PREVIEWING YOUR WORK:
 At any time during this process, you can preview what you have done so far by opening your HTML document with your browser. You do not have to be connected to the internet to do this. You must have all the files for the page (HTML, image, etc.) saved in the same directory, such as on the same floppy disk or a folder on your hard drive.
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer:
  1. open Internet Explorer
  2. in the upper tool bar click on FILE.......OPEN
  3. in the pop-up box click on BROWSE, then where it says LOOK IN, select the drive where you have saved your page's files (such as floppy A). When the list of files appears, double-click on the HTML file you want to preview.
  4. in the pop-up box click OK and your page will open.


If you are using Netscape Navigator:
  1. open Netscape
  2. in the upper tool bar click on FILE.......OPEN FILE
  3. in the pop-up box click on BROWSE, then where it says LOOK IN, select the drive where you have saved your page's files (such as floppy A). When the list of files appears, double-click on the HTML file you want to preview and your page will open.

You will notice that your page looks a bit different in each of the browsers, so it is good to try it out in both before publishing as your visitors could be using either one.


PUBLISHING YOUR PAGE:
 You will need a hosting service for your site. This will be a server where your page's files will be stored so that your visitors can access them. You may or may not have to pay for this service. Commercial sites almost always have to pay, however there are several free options for personal page sites:
  • Your own internet service provider (ISP) may offer you a limited amount of free space so that is a good place to start. America Online provides its members with 10 MB of free space.
  • Several companies offers free space for personal pages in exchange for an ad banner or pop-up which they will place on your site. You can check them out:
    Geo Cities      Tripod      Angelfire


Where ever you choose, you will need to carefully read their rules and abide by them. You will also need an FTP (file transfer protocol) program to use in uploading the files to this server. Don't panic! This will not be a problem. America Online has already included this in their service and Netscape Navigator has one built in that will work with Geo Cities and Tripod. If you do not have Netscape, you may download it free here.


I will walk you through the publishing process for the America Online and the Geo Cities servers. You will find that Tripod and Angelfire are similar to Geo Cities.
publishing on AOL      publishing on Geo Cities



PUBLISHING YOUR PAGE ON AOL:
 America Online calls their FTP area "My Place" and they allow members 2 megabytes of space for each screen name (total of 10 MB in all). You must be an AOL subscriber to access this service. Each screen name's space would be treated as separate web sites, but you can link them all together as if they were one. Just remember that when linking a page that is on one screen name with a page on another screen name, you would need to use the entire URL in the ANCHOR tag.

So now you are going to upload the files for your web site to AOL. Uploading means putting a copy of a file that's on your computer onto the computers, called "servers," at AOL. Follow these easy steps:
  1. Go to Keyword: My Place.
  2. . Click My FTPspace. A window showing all of the directories and files in your FTPspace appears.
  3. Click UPLOAD.
  4. In the Remote FileName field, enter a name for the file. If you are creating HTML files or uploading multimedia files for a Web site, you must retain the exact name of your HTML documents. For example, if you upload an image that will appear on a home page ("bird.gif"), you must place "bird.gif" in the Remote Name field without the quotation marks.
  5. Identify the type of file you're uploading--either binary or ASCII. Your HTML files are ASCII, all the others are binary.
  6. Click CONTINUE.
  7. In the Upload File window, click Select FILE, browse your directories and select the file you want to upload. The name of the file appears in the box. (notice that you might have to click on the FILE TYPE area and select "ALL FILES" in order to find your image files)
  8. In the UPLOAD FILE window, click SEND FILE. The file uploads to your FTPspace.

Simple, huh? Do this for each of the files for your site. In the case of our example, you would need to upload the following files:
  • index.html
  • sky.jpg
  • bird.gif
  • sflogo.gif
AOL designates the URL of your page as
http://members.aol.com/tweeter/index.html
notice that there are 4 parts to the URL:
  • first is http://     that is the way most URLs begin
  • then members.aol.com/     the name of the server where your files are stored
  • then tweeter     your own screen name would appear here
  • and last index.html     the name of the file of your opening page

There are other functions in the "My Place" area (deleting files, changing names of files, etc.) Instructions can be found in the read-me file that is there.


PUBLISHING YOUR PAGE ON GEO CITIES:
 Geo Cities offers 11 MB of free space in exchange for ad banners or pop-ups placed on your page (more about the ads later). The first step is to sign up.

REGISTERING WITH GEO CITIES:
  1. Go to the Geo Cities web site and click on the link that says "join now".
  2. When asked to choose your membership, unless you want to pay for a premium site, then choose "free personal home page program", then click the "join" button at the bottom of the page.
  3. You will be asked to fill out a form, then click on the "I agree" button at the bottom of the page. Your GeoCities registration confirmation and password will be sent to you in email (usually within minutes of registering).
  4. You will be asked to choose a "neighborhood" that reflects the theme of your page, then you will "move into" an empty site in that neighborhood.
  5. When you receive the email with your password, go to the Geo file manager. Use the Netscape browser to do this, then you can take advantage of the built-in FTP feature. Once there, click on the "enter the file manager" button.
  6. When asked, type in your "member name" and "password" and click on "OK".
  7. That will take you to your personal file space. Scroll down til you see "EZ File Upload". (If you do not see the grey "BROWSE" buttons beside the entry areas, then you do not have the built in FTP function).
  8. You might want to click the box "convert all file names to lower case". It is a good idea to make all your file names all lower case letters. That way you will not have a problem with the fact that they are case sensitive and must be the same in the HTML document as in the file name. Because sometimes the computer wants to make the first letter of your file name a capital even though you typed a lower case letter, this feature will insure that the file names are changed back to all lower case as you upload them.
  9. Press the "BROWSE" button to search for the file you want to upload. Click on the file you want and then click on "open". You will now should have a path and file name in the file window. You may list as many as 5 files at a time, then click on the "Upload Files" button. As you upload your files they will appear listed on your file manager page. In the case of our example, you would need to upload the following files:
    • index.html
    • sky.jpg
    • bird.gif
    • sflogo.gif
  10. There are other functions of the file manager and the Geo help feature has explanations that you can go through later. There is, however one more thing that you might want to do at this point. Remember those ad banners and pop-ups that you agreed to allow Geo Cities to put on your pages? Well, you have some choices here. If you do nothing, annoying pop-up windows with ads will appear each time your page is accessed. Also the browser will not display your page's URL in the URL window making it difficult for visitors to bookmark your page. Your option is to use the "GeoGuide". Click on the "GeoGuide Manager" button.
  11. Follow the easy steps to set up your GeoGuide