CJ Ellen: Good evening and welcome to AnswerMan. Kevin Savetz, Netanswers, is your host tonight. Kevin, we have a great topic for tonight and I know everyone in the audience is eager to hear about it.
Netanswers: Hi everyone. Hi Ellen.
CJ Ellen: Take it away. :)
Netanswers: OK! Tonight's topic is making your own Web page with HTML. If you've cruised the Web, you've seen "home pages", peoples' and businesses' spaces on the Web. If you've thought about making your own Web page, you can do that! Every AOL account includes the ability to let its user create a site, or "home page," on the World Wide Web. This isn't a difficult thing to do, but it does take a bit of practice and patience.
Netanswers: The key to making a Web page is learning HyperText Markup Language --HTML-- a simple programming language that lets you design Web pages. Having a Web page doesn't cost you anything over your normal AOL monthly rate. As long as you have an AOL account, you can have a Web page at no extra cost. Anyone on the Internet will be able to access your Web page any time of the day or night, whether or not you are logged in to AOL.
Netanswers: The basic steps for creating a Web page are:
1) come up with an idea. That is, you have to have something to share with the world, hopefully something interesting :-) -- information about yourself, your business, whatever.
2) On your personal computer, create the Web page..I'll talk about specifics in a moment. Basically, you create HTML file(s) and graphics, and preview the Web page on your system.
3) Upload those files to AOL (I'll explain how in a while.)
4) That's it--the world now has access to your Web page.
CJ Ellen: Kevin, we have a basic question from the audience. FoxSimpson wants to know:
Question: Where can you get the software to make a home page?
Netanswers: You already have all the software you need to make a home page--a basic word processor or even a text editor like SimpleText (Mac) or NotePad (Windows). There are several specialized HTML editors available as well, but frankly, I don't think they're that useful. These programs can make it easier to make Web pages without learning the commands (called tags), but frankly, the tags aren't hard to learn, and knowing them gives you a better understanding of what's really going on with your Web page. So, you _can_ go to the AOL file search area and look for "HTML editor", but you can use software you already have.
Netanswers : OK, so what about HTML? HTML is just a plain old boring text file, embedded with special "tags." Tags are simple commands which effect your page: text size and style, onscreen graphics, links to other Web pages and so on. For instance, if you want to "emphasize" text (which makes your text stand out), you use the <em> tag. Your HTML file might look like this:
Netanswers: This is plain old boring text <em>But this is emphasized!</em> Now we're back to normal. The <em> turns on emphasis, the </em> turns it back off. This is the way to do most tags. The slash turns it off. If you want bigger text (call headline) you can have those. <h1> produces the "biggest" headline, <h2> makes a slightly smaller one, all the way down to <h6>, a tiny little headline. Once you turn on any style using a tag, you need to remember to shut it off (with </h1> or </h2> and so on) when you're done with that style, and want to return to "normal" text.
Netanswers: Now all you need to know is what different tags are available. I'm not going to explain them ALL -- there are already several excellent online references which give all the details of tags and formatting. The following Web pages will help you to become an HTML expert in no time:
Netanswers : You may also want to include graphics within your Web page. To do this, you can use any graphics program that can create GIF or JPEG images. (I like PaintShop Pro on Windows and GifConverter on the Mac.) You can create your art, save it in GIF format, and have the graphics be part of the web page.
CJ Ellen: Kevin, TSTsuchida wants to know:
Question: I just want to know how I can upload WWW pages to AOL.
Netanswers: Once your Web page is finished, you'll need to upload it from your computer to AOL's system. Since people might want to access your Web page any time of the day or night, the files need to be on AOL. AOL's computer is connected to the Internet 24 hours a day; your computer is not. Here's how to copy the files to AOL:
Netanswers: 1) Log on to AOL. Go to keyword: FTP. Read the instructions on how to upload to your personal FTP space, if you haven't yet. Then press the GO TO FTP button.
2) Press the OTHER SITE button, then enter "members.aol.com" in the OTHER SITE box. You'll be looking at your personal FTP/Web site directory.
3) Press the UPLOAD button and follow the prompts to upload your Web page material. Use TEXT mode for HTML code files and BINARY mode for any images files.
4) When that's done, you can quit the FTP tool and run your Web browser. Your page is now on the Web! The URL for your home page is http://members.aol.com/YOURSCREENNAME/YOURFILENAME
Netanswers: For instance, if your screen name is "netanswers" and the main HTML file that you uploaded is called "answerman.html", then the URL of your home page would be: http://members.aol.com/netanswers/answerman.html When creating a Web page on my home computer, I usually create a directory, and put all my working documents in there: the HTML file, any images files that I want to add, and so on.
Netanswers: You can use your Web browser to preview that page before you even upload it to America Online. Your editor will show you the HTML version of your page, complete with tags. When you want to see what your page will look like on the Web:
1) Save your HTML document to your hard disk.
2) Load your Web browser. You DON'T have to be logged in to do this.
3) Pick "Open file" from the FILE menu of the Web browser. On some browsers this is called "Open Local." This will let you see a Web page on your hard disk instead of one on the Internet. Point it to your HTML file that you saved earlier.
4) Your Web page will appear, complete with formatting and graphics.
5) If you don't like what you see, you can switch back to your editor, make changes, save them, switch back to the browser, and "reload" the page to instantly see the results. (Assuming you have enough memory for both applications at once.) Once you are satisfied with your page, you can log in to AOL and upload it.
CJ Ellen: Andros101 has a question about quantity:
Question: Hi, I'd be curious to know if it's possible to have more than one web page: say one personal one, and then a club/interest one as well. Thanks!
