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Creating Web pages
What do you need to create your own Web site?
How do you create the Web pages?
Do you need special programs to create Web pages?
How can you translate existing documents into HTML?
What is an HTML Editor program? What are some popular examples?
What is a Web-page-creation program? What are some of the more popular examples?
What kinds of static graphics can you put on your Web page?
How do you get information back from the readers of your page?
How do you add multimedia elements to your Web page?
Isn't HTML obsolete? Haven't Java and ActiveX replaced HTML?

What do you need to create your own Web site?

At a minimum, you'll need one or more pages of content formatted using the Web's HyperText Markup Language (HTML), a host machine on the Internet with appropriate Web server software to supply those pages on request, plus an Internet address where other users can ask to see your efforts.

Chances are, you'll want to add some graphics, some links to other sites, and perhaps some multimedia or interactive elements. Some databases, audiovisual data types, or interactive features may need supplementary hardware or software at the host. And if you're building a site for internal use only, that is, an intranet, you may need an internal network address in addition to or instead of an Internet address.

Almost all parts of the process are also available both as custom work and as packaged services. Even if creating your own pages makes sense, you may want to contract out for the Web hosting part of the process rather than setting up your own host machine and software.

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How do you create the Web pages?

By design, Web pages are made up of the text you see, plus special "tag" character sequences that specify the page layout and point to graphics files and other Web pages. To make a Web page, you have to build up this tagged text document and create or import any accompanying graphics. You can find a number of tutorials on the HTML language online, such as at The Web Developer's Virtual Library.

If you feel comfortable learning a form of coding, you can create Web page using any text editor. For a simple page made mostly out of plain text, you need to learn fewer than a dozen tags.

However, most people find it easier to use their current word processor with HTML output, a special HTML translator module, a dedicated HTML editor, or a complete Web-site-production package. Some of the more popular are listed in other questions in this section.

Similarly, you can create the graphics for Web pages with most standard graphics packages, translate existing graphics to Web formats, or use dedicated Web creation tools to make your graphics.

You can also use many of these tools in combinations or in succession. For example, you can create the overall content in your word processor, build separate graphics in your graphics program, import all the elements into a Web page design program, and then finally touch up some fine details of the coding back in a text editor.

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Do you need special programs to create Web pages?

All the major word-processing programs--including Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect--and desktop-publishing programs--such as Aldus PageMaker and QuarkExpress--now include an HTML output option, and several can translate HTML files back to formatted word-processing documents.

For the most part, you create and edit the document in the normal word processor view. You can use any feature of the program you like, but of course only formats that are supported by HTML will survive the translation. For example, text in bold translates fine, but there's no HTML equivalent for strikethrough. You can also add additional tags by hand, just as you would if you were creating pages directly.

When you chose HTML output, the program translates the formatting information you've specified into the closest HTML approximation. Most programs let you set some of the correspondences between word-processing styles and HTML options, but the choices are usually somewhat limited.

On the positive side, if you need to maintain the documents in word-processing or desktop-layout format for another purpose, this method can save a lot of extra effort.

Word processors were the first to add HTML output, but the feature is showing up in more and more spreadsheets, such as Excel; integrated "works" programs, such as ClarisWorks; and many others.

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How can you translate existing documents into HTML?

Although not all documents written for other purposes translate well into Web pages, many business and reference documents need only to be run through a translator program or "filter" to produce useful results. The same type of translator programs that will recast your document from one word processor or graphics program format to another can also produce HTML for text or the GIF files needed for the Web. Some better-known commercial translators include MasterSoft's Word for Word, and Dataviz's Conversion Plus (Windows) or MacLink Plus (Mac).

But you can also select and download one of scores of specialized translation programs on the Net. Some are freeware, some shareware, and some limited-time demonstration versions. One good list can be found at World Wide Web Consortium's tools page.

Or again, you may be able to do the job with your current software. With just about any of the major word processor or "works" programs, you can read in a wide variety of existing files and then write out an HTML equivalent.

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What is an HTML editor program? What are some popular examples?

HTML editors are specialized text-editing programs with some combination of menu choices, menu bars, and buttons that add the special tags needed for HTML formatting.

The first generation of these programs showed you only the HTML source code. You had to switch to a Web browser to see the formatted result. Now, most newer programs are WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get). Most early programs were also limited to the tags specified in Version 2 of the HTML specifications, while more recent programs add support for the features added in Version 3, such as tables and centered text, as well as later features added by Netscape Corp., such as frames.

Some better-known examples include Netscape Gold (Netscape Navigator with a built-in HTML editor), Sausage Software's HotDog Pro, Aldus PageMill, and Nesbitt Software's WebEdit.

A thorough search of various Web search engines will turn up more than 100 other HTML editors, with more appearing every month. The World Wide Web Consortium maintains a good list. Many are reviewed by Net veteran Carl Davis.

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What is a Web-page-creation program? What are some popular examples?

While an HTML editor will help you create a properly-coded page, you're still left with the task of designing the page, managing the links, adding feedback elements, and uploading the result to a suitable server. But these tasks can be done by software if you choose a complete Web-page-creation program.

Commercial products in this category include Microsoft FrontPage, Corel Web Designer, Claris HomePage, and Macromedia BackStage. But dozens of other commercial, shareware, and freeware products are listed by the World Wide Web Consortium.

To provide interactive features, any Web browser program requires matching code on the server that hosts the page as well. Some Web-page-creation programs provide scripts in the Perl language commonly used for Web interaction, while others--notably FrontPage--have their own proprietary server add-on software.

