Make your own World Wide Web Page!

This is intented be be a brief introductory guide on how you can go about setting up your very own web page! It's orientated towards complete beginners, although there are links to a few more advanced HTML constructors' sites. I hope you'll find it of some use!

The program that I am using is HotDog Pro V2.53 (unsupported version) on a DX2-66, Windows v3.1 machine, and I am using Netscape Navigator(TM) V1.22 and Lynx to test the pages once I have made alterations.

Once I had the HTML editor it took me roughly an hour to get to grips with the basics of HTML and once I had I was able to make basic page layouts. The best way to get to learn anything is by examining examples so I went to pages that had parts of layouts that I wanted to get to know how to code for, downloaded them (in netscape go to the File menu and then use the Save command) and then studied them off line. I find that it's best to have two files - one where you can test new ideas and experiment, where it doesn't matter if you erase half of it and make mistakes, and another for your 'final' page where you put all your tried and tested ideas into practise!

If you're a beginner like I am (was?) then it's probably best to print out any help files you find useful rather than trying to read them on line... flicking backwards and forwards between the editor and the browser while you try new ideas can use up alot of unecassary time, and asides from that you can quickly highlight anything on paper that catches your interest. It may be the decade of the 'Electronic Paper' but alot of us are still using the old cellulose stuff!

BASIC HTML HELP GUIDES

Listed below are some sites that I found useful:

1. A Beginners' Guide to HTML
2. Gordon Hake's HTML Helper
3. Crash Course on writing documents
4. HTML Documents: A Mosaic Tutorial
5. HTML Helper
6. HTML Overview
7. The HTML Writers' Guild
8. Outline Index to HTML Documentation

ADVANCED HTML HELP GUIDES

This listing is a very comprehensive, very well ordered help document. The author of it, as you will be able to tell, has spent alot of time composing a very well thought out help guide which covers all the basic and most of the more advanced features found in HTML.

1. HTML Elements
2. HTML - The complete-ish Guide
   
   

2. W3 Global Server Lists and Help Guides

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   HTML STYLISTIC HELP

   The sites shown below are aimed at giving you a rough guide on how best to set out your new WWW page(s):

   1. Composing good HTML
   2. WWW Style Guide
   3. Web Etiquette
   4. Yale's WWW Style Manual

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   ARTS RESOURCES

   These resources while being complete will, depending on your link take a good number of minutes to load, I have tried to avoid pages that take forever to load in an effort to trade off between loading time and actual content:

   1. Benny's Arts and Graphics Resource
   2. BioCenter Backgrounds
   3. Colorado Art Resources
   4. Crown Net Backgrounds List
   5. Joe Burn's HTML Art Resource list
   6. NaviPress Clip Art
   7. Sandra's Clip Art

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   MISCELLANEOUS CODE SOURCES

   The below links are for more obscure coding and will be added to as I come across new links.

   1. Counters 1
   2. Counters 2
   3. Fractal Image Format (1:100 compression on .GIF files)
   4. Macintosh WWW Resources
   5. Sizzler [An Animation maker that doesn't require you know coding...]

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   Once you have constructed your page you will need a server which allows people access to your page. If you are at a university then chances are that you already have access to one so see your system administrator, if not then chances are you will have to set up your own server. I hope that these pages have managed to help you or at least give you an indicator as to how to go about putting your stamp on the Net! If they have then I'd love to hear from you, and the same goes for if you have any suggestions on how to improve these pages - whether it be new tags or just new links!

   
   
   • Matts' Quick Tips

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   E-Mail me at: oceanic@oceanic.demon.co.uk

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