Netanswers: Well, each AOL screen name may have up to 2 megs of files in that Web space directory. You can have a virtually unlimited number of files in there. So you could have 10 individual "home pages" in there. Also, remember that every AOL account can have up to 5 screen names, so you can have a total of 10 megs of files.
Netanswers: Oh, by the way, if you're as bad an artist as I am, you'd appreciate some decent, ready-to-use graphics. AOL has a lot of them ready to go. They're in http://members.aol.com/public/images -- there is lots of good art there, so check it out. You don't even have to copy those graphics to your own Web space--you can just "point" to them elsewhere on the AOL server.
CJ Ellen: Sounds more like a patchwork quilt than a home page :). Kevin, we have a question from a curious audience member. FoxSimpson would like to know:
Question: What is one of your home pages?
Netanswers: My personal home page is at the URL http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/ (OK, it's not on AOL, sorry :-) There I've put a lot of information about the Internet, including a few dozen articles I've written about the Internet. I also have a couple of "useless" Web pages, like Foam Bath Fish Time (at http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/fishtime ) and Kevin's Fridge Magnets (at http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/fridge ) -- hard to explain, but fun.
CJ Ellen: A question from Andros101 for the AnswerMan:
Question: Also, why is it that one page can look so different, depending on the computer you are using?
Netanswers: There are a lot of different Web browsers out there, and you can't control how they all work. Each one displays things a little bit differently. Chances are that if your Web page looks good (or bad) on your screen, it will look good (or bad) on others. Even if it doesn't look exactly the same.
CJ Ellen: Matt V D asks:
Question: I have seen flashing text on some pages. How is that done?
Netanswers: With the <blink> tag. You can use <blink> to turn flashing text on and </blink> to turn it back off. Not all browsers support blinking text. Also, be forewarned that a lot of Web users really hate blinking text. Myself, I think that blinking should be used sparingly. Too hard to read.
CJ Ellen: Kevin, let's take a short break here. We had a couple of questions of where this information you're discussing tonight is available, and I thought you might like to tell the audience about AnswerMan.
Netanswers: Sure. AnswerMan is AOL's area for Internet "newbies" -- beginners. If you go to keyword: ANSWERMAN, you'll be there. There you'll find the ASK ANSWERMAN message board, where you can post questions about using the Internet, a daily ANSWER OF THE DAY, and a Q&A section called ACCESSING THE INTERNET VIA AOL. Lots of common questions are answered in there. And we recently added a glossary of Internet terms, too.
CJ Ellen: Thanks, Kevin. We have a question from Patrici74:
Question: Great info! Can a Web home page be interactive? Like, add-on stories can be fun. Each person adds a paragraph or page, page displays each entry? Web pages can be interactive, but I don't think it can be done with AOL Web pages. Even if they could, they're pretty difficult to set up. Interactive Web pages require that you understand something called cgi-bin and a programming language like Perl. And AOL isn't set up to handle those things.
CJ Ellen: Talking about interactive, DrainUS asks:
Question: How do you make scrolling text?
Netanswers: Ooh, a tough one. Scrolling text is a very recent, unofficial addition to HTML. I _think_ it is done with the <banner> tag, but I'm not sure. Scrolling text only works in a couple of Web browsers, so I haven't seen it in action often yet.
CJ Ellen: Here's a question from Matt V D about getting clip art from the web:
Question: Are there any Web sites that have good clip art to use on my home page?
Netanswers: Yes! I mentioned AOL's clip art repository earlier, at http://members.aol.com/public/images. You can also find a lot of other clip art repositories listed at Yahoo, if you go to http://www.yahoo.com and search for "clip art," you'll get a big list of them.
Netanswers: Oh. Some more information about HTML. The HTML information pages that I listed earlier will teach you the basics of HTML. The following guides are also worth a look. They concentrate on HTML "style." That is, creating good-looking, readable Web pages.
Netanswers: If you need yet more information, check out Netscape's pointers on creating net sites: http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/index.html
CJ Ellen: RCastle3 asks:
Question: When you click on a highlighted keyword, how does the program know to go to that area?
Netanswers: Magic?
CJ Ellen: LOL!
Netanswers: Well, as part of the HTML that you (or someone) created, each hypertext link (highlighted word or phrase) "points to" a specific URL (address). In HTML, the coding looks like this:
Click <a href=http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/>here</a> to go to Kevin's Home Page<p>
Netanswers : That will show the phrase "Click here to go to Kevin's Home Page". The word "here" will be a hypertext link, and if you click on it, you will go to http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/. The <a> tag means "anchor". The </a> means "end of the anchor" (end of the highlighted text.)
CJ Ellen: Kevin, that's about it for tonight.
Netanswers: Awwww.
CJ Ellen: We have had several questions about finding this information on AOL. Any suggestions?
Netanswers: Well, tomorrow the transcript of this session will be available. If you go to keyword: ANSWERMAN and press CHAT WITH ANSWERMAN and then press WHAT WE'VE TALKED ABOUT, you'll find the transcript there. And if you have questions that I didn't get to, feel free to post them in the Web category of the ASK ANSWERMAN message board.
Netanswers: Ellen, can I come back tomorrow and talk about the basics of e-mail? Keyword:AMChat
CJ Ellen: Sure. We'll meet you in the AnswerMan Conference Room at 9 P.M. ET.
Netanswers: Cool! :-) If you don't really grok e-mail, or you don't think you're using it to its full potential, come on by at 9 P.M. Eastern (6 P.M. Pacific) and I'll fill you in.
CJ Ellen: Thanks, Kevin. Goodnight everyone!
Netanswers: Thanks for coming folks. Thanks for the help, Ellen.
