by Benoît Marchal [cis:bmarchal]
Version 2.11
January 17, 1996
Copyright © 1995-1996, Benoît Marchal. All Rights Reserved.
You may freely redistribute this document in any form for educational and
non-profit purposes provided you retain this copyright. As I do not charge for
this document, please respect my efforts and leave contact information intact.
If
you have any questions about these terms, please contact me by e-mail.
As usual I welcome comments and suggestions on this paper.
Please note that links to the CompuServe Information Service (GO...) won't work unless you use WinCIM 2.0 or better.
If you use another browser than CompuServe Mosaic, you must configure it. Please refer to the readme.wri file in the \cserve\cid directory for more information.
CompuServe has again expanded its range of Internet services with Our World, an exciting opportunity to claim your share of the Internet and publish to the ever growing Internet community.
There are plenty of good reasons to publish on the Internet, whether to promote your business, your local association, or just for fun.
CompuServe has made it very easy to create your own page if you know some basic rules. With surprisingly little investment you can achieve a real nice looking result.
This paper is a sort of road-map in Web Publishing; I do not intend to cover every aspect of Web publishing but to get you started with Our World. Please understand that it takes a book to cover Web publishing completely. In this paper I limit myself to practical advices and I point to more information when appropriate.
This document is free but if you find it helpful, please pay me a link. Although it is fun to write Web page, you may want the help of aWeb consultant. It is especially true for business pages. There are a number of Web consultants on CompuServe, I am one of them. Write to me for details.
I wrote this paper for CompuServe users and it covers Internet access and Internet publishing from CompuServe only. Since, at the time of writing, the Publishing Wizard is only available for Windows I will concentrate on Windows users. This paper does not require any previous experience with the Internet.
Until recently with the Web services available from CompuServe, you could access the Web but you could not create your own site. An early version of this document explained how to create and maintain a Web site on a third party server.
With Our World, CompuServe now offers one free megabyte of Web space to every subscriber. You can use this space for personal and business pages. However, CompuServe is developing more advanced tools for business pages.
I believe there are four steps to successfully set-up a page:
In the next sections I will review each of these steps. In the last section, I will discuss some more advanced techniques.
I suppose it is possible to write a Web page without knowing anything about the Internet but I doubt it is the easiest and most effective way. If you have never surfed the Web so far, you won't find a better time to get started: all you need is WinCIM 2.0.1 or better.
CompuServe offers two forms of access to the Internet:
Except for e-mail, all the services available under the CIM interface are also available through the PPP connection with appropriate software. At the time of writing, Web browsing is available through the PPP connection only.
All Internet services, including special forums, are available by GOing INTERNET.
To set-up and maintain your home page you will use at least a Web browser, e-mail and the Home Page Wizard. I suggest you become familiar with these services before going any further. It won't hurt if youtry other Internet applications (FTP, telnet, usenet, gopher, IRC, etc.).
Currently the World Wide Web is accessible only through the PPP connection. You must be a member of CompuServe, have a TCP/IP stack and a Web browser.
CompuServe provides all the software you need free of charge. The latest version of WinCIM, available from the WinCIM area (GO WINCIM), integrates NetLauncher. The new WinCIM has all the tools you need to connect to the Internet, including the CompuServe Dialer (a TCP/IP stack) and a new CompuServe Mosaic (a Web browser) which supports HTML extensions.
The CompuServe Dialer manages communication for Internet applications such as Mosaic. You can use almost any Internet application for Windows 3.1 with the CompuServe Dialer.
Please note that the dialer is currently a Windows 3.1 application and, although it runs smoothly on Windows 95, it will not run with Windows 95-specific applications like Microsoft Internet Explorer. It is possible to use Windows 95 applications with CompuServe if you install the Windows 95 TCP/IP stack. This is not hard but outside the scope of this article.
You can receive guidance on all aspects of Internet in the Internet New Users Forum (GO INETFORUM) or, if you speak French, in the Internet France Forum (GO INETFR). For assistance with NetLauncher or the PPP connection, visit the NetLauncher Support Forum (GO NLSUPPORT).
