| Tools and Tutorials for Building Web Pages |
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First Things First: What Is HTML? HTML stands for "Hypertext Markup Language." It is the basic building block for all Web pages. HTML is very simple group of codes that tells a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape the important things about a Web page:
It's often very informative to see the html code used to produce a page
you are viewing. While viewing a page in your browser, click on the View
menu and select "Source" (or "Page Source", depending
on the browser you're using) and you will be able to see the source code
for the page. Software for Building Your Web Page Note: there are Web sites that offer low cost or free "on-line page builders," often with very easy to use menus, buttons, and background. Be careful, though - many of these only allow you to create Web pages on their own Web site, not to create pages which you could put on your WNMU Web site. Some of these also add their own advertisements to your Web page, and may even collect information about visitors to your Web site for marketing and other purposes. If you're not sure exactly what an on-line Web page builder will do, it may be best to use a stand-alone program. Because all you have to do to create a Web page is to type characters on the keyboard, all you really need is a simple text editor. You can also create simple pages in most word processing programs (such as Microsoft Word) and save those documents as HTML files. Just typing text without seeing how the results will look on your Web page is hard, though, and word processing programs don't always create good HTML that will work well in all Web browsers. When working on a page you can see how it will look in a browser by saving the page (note where you save it!) and loading the file you've saved into your browser. Select the "File" menu and "Open" from the menu (or "Open File" if you're using Firefox). If you want to create anything but the simplest page, it is usually worth the extra bit of expense to get Web page software. Full-scale, full-featured programs such as Adobe's GoLive, Macromedia's Dreamweaver, and Microsoft's FrontPage make it easy to create Web pages, but unless you are creating a complex Web site purchasing those programs may mean paying for a number of features you don't need. (It is worth noting, though, that the WNMU Bookstore often offers special pricing on computer software.) Shareware and freeware programs work well for simpler Web sites, and are often easier to learn and use. Shareware sites such as Tucows and VersionTracker are easy ways to find these programs; the following list is only an idea of what is available.
Tutorials, Help Pages, and Other Web Resources Once you have your software (or Notepad) up and running, and you know what content you want to put on your Web site, you're ready to start. The following are links to sites where you can learn how to use HTML to build your Web page. Introduction to HTMLA Beginners Guide to HTML This is a good guide to what HTML is and why it is used from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the group involved with creating one of the first graphical Web browsers (Mosaic). Great for background on how things work, but for instructions on how to build Web pages and help when things go wrong you’ll want to look elsewhere. Getting Started with HTMLHTML: An Interactive Tutorial for Beginners Here are some very good, step-by-step interactive tutorials covering beginning and intermediate topics. This is an excellent place to start learning the skills to build your Web page. HTML Tutorial More tutorials, and useful “HTML Examples” area that lets you change HTML code on a Web page and see the results live. HTML Station Another site with tutorials and tools, covering topics from beginning to advanced Web page designed. Some of the topics and tutorials are very complex, so you may want to start with the “Interactive Tutorial for Beginners” or W3C Schools “HTML Tutorial” sites given above. HTML ToolsThe Bare Bones Guide to HTML Here is a concise list of HTML tags, useful for those times when you don’t want to look something up on the W3C site (listed below). WebTV Color Picker Just how will magenta text look on that green background? This nifty tool was developed by some of the original WebTV designers, and it has wisely been kept by MSNTV as part of their MSNTV Developers site. There are other “color pickers” out there, but for basic work this is one of the best. Advanced TopicsA List Apart An excellent, opinionated, and challenging resource for those designing Web sites. You’ll find a few articles appropriate for beginners here as well, but don’t make this your first stop when you sit down to design your first page. It’s worth a look, though, for ideas on what your Web page can do. W3C:
The World Wide Web Consortium |
WNMU Information Technology PO Box 680 Silver City, NM 88062 Phone: 575-538-6436 Fax: 575-538-6491 |
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