So, you want to make a
Web Page!3.6
by Joe Barta
PROFESSIONAL WEB DESIGN
Also available: Table Tutor, Forms Tutor & Frames Tutor.

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Just a note- this tutorial is geared towards those using Windows95
It is also shamelessly biased towards Netscape. But rest assured, most of it should work just fine for all you
Internet Explorers and users of other (there are other?) operating systems.

Hello. My name is Joe and I'm going to give you a few simple lessons on how to make a Web Page. I must warn you though, this is for "all wet behinda ears" Newbies. If you're at all experienced at this sort of thing, you'll probably find this tutorial a bit of a yawner.

You'll be happy to learn that it's really pretty simple. The basic idea is this... A web page is nothing more than a file, a HTML file to be exact. It's called HTML because web page documents have the file extension .html or .htm. HTML stands for Hyper Text Mark-up Language. (If you are unclear about this file extension stuff, then you really are newbie!! Take a quick detour for a few ramblings on the subject).

  Joe,
Just wanted to drop you a line to let you know how much I enjoyed your tutorials. After reading your tutorials, I bailed on my old web site which was done with *** and started my own from scratch with notepad. It was like crawling out of a 5 gallon bucket. I now can do exactly what I want.
  Thanks,
Mike

Let's get started. First, if you have any of them fancy HTML editors and have an inkling to break em in now... forget it. The worst way to learn is to use one of those things. (Although there are a few that you will find helpful, they'll only help you once you learn the basics, so don't even worry about it now.) What's the best way to learn HTML?? Notepad*. I know, I know, you got this 9 megabyte Wunder Wizzard that says it's gonna make putting up a web page as easy as scratching your head. Just trust me on this one. K? K.

Another tool you'll need is a browser to view your web pages. Netscape Navigator is what I strongly recommend. If you're using some flavor of Windows, then Internet Explorer should be on your system somewhere. If you're using something provided by America Online, CompuServe, WebTV or one of those Internet in a Box packages, you're on your own because I have no idea what they give you to work with.

With that out of the way I can say with confidence that you are less than 5 minutes away from making your first web page! So.. off to lesson 1.

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General Table
of Contents		 Lessons
Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6		 Index and
Quick Reference		 Barebones
HTML Guide
PROFESSIONAL WEB DESIGN

***    I thought it was only fair to omit the name of the specific "Wunder Wizzard" that Mike was refering to.

 

* FAQ: What the heck is Notepad and where do I get it?

A: Notepad is the default Windows text editor. On most Win9X systems, click your Start button and choose Programs then Accessories. It should be a little blue notebook. For our purposes, ANY text editor will do nicely. You can go to most any shareware/freeware site and pick yourself up a zippy new text editor, many of them being free. For the time being though, Notepad will do quite nicely.

One thing you should avoid though is to use a word processor for authoring your HTML docs. For one, these are not very well suited for HTML authoring and two, unless you know what you're doing, your file won't save as a plain text html file, it will probably save in the word processor format and won't render in a browser.

And one more thing (again) at least while you're learning... put away Composer, put away Front Page, put away Sooper Dooper Web Page Cruncher. Just follow along with Notepad. Trust me. Would I lie? ;-)

I got a big old smile on my face when I found out that this humble tutorial earned the coveted 5 star rating from the ZDnet Software Library.