Designing, building, and maintaining a Web site does not require any knowledge of Hyper-Text Markup Language(HTML), JavaScript, Virtual Reality Modeling Language(VRML), or other scripting/coding languages. Rather, all you need is an idea and an HTML editor such as FrontPage or HoTMetaL - both quality editors that will give you an excellent first attempt at a Web site.
However, I have found that HTML editors do not give the flexibility that I need. For example, I want to customize my TABLE tags so that I can add different fonts, colors, et cetera. While editing software can allow me to make several unique changes, it does not do it all - or so I have found. This does not apply just to the TABLE tags, of course - rather, as a whole, HTML editors tend to follow the exact rules of Web document coding, something that frustrates me because my creativity is thus repressed.
Besides which, when I first started making my own Web sites back in the mid-90s, I didn’t even know that editing software existed. I figured that the only way to do it was by learning HTML and incorporating bits and pieces of JavaScript and other languages into the code I had typed into Notepad or similar text editing programs. It was easy for me to come up with dazzling, creative and informative documents without the aid of editors. My first Web site looked like a pile of dog puke, and was virtually worthless, but it was something that I had put together in under an hour with Notepad and a list of HTML language commands and tags that I had downloaded off of several reference sites on the Internet.
With ’’raw HTML’’(doing it by hand), you can put anything you want, anyplace you want. You don’t have to go through several screens, search for an editor that supports the various commands and additions to HTML, or otherwise trouble yourself with downloading software and all of that. So, that is the method that I highly recommend but - BUT, BUT, BUT - I don’t have a problem with people who opt for editing software. It is, of course, a great place to start, as most software will display the command that you have just clicked upon with your mouse: This way you are getting an idea of the raw code while you are easily creating documents to upload to the Internet.
So, for all of you who are wondering, I am going to give a quick rundown on what I do with my Web sites and how.
First, I make a template with Notepad. I do this by saving a blank copy of a document to the folder that I want my Web site to be stored in on my hard drive. I then put in all of the commands that will be uniform to every document within that site - the HEAD, HTML, BODY, FONT, et cetera tags. I then save it as TEMPLATE and go on about my merry little business of designing other pages. I re-open the document, code the page that I have already created in my pea of a brain, and choose ’’save as.’’ For example, the introductory page is generally saved as ’’intro.htm’’ or ’’index.htm’’ - I do not give it a .html extention because the fourth character is relative to Mac operating systems, not Windows.(Yeah yeah, lots of techno-babble that doesn’t really mean anything, but I’m a picky person by nature.)
At that point, I can re-open the TEMPLATE - I didn’t lose any of my original information because I opted to ’’Save AS’’ versus ’’Save.’’ Several times in my life I have clicked on the wrong option and ruined my progress!
Since the saved files are read as HTML documents, you can double-click on them and they will be opened in your Web browser. This way you can ensure that they are coded properly, and you can check their appearance in various Web browsers. Remember, Netscape and IE do not interpret HTML exactly the same: Sometimes things such as tables will be displayed in different manners, so be sure to look at your site through different browsers to ensure that it is compatible for all of your visitors.
Once you finish your coding, you have to upload to the server you have chosen as a host for your site. I don’t much like uploading through Web browsers(such as with angelfire.com and geocities.com) because it’s slower. So, I use CuteFTP or eLeetFTP(a great program that is not very popular but, nonetheless, highly effective) to connect to the FTP section of the host site. It generally takes me less than five minutes to upload my entire site - at that point I can use Netscape or some other browser to look at the site as it appears on the Internet.
You can add all sorts of neat things to your Web site with or without an editor. You can program JavaScript applets to greet return visitors by the name they typed in when you orignally welcomed them. You can add a guestbook or counter to keep track of your guests. You can add images, graphics, and boldly-colored text. You can even customize the background wallpaper of your site, and add links to other interesting places on the Internet. There are so many things that are possible with HTML - the only way to truly explore this fascinating world is by getting into it yourself. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you use an editor or not - what matters is that you are interested in HTML and Web sites to the point that you are willing to learn more about them.