several
programs that can do this for you. I recommend WebMap, for the Mac. You can go to Yahoo's
Image Map Directory for others.

Fill-out Forms

Getting Started

Fill-out forms let a reader return information to a Web server for some action. For example,
suppose you collect names and email addresses so you can email some information to people
who request it. This processing of incoming data is usually handled by a script or program
written in Perl or another language that manipulates text, files, and information. If you want to,
you can write this program yourself, but I have no idea how to do it. I would check with your
server. I know that many servers have scripts available for its users. Let's pretend that the one
that I'm going to use is called "fb.pl". This will send a response to your fillout form directly to
your email address. NOTE: This script is not real, it is just an example. Check with your ISP
to see if they have built-in scripts.

Form Method/Action

The first thing that you type for your guestbook is the Form Method and Action. This is where
you enter the Perl script. Most servers and Internet Providers have scripts like this that they
provide for you. Check with yours. You cannot have any kind of forms without having a script.
The address of the one that I'll be using is:
http://www.domain.com/cgi-bin/fb.pl. If you would like the response sent to your email address,
and the address is "a@a.com", you would type this for the first two lines:

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="http://www.domain.com/cgi-bin/fb.pl">

<INPUT TYPE="input" NAME="recipient" value="a@a.com">TO:<P>

Here is what it will look like:

TO:
a@a.com

Next, you need to decide what questions that you want to ask, and what you will use to ask them.
Before you start, though, you might want to check with your server to see if they have any
questions that you MUST ask. I know with some ISPs, you must ask what their email address is,
their first name, their last name, and what the subject of their question is. You can use single or
multiple text fields, larger fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, pull-down lists and scroll-down
lists.

Single or multiple fields

In your guestbook, you might want to ask questions that have a single one word answer. To here
is what you would type to have four fields that ask for an email address, a first name, a last
name, and a subject:

<INPUT TYPE="input" NAME="from">Your Email Address<P>

<INPUT TYPE="input" NAME="firstname">Your First Name<P>
<INPUT TYPE="input" NAME="lastname">Your Last Name<P>
<INPUT TYPE="input" NAME="subject">Subject<P>

Here is what the result is:

Your Email Address

Your First Name

Your Last Name

 Subject

Larger Fields

I would recommend that you have one larger field at the end of your guestbook for comments.
You first need to decide how many columns and rows that you want to have. Let's say that you
want to have 7 rows, and 45 columns. Here is what you would type:

Please place any questions or comments here:

<TEXTAREA Rows=7 Cols=45 NAME="suggestions"></TEXTAREA><P>

Here is what the result looks like:

Please place any questions or comments here:

Checkboxes

Let's say that you wanted to ask a question like "What are some things that you like to do?" You
could have a list of things with checkboxes. If you wanted the list to be: Watch TV, play on the
Internet, read a book, play sports, and study, you would type:

What are some things that you like to do?

<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="like" VALUE="TV">Watch TV<P>

<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="like" VALUE="internet">Play on the Internet<P>
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="like" VALUE="read">Read a book<P>
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="like" VALUE="sports">Play sports<P>
<INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="like" VALUE="study">Study<P>

The result:

What are some things that you like to do?

 Watch TV

Play on the Internet

Read a book

Play sports

Study

Radio Buttons

If you ever want to ask a question with one answer, you can use radio buttons. If you wanted to
ask "What WWW browser are you using right now?", and you wanted to have the choices
Netscape Navigator 4.x, Netscape Navigator 3.x, Netscape Communicator, Mosaic, and
Microsoft Explorer, you would type:

What WWW browser are you using right now?

<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="browser" VALUE="Navigator 4.x">Netscape Navigator

4.x<P>
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="browser" VALUE="Navigator 3.x">Netscape Navigator
3.x<P>
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="browser" VALUE="Communicator">Netscape
Communicator<P>
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="browser" VALUE="Mosaic">Mosaic<P>
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="browser" VALUE="Internetex">Internet Explorer<P>

The Result:
What WWW browser are you using right now?