There are arguments for both approaches. For example, using Perl means your script can run on most popular Web platforms, since most have a Perl language interpreter. But it also means the server is somewhat unprotected against certain possible errors in your Perl code. Using a proprietary add-on such as FrontPage means your software will work only on machines Microsoft chooses to support, but at least in theory any errors you make are well-contained.

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What kinds of static (still) graphics can you put on your Web page?

The original Web specification allowed only for graphics in GIF, a raster (dot-by-dot) format that offers a moderate trade-off between image detail and image compression. Graphics could be inline, that is, automatically displayed, or links shown when you click on their anchor. If you use GIF images, you can be sure that all Web browsers that display graphics will be able to handle them.

However, if you have larger or more complex graphics, you may want to use JPEG compression instead. This format provides better compression, and so, faster load times, by eliminating some information that isn't critical to our perception of the image. Most major browsers now support JPEG images as well.

If you expect visitors to your site to have or be willing to download and install extra plug-ins, you can also select from more than a dozen other static graphics formats. See the Netscape plug-in page for a list. In most cases, the plug-ins are free, but you have to buy the maker's graphics package to produce the images.

As with text, you can also translate graphics from other formats to Web-appropriate graphics. The best-known commercial product for this purpose is QuarterDeck's HiJack, but you can also find a number of alternative commercial, shareware, and freeware products at the World Wide Web Consortium filters and translators page .

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How do you get information back from the readers of your page?

The HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) used to communicate between Web servers on host machines and the browser programs that show you Web pages includes a feature for reading data. But the processing of that data is left to programs you supply.

The simplest method that gets data from your readers is the Mailto link. This is a special tag you add to your page, which readers can click to open an e-mail document with an address you specify--an address that presumably connects back to you. You get the result in your mailbox just like any other piece of Internet e-mail. Any of the HTML tutorials mentioned in this section has detailed instructions.

If you need to provide more structure for the reader than a blank mail message, or if you want the system to react to their inputs, you'll need a more complex server-side script or program.

Up until recently, almost all of that processing was done by writing programs in the Perl scripting language that connected to the server program using a standard called the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). Just about all servers stillsupport this interface, and scripts themselves have become known as "CGIs."

If you're interested in more complex interactions or different authoring systems, you have plenty of other choices. The Java language developed by Sun Microsystems and Microsoft's ActiveX technology are the most heavily promoted, but you can also try a growing number of alternatives based on new technologies or adaptations of existing database or multimedia programs. And if you like to get under the hood, you can even write CGIs in C++, Python, or even more obscure languages. See The Web Developer's Virtual Link Library for a good introduction.

Note that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may or may not allow you to run CGI scripts on your pages, and other software--such as the Perl interpreter or Java Virtual Machine--may be necessary. Contact your ISP if you are unsure of this.

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How do you add multimedia elements to your Web page?

If static graphics and text aren't enough to present your message on the Web, you can add multimedia elements as well. Providing that your readers have the right hardware, software, and Web connection, you can offer them Web pages with sound, animation, and even approximations of television-style video.

However, you should consider carefully the technical profile of your audience before you add such elements. Each brand of browser supports only some types of multimedia. Performance of multimedia elements also depends on the type of connection and the network load. Users who sign on to the Web using one of the large commercial services such as America Online or CompuServe may not be able to use any of these multimedia features at all. Many machines, especially those in business, lack sound-output capability. Some surveys say up to 25 percent of Web users are either using character-based terminals or turning graphics off for greater speed. If you decide to go ahead, you'll have to decide from among dozens of different software packages and approaches.

If simple "page-flip" style animation is enough--that is, animation made by showing a series of similar images in sequence--you may be able to get by, just by creating the right kind of graphics files. As explained in exquisite detail at GIF Animation on the WWW, the GIF89a standard allows one file to contain a full set of images plus a value for the interval between the showing of successive pictures. Almost all browsers now support this feature, but you may need to switch to one of the programs listed there to produce the appropriate files.

With a little bit more trouble, you can have the server send sequences of images to the browser or have the browser ask for new images at short intervals. For details, check Netscape's Exploration of Dynamic Documents. Besides taking a bit more programming, this server push and client pull can respectively load up your connection and annoy users who don't want you taking control of their browser.

If you need more complex media types, such as coordinated sound and images, it's usually easiest to use a packaged multimedia product, such as Macromedia Director, equipped for Web output. You design your elements as normal multimedia objects, then output them in a special Web format. Your multimedia files are then downloaded to viewers of your page by the server, much as it would send out static images.

In most cases, however, viewers of your page will have to add a corresponding plug-in--in this Macromedia Director example, the Shockwave plug-in--so the browser knows how to present the received data. Check the complete guide to Netscape-compatible plug-ins. For Microsoft's view, see the company's plug-in page.

While playback plug-ins are usually free, some authoring packages command hefty prices. And for such techniques as audio and video that send a real-time stream of data from server to user, you'll probably have to license a special server program or buy an add-on server hardware module.

Another possibility is to use the multimedia capabilities in the Java language, since Java playback capability is included in most newer browsers. If you want to concentrate on users with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you can alternatively use that firm's similar ActiveX technology. Code hackers can write Java code or ActiveX scripts directly, but most of us might want to first check out the list for Java tools and ActiveX tools.

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Isn't HTML obsolete? Haven't Java and ActiveX replaced HTML?

Java and ActiveX might eventually replace current methods for Web-page construction--and for a lot more, according to their proponents. But right now, these programming systems are best used to add enhanced features, such as interaction and multimedia, to standard Web pages--at least to those pages that need them.

Whatever you think of its faults and virtues, the number of resources available in HTML format guarantees this coding system an important role for many years to come.

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Steve Rosenthal practiced up with more than 1,000 previously published articles about interaction, networking, and communication before writing this one.

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