A Web browser, like CompuServe Mosaic, is very easy to use. In fact, it is very similar to the Windows help: some words or sentences are underlined and if you click them, the browser displays a new page with more information on the topic. The major difference is that the pages are feed from the Internet instead of your hard disk.
In Internet lingo, underlined words are known as links. When you click on a link, you follow it.
You can navigate the Web simply by following links, it's easy but it can be slow. Where areas on CompuServe have GO WORDs, pages on the Internet have URLs.
Because the Internet is a global system, URLs are longer and less user friendly than GO WORDs but otherwise they are very similar.
If you know the URL of a page, use the File|Open... dialog to jump directly to that page (OK, given the speed on the Internet, to jump may not be the most appropriate word).
File|Open Local File... opens a file from your hard disk which is faster and also cheaper than opening it from the Internet. To save a page in a file, view the page source with File|Web Page Source... Next use the File|Save As option in the source code window. You must save images separately. Right-click an image to open a menu with a Save To Disk item.
It will save you money if you learn how to view documents off-line.
CompuServe Mail has a gateway to the Internet.
Use this format to send mail to the Internet: internet:user@domain where user@domain is the address you obtained from your correspondent.
For example, my address on another system is ben@brainlink.com, from CompuServe it translates into: internet:ben@brainlink.com.
Tip! WinCIM 2.0.1 will automatically insert the internet: prefix for you when it recognises an Internet address.
Your CompuServe address for Internet users is: userid@compuserve.com where you replace the coma with a dot. E.g. my CompuServe address 100345,354 becomes 100345.354@compuserve.com on the Internet. Mind the dot!
It is a good idea to leave your e-mail address on your home page for visitors to comment.
The Home Page Wizard is CompuServe graphical environment to create and publish Web pages. You can download the Home Page Wizard from the Home Page Wizard area (GO HPWIZ).
The Wizard is supported in the NetLauncher Support Forum (GO NLSUPPORT). You will find more valuable information in the Internet Publishing Forum (GO INETPUB) or, if you speak French, in the Internet France Forum (GO INETFR).
Please note that you can use any software to create Web pages, as explained in the last section of this document, but you must use CompuServe Publishing Wizard to upload your pages to the CompuServe Web server.
The best place to learn about the Web is the Web itself. Therefore, I encourage you to surf as often as possible. Don't forget that you now wear a Web author cap and look for:
How do you find pages of interest to you? There are a variety of indexes which work like the FIND command of CompuServe. To get started, give the following sites a try:
It is best to record interesting URLs in a notebook or add them to the browser Hotlists (File|Hotlists...). I prefer to use a notebook because I can annotate the URLs. Record as much information as possible, you will use these notes when you write your page.
Tip! If you use CompuServe more than 10 hours per month, it will save you money to subscribe to the Super Value Plan (GO CHOICES).
Now it is time to write your own page!
Web pages are written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) which is an application of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language).
Thanks to CompuServe Home Page Wizard, you don't have to study HTML to create dazzling pages. The Wizard takes care of all the technical aspects.
This section explains the Home Page Wizard, gives practical advices and explains the Publishing Wizard.
When you run the wizard for the first time, it asks a few simple questions and creates a default page. You are more than welcome to modify the default page.
To edit an existing element, you only have to double-click it. Most elements have both a Text and a Style tab. The Text tab edits the content of the element while the Style tab controls how it displays.
To add elements to your pages, you click the large buttons on the toolbar:
The test button starts your favourite Web browser. It is a good
idea to carefully test you page before you upload it to CompuServe. Amongst
other things test all the external links.
Tip! Configure your browser to paint visited links in a
different colour, it is easier to see which external link you have already
tested.
The publish button starts the Publishing Wizard which I will introduce shortly. The help button is self-explanatory.
Remember that practice makes proficient.
With the help of the Wizard it is very easy to create good-looking pages. Yet a site value is its content, ease of use, etc.
There are three rules that you should keep in mind when you write Web pages:
Yet my best advice is simply to think ahead. Take a piece of paper and think how you will organise your site. For example decide which information goes on which page, etc. Try to organise your pages for easy and convenient access to information.
A typical site (non-business) may contain:
This is just one possible organisation, don't hesitate to experiment.
