Introduction to Web Page CreationWhat is a Web Page?Web Publishing and Microsoft WordNetscape ComposerIntroduction to Web Page CreationJerry UrquhartLyman Briggs SchoolIn this workshop we will cover the following:1) What a web page really is2) How to create a simple web page 3) How to make your syllabus into a web page using Microsoft Word4) How to transfer a web page to your personal space or the LBS Course space5) Netscape Composer and Formatting6) Hyperlinks and Netscape ComposerWhat is a Web Page?The World Wide Web is an abstract concept to many of us. It need not be, because it’s allrelatively simple. A web page is a file stored on somebody’s computer in a public directory where it can be called via the Internet. When you call up a web page, your computer requests a file from somebody else’s computer, and then that file is displayed on your monitor. A web page is a simple text file with some formatting instructions in it that tell the browser (e.g. Netscape) how to display the page. The formatting of a web page is done with Hypertext Markup Language <HTML>, which specifies how certain parts of the page should look. Below is a simple web page:<HTML><BODY><H1>Title Words are put in Headers</H1><P> This workshop should be fun!</P></BODY></HTML>Notice that each opening <tag> is followed by a closing </tag>. This is the basis of HTML—marking up a page with tags that tell the web browser where to start a type ofdisplay and where to stop it. It can get much more complicated, so let’s work with a program that generates HTML tags for us, such as Microsoft Word.As HTML progressed, web pages have added graphics and many other features. The graphics are images stored in separate files that are referenced in the HTML web page for inclusion.A website if you want to learn HTML:http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerPrintable.htmlWeb Publishing and Microsoft WordBecause we are all familiar with it, Microsoft Word is the easiest way to create documents for the World Wide Web. Beginning with Word 97, there is a “save as HTML” option that allows you to save a word file (even one with pictures and graphs) as an HTML formatted document. In the file menu, simply choose the save as HTML command. Name your file with a .html extension and save it on your hard drive.Exercise One: Let’s try this with our syllabus! Open your syllabus in Word and then save it as HTML. You will then have two documents on your disk: one in MS Word Format (the original, with .doc extension) and another in HTML with .html extension.Microsoft Excel supports the same “save as HTML” command. This makes it easy to export grade tables, etc. If you usually post your grade tables as a student numberand grade, why not save the same file as HTML and post it on the web? Also, sometimesI use Excel for my syllabus. It’s pretty easy and gives a fairly nice formatted table.File Transfer Protocol (FTP)File Transfer Protocol (FTP) utilities allow you to transfer files from one computer to another. After you create your web page, you need to transfer it from the computer you are working on to the one where it can be accessed as a web page. For LBS Courses, we have set up a server called Briggs2 to be the home of course web pages.WS-FTP LE is a common Windows based FTP utility, and is the one we will work with today. It can be downloaded from the web at: http://www.ipswitch.com/cgi/download_eval.pl?product=mainChoose the LE edition of WS_FTP—it is a trial version that does not expire. If you want to put WS_FTP on your LBS computer, notify me and we’ll do it for you.Once you install FTP, you need to configure it to talk to Briggs2. The following screen allows you to do this:Once you have entered the appropriate items, click on OK.You will then see this screen:The window on the left lists the files on your computer or disk. The window on the right lists files on the host computer (Briggs2). In each screen, you need to navigate to the appropriate directory by double-clicking on folders. Once you have the proper directory on both sides, you can then upload your new web documents.Your documents should go into your field (bio, phys, sts, etc) and semester (f-99) into a directory for your course. If a directory for your course does not exist, you can create one by clicking MkDiron the right hand side of the right window. To upload, select the new document in the left window. Then click the arrow pointing to the right to send it to the remote computer. It’s as easy as that. The URL for your file once you transfer it over will look something like this:http://35.8.156.101/courses/biology/f-99/144/syllabus.htmlFor courses with multiple sections, the URL looks like this:http://35.8.156.101/courses/sts/f-99/133/4/syllabus.html(section 4 of 133 in Fall-99)ORhttp://35.8.156.101/courses/sensem/f-99/492/2/syllabus.html(section 2 of 492 in Fall-99)Replace biology with sts, chemistry, physics, math, or another department. Replace the course number, and STS faculty remember to include a section number.Once you’ve got a file transferred over, contact me ([email protected]) and let me know what it is so I can link the LBS Web Page to it. Netscape ComposerNetscape Composer is a part of the Netscape WWW Browser already installed on your computer. It allows you to edit HTML documents with better control over where the elements are placed. For example, Microsoft Word leaves a blank line every time there’s a return in your web page. This results in a very long document—imagine how your CV would lookif there’s a blank line after every return. Netscape Composer allows you to remove these blank lines and many more things we will cover in the advanced workshop.Netscape Composer’s interface looks very much like the interface of a word processor. It’s relatively simple to use.Inserting a hyperlink with Composer is fairly straightforward. In the Insert menu choose “Link…” The following window will appear:To insert a link, simply type the URL (web address) of the desired page into the location. If it is another file of yours in your same directory, you simply need to type the file name in.Example: If you want to link your page to the NASA homepage, you would enterhttp://www.nasa.govThe “http://” is very important, because it tells the browser to look on the Web for the page. Without the http://, the browser looks on the same computer it got the previous page. If
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