PC User Online Live! Help
Net sites: For Web authors
Software
Net Guides
Net Guides
Search Wizard
Tech Wizard
Starter Kit
School PC
Whether you're starting out Web authoring or an experienced coder, there a plenty of tutorials and tools to make things easier.

 

HTML basics
Web authoring tools
Advanced techniques
A place for your Web site
HTML editors & tools

 

HTML basics

Webreference
http://www.webreference.com
Bandwidth: Medium
Best viewing: Any browser
Rating: 6/10

Webreference contains a really useful selection of articles on all things Webby, from creating your own homepage to Java coding to preventing repetitive strain injury while surfing. Some of it is for beginners, but there's also useful material for more advanced HTML coders.

Bandwidth Conservation Society
http://www.infohiway.com/faster/
Rating: 6/10

Aimed at preserving bandwidth by creating sleeker, better designed pages, this is an interesting read for all Web designers.

HTML Goodies
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
Rating: 8/10

Crammed with all sorts of great tools and tutorials, showing this page to a new Web page designer is akin to letting a kid loose in a lolly shop.

How do they do that with HTML?
http://www.nashville.net/~carl/htmlguide/
Rating: 8/10

Guides to HTML, the lingua franca of the World Wide Web, have been too numerous and fairly boring. This site pulls away from the pack because it concentrates on how to create the flashy, fun stuff including background sounds, browser detection and dynamic documents.

NCSA -- A Beginner's Guide to HTML
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/
HTMLPrimerAll.html
Rating: 6/10

This is a sort of `classic' HTML page. It doesn't look too crash hot but it does explain the very basics of HTML nicely.

Netscape's Creating Net Sites
http://home.netscape.com/home/how-to-create-web-services.html
Rating: 6/10

A safe and simple place to start your quest into the sometimes hazardous land of Web page creation.

The HTML Guru!
http://user06.blue.aol.com/htmlguru/
Rating: 6/10

Ask the HTML Guru and question you want or simply rifle through his/her huge database of answers. There are some very clever tips to be picked up from this page, not to mention some of the exceptional HTML-related links.

Top 10 Mistakes
http://www.sun.com/960416/columns/alertbox/
Rating: 8/10

For every really good Web page you see there are probably 10 really bad ones. If you don't want a garishly ugly page that is extremely user-unfriendly take some of the advice found on this page.

Yale WWW Style Manual
http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/StyleManual_Top.HTML
Rating: 8/10

Discussing topics like site structure and a page's actual design, this page addresses many topics that are too often neglected.

 

Web authoring tools

Animation Plantation
http://lisp.com.au/~leah/POA/POA.htm
Rating: 8/10

From creepy eyes that follow your every move to ants that crawl across your Web page the Animation Plantation has it all! If you want an image that moves, it is undoubtedly here.

Colour Selector Page
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Lindsay/colours.html
Rating: 8/10

No matter what the colour, this page automatically generates the appropriate HTML code for backgrounds and text. All you have to do is cut and paste it into your Web page!

Link Exchange
http://www.linkexchange.com/
Rating: 8/10

A wonderful example of bartering on the Net, Link Exchange will boost the number of hits your page receives by swapping links with another page. It is a great concept and considering that they now have a network of over 50,000 Web sites, it must work!

Public Domain CGI Script Archive
http://www.eff.org/~erict/Scripts/
Rating: 8/10

CGI scripts for free? Yep, believe it or not this generous programmer has uploaded a whole stack of CDI scripts for you to use on your page!

Submit-It!
http://www.submit-it.com
Rating: 8/10

Rather than visiting the ever increasing number of search engines to submit your URL, go to Submit-It!

Texture Land
http://www.meat.com/textures/
Rating: 8/10

Want a 3D background to jazz up your page? At Texture Land you can download anything from a nice wood panel look to metal studs. It's all free unless you are using it for commercial purposes.

Web-Counter
http://www.webaid.com/
Rating: 8/10

Keeping track of how many people visit your page generally requires a counter -- there are plenty of styles to choose from here. The price is a mere link back to the Web-Counter homepage.

Web Page Validation Service
http://www.webtechs.com/html-val-svc/
Rating: 8/10

If you are new to HTML and or even if you're not, this page will automatically check your code to ensure that everything works.