Netscape Navigator 4.x

Netscape Navigator 3.x

Netscape Communicator

Mosaic

Internet Explorer

Pull-Down Lists

Another way to ask a question with only one answer is to use a pull-down menu. You can use the
SELECTED command to have an option besides the first be selected, as you will see below. If
you wanted to ask "What is your favorite color?", and you wanted the list to be of red, yellow,
orange, green, blue, purple, black, and brown, with black selected, you would type:

What is your favorite color?

<SELECT NAME="color">
<OPTION>Red
<OPTION>Yellow
<OPTION>Orange
<OPTION>Green
<OPTION>Blue
<OPTION>Purple
<OPTION SELECTED>Black
<OPTION>Brown
</SELECT><P>

The outcome is:

What is your favorite color?

Black

Scroll-Down Lists

Some times, you might want to have a scroll-down list on your page. With this, you can decide
whether or not you want people to be able to select more that one item. If you do have it with
more that one items, the user has to hold down the command or shift key. You can also decide
how many of the lines you want visible. Below are two lists of the same things. In the first one,
you can only select one item, and it is showing three lines. In the second one, you can select one
or more items by holding down command or shift . The second list is showing four lines. The
question is "What is your favorite video game system?" The answers are: Nintendo 64, Sony
Playstation, Sega Dreamcast, or arcade video games. The text that you type for each list is above
the actual list.

What is your favorite video game system?

<SELECT NAME="video game" SIZE=3>
<OPTION VALUE="nintendo64">Nintendo 64
<OPTION VALUE="playstation">Sony Playstation
<OPTION VALUE="dreamcast">Sega Dreamcast
<OPTION VALUE="arcade">Arcade Games
</SELECT><P>

The outcome is:

What is your favorite video game system?

Nintendo 64
Sony Playstation
Sega Dreamcast

What is your favorite video game system? (Hold shift to select more that one)
<SELECT NAME="video game" MULTIPLE SIZE=4>
<OPTION VALUE="nintendo64">Nintendo 64
<OPTION VALUE="playstation">Sony Playstation
<OPTION VALUE="dreamcast">Sega Dreamcast
<OPTION VALUE="arcade">Arcade Games
</SELECT><P>

The second outcome is:

What is your favorite video game system? (Hold shift to select more that one)
Nintendo 64
Sony Playstation
Sega Dreamcast
Arcade Games

Reset Form

On most page that have fill-out forms, there is a reset button at the bottom of the form, next to
the "submit" or "send" button. To have a reset button, just type:

To reset the all of the forms, press this button:<INPUT TYPE="reset" VALUE="Reset">

The outcome is: (try it!)

To reset the all of the forms, press this button:

Reset

Submit Entry

When you are all finished with everything, you need to make a button so that people can submit
their entry. To do this, type:

To submit your choices, press this button:<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Submit">

The result is: (NOTE: Please don't click this button. It has been disabled and will not work.)

To submit your choices, press this button:

Submit

NOTE: At the very end of your form, you must type </FORM> or your forms won't work!!

Frames
What are Frames?

Frames basically split your window in to sections. You can display two or more web pages at a
time with frames. You don't necessarily have to have whole pages in a frame. You could just have
graphics, too. If you are really interested in putting frames on your page, I recommend that you
go here to Sharky's Netscape Frames Tutorial and read the lessons.

Java

What is Java?

Java is a simple, robust, object-oriented, platform-independent multi-threaded, dynamic general-

purpose programming environment. It's best for creating applets and applications for the Internet,
intranets and any other complex, distributed network.

Programming in Java

I do not know how to program in java. However, it is a very useful language if you know how to
use it. If you think that you would like to begin learning the java language, an excellent tutorial
can be found here.

Just because I don't know how to program in java, doesn't mean that I don't use it. I love java. It
can add so much to a web site. If you really don't want to learn java, but would like to use it on
your web pages, I would suggest using free java scripts that can be found around the web. One
such web site can be found here at Sharky's JavaScript Answers.

Troubleshooting
Under Construction

For More Information

Other Pages

There are many other pages that have to do with writing web pages. The best one I've seen, is
here

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