Last but not least, here are some advises to avoid nasty problems:
Do not wait until your site is perfect to upload it! You will gain much valuable information from the feedback of the first visitors. Remember that, unlike traditional publishing, it is very easy to modify and upload a new page. So feel free to make mistakes.
Once your site is ready and running take the time to re-read this section and see how you can improve your existing site.
The Publishing Wizard asks you a few easy questions, then it logs to the CompuServe Web server and uploads your page.
Tip! If you run Windows 95, copy the winsock.dll file from the cserve\cid\ directory to the cserve\hpwiz\ directory. To view the winsock.dll file, you may have to change the View|Options...|View|Hidden Files to Show all files.
If you have not yet registered an alphanumerical address, the Publishing Wizard will prompt you. Think twice because you cannot change that address afterward!
The initial of your first name followed by your last name (bmarchal) or your first name followed by the initial of your last name (benoitm) are typical choices, but you are not restricted in your choice.
After the Wizard has uploaded your page, it gives you the URL of your new page. Write it down carefully.
Tip! If you forget your URL, simply uploads your page again!
Your page is immediately available for you and the rest of the Internet but it usually takes a few days before it appears in the index of Our World.
Once your page is ready and running, advertise it. A page nobody visits is useless, you want others to find it. Here are some techniques:
Don't be shy and let the world knows you have a home page!
The CompuServe Home Page Wizard is very easy to use and it helps create dazzling pages. Yet it does not support every feature of HTML. As you gain experience with home page publishing, you will want to use the more powerful features of HTML and the Web.
In this last section, I will give you some tips and directions for future study -- if you are serious about Web page publishing that is.
You can link to the CompuServe Information Service from your page. Because these links are only available to CompuServe members who use WinCIM 2.0 or later, you'd better include a warning.
Create an external link in the Home Page Wizard. The URL is http://www.compuserve.com/cgi-bin/gocserve?CIS:GOWORD where you replace GOWORD with the actual GO WORD for the area. For example the URL for the France forum (GO FRFORUM) is http://www.compuserve.com/cgi-bin/gocserve?CIS:FRFORUM.
You are not limited to HTML documents and images. It is possible to publish any file (including ZIP, word processor or Acrobat documents, sound, etc.) on your Web site. This is helpful to distribute software or legacy documents. I will refer to these as binary files.
You should compress binary files with pkzip (GO PKWARE) or compatible software to speed up downloads.
Say you want to distribute a file named c:\data\miscellaneous\foo.zip (yes, I run Windows 95) through your Web site.
You will have to go through this tedious process (hit Publish, cancel the Publishing Wizard and start it separately) each time you modify your pages.
When a visitor clicks the link, he has the option to cancel the download or save it to a file.
There are many alternatives to the Home Page Wizard on the market. I fancy HoTMetaL 2.0 from SoftQuad. A free version of HoTMetaL is available to download from the SoftQuad site (http://www.sq.com/) or from the France Forum (GO FRFORUM).
HoTMetaL 2.0 is very easy to use because it works almost like a word processor. Its main advantage is that it is a validating editor. HTML files written with HoTMetaL are guaranteed to conform with the HTML standard.
Also, unlike the Home Page Wizard, HoTMetaL imports and edits existing files.
You should have a good understanding of graphics file formats like GIF and JPEG. You will find more information in the Graphics area on CompuServe (GO GRAPHICS).
You should also become more familiar with URLs. You can check A Beginner's Guide to URLs (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/url-primer.html) for more information on URLs.
HTML is not that difficult and, if you are serious about Web publishing, you should spend some time studying it. You can write HTML files with any word processor that saves as ASCII or you can use special editors, like the Home Page Wizard, but more powerful.
For a comprehensive introduction to HTML refer to A Beginner's Guide to HTML (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html).
A guide of good practice is also available from Composing Good HTML (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/cgh/).
Also check How to put information on the Web (http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Provider/Overview.html) for general information on Web documents.
Experiment and have fun!
This document is available from selected CompuServe forums and from the World Wide Web at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bmarchal/hp4cs.htm. If you find it useful, please link to it from your pages.