WWW.WEBTECHNIQUES.COM
http://www.webtechniques.com
Rating: 6/10

A type of news service that also contains links and other useful information. This site is for experienced Web page designers interested in news from the world of Web publishing.

 

Advanced techniques

Webreference
http://www.webreference.com
Bandwidth: Medium
Best viewing: Any browser
Rating: 6/10

Webreference contains a really useful selection of articles on all things Webby, from creating your own homepage to Java coding to preventing repetitive strain injury while surfing. Some of it is for beginners, but there's also useful material for more advanced HTML coders.

Imagemap Help Page
http://www.hway.com/ihip/
Rating: 6/10

If you can't get your head around creating imagemaps then this is a one-stop tutorial shop that will show you how.

Jay's guide to Frames
http://www.columbia.edu/%7Ejll32/html/frame.html
Rating: 6/10

Frames are one of the coolest functions of the Web, however they're also one of the hardest functions to learn. Jay's guide to Frames provides the basics to frames so that you can construct your own.

Learning JavaScript
http://rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de/~skoch/js/script.htm
Rating: 8/10

A great site for beginners and advanced Java programmers. View the beginners tutorial online or download it but if you want something a little more challenging try Kneedeep in Java.

Microsoft Site Builder Network
http://www.microsoft.com/sitebuilder/
Rating: 6/10

If you are using Microsoft products to design Web pages, or you prefer to optimise your page for use with Internet Explorer, make an effort to pop in to their SiteBuilder page.

The Netscape Frames Tutorial
http://www.newbie.net/frames/
Rating: 8/10

If you really feel the need to use frames on your page, this is one of the better places to educate yourself. This guy's motto is `learn by doing' so you are taught by example and will probably be an expert in not time.

The Web Developer's Virtual Library
http://www.stars.com/
Rating: 8/10

A fantastic all-in-one site with a number of high-end topics like Perl and VRML.

 

A place for your Web site

Geocities
http://www.geocities.com
Bandwidth: Medium
Best viewing: Frames-capable browser
Rating: 9/10

Looking for a place to set up your own Web page? Geocities offers free Web sites to anyone wanting to set up a Web page. There are a few restrictions -- all quite reasonable -- the most important being you can't use your site for purely commercial purposes. The sites in GeoCities are organised into 'neighbourhoods' based on a common theme or interest. If you want to build a site that focuses on your love of nature, pick a vacant building lot in the Rainforest or Yosemite neighbourhoods; or perhaps you'd like to rub shoulders with fellow computer enthusiasts in Silicon Valley. Geocities also provides online HTML editing tools -- although you'll probably find it much easier to edit offline and upload your pages -- and a simple uploading utility to help publish your site (you need Netscape 2.0 for this -- otherwise, you can use a simple FTP procedure to upload your site).

 

HTML editors & tools

Looking for an HTML editor? There are plenty to choose from:

AmiWeb Toolkit for AmiPro
http://tawny.cs.nott.ac.uk/~sbx/amiweb.html

Cmed
http://www.iap.net.au/~cmathes/

CorelWEB
http://www.corel.com/text/corelweb/webdesigner/

FrontPage
http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/frontpage/

HomeSite
http://www.dexnet.com/homesite.html

HotDog
http://www.sausage.com/

HotMetal
http://www.sq.com/

HTML Assistant
http://www.brooknorth.com/

HTML Writer
http://lal.cs.byu.edu/people/nosack/

HTMLed
http://www.ist.ca/

Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word
http://www.microsoft.com/msword/internet/ia/

Macromedia -- FreeHand Graphics Studio
http://www.macromedia.com/software/fgs/

Navigator Gold
http://www.netscape.com/

SpiderPad
http://www.sixlegs.com/spidrpad.htm

WebEdit
http://www.nesbitt.com/

 

About these links

We work hard to ensure these links are correct at all times, but because of the Internet's dynamic nature, they may change at very short notice. Please e-mail us now if you've found a bad link, or if you have or have found sites you'd like to be included. Also, because of the above, users follow these links at their own risk. PC User takes no reponsibility for any offensive sites that the user might encounter.

 

  Full text ©1996 Australian Consolidated Press