LAUNC-CH 1999 Spring Conference

You, Too, Can Create a Web Page

Prof. Gregory Newby

School of Information and Library Science

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Session Outline

Overview of session goals and expectations
Using a Web browser to capture and download a Web page
Viewing pages on your local computer
Changing a Web page on your computer using HTML codes
Using Netscape Composer to create a new Web page
Uploading a Web page to a Web server
Creating inter-document links

Session goals and expectations

Goal: To understand the fundamental processes in creating Web pages. These include:

HTML source code features and structure
Various Web authoring tools and methods
Link structure among multiple Web pages
Uploading pages to a Web server

Expectations: At the outset, you should have

Experience using a Web browser to use the Internet
Familiarity with Windows (e.g., use of the mouse, icons, and files/directories)

Using a Web browser to capture and download a Web page, then view it on your computer using Netscape

a. Visit this URL (type it in, or follow from the session outline page):

http://ils.unc.edu/launcch/sample.html

b. Use Netscape’s "File / Save As" option to save to a file on your computer, such as C:\TEMP\SAMPLE.HTML

c. Open this file with Notepad:

Select: "Start / Run"

Then type: "notepad c:\temp\sample.html"

d. Make some changes to the code (e.g., put in some new text, add your email address, add a different URL)

e. Save the changes: "File / Save" or "File / Save As"

f. View your new changes with Netscape:

Method 1: Type a URL of this form:

C:\temp\sample.html

Method 2: In Netscape, "File / Open Page" then "Choose File"

g. Continue to make changes, then save and "Reload" to view changes in Netscape

Creating a New Web Page (or editing an existing one) with Netscape Composer

Method 1:

In Netscape, select "Communicator / Composer" to open a new document

Method 2:

In Netscape, find a document you would like to use as a template, then select "File / Edit Page" (this is usually not a great idea for complex documents)

Create your own Web page for a topic of your choosing:

Personal information page
Workgroup or organizational page
Hobby or interest page

Type in some content. The features are very similar to a word processor such as WordPerfect or Microsoft Word.

Use "File / Save" or "File / Save As" to save your file. Name it uniquely for the next step using your last name. For example, Donald Duck would save the file as "duck.html"

Upload the page to the ILS server

This is only a temporary location! If you want to take your file with you, use a floppy disk or send it by email.
Use the "Publish" button in Netscape Composer (this will actually transfer the file using FTP):

Add or change the "Page Title" if desired
For "Filename" use the filename you saved in © above
For "HTTP or FTP location" enter:

ftp://ils.unc.edu/export/htdocs/launcch

Username: guest
Password: launc-ch
Select "OK" and the file should be transferred

View your page on the server! Use Netscape with a URL like this:

http://ils.unc.edu/launcch/duck.html (substitute your own filename)

Make Some Changes and Upload Them; Add a Second Page

Try adding a second page and link between the two pages. For example:

Use "New" then "Blank Page" in Composer to create a new file

Put some new content in it.

Save this file as something unique, such as "duck1.html" (if your name is Donald Duck)

Add a link to your first document:

Type in the text you want to be the link (e.g., "Here is a link")
Select the text using the mouse
Select "Link" and type in your first document filename as the link. Just the filename! You don’t need "http://"
You can also go back to your first document, and add a link to the new document in the same way

"Publish" both files as before (this will over-write your old version on the server)
Use the Web browser to look at the files. You should be able to link back and forth between them!

Additional Topics Not Covered

There is quite a bit more to creating effective Web sites. Other topics include:

More HTML, such as Cascading Style Sheets, Tables, Frames
Server-side programming, including:

Active Server Pages (ASP)
CGI programs
Database integration

Images and image manipulation (use GIF or JPEG format with the <IMG> tag)
More sophisticated HTML editors, such as Microsoft FrontPage, ColdFusion Studio, and others

How to Gain Skills and Keep Informed

Find a book
Find some good Web sites
Practice!
Use "View Source" often to see how things are done
Create and maintain your own personal pages where you can explore

Some Useful Sites for HTML Development:

http://www.webmonkey.com (lots of tutorials and reference material)
http://validator.w3.org (debugs your code)
Yahoo’s HTML Beginner’s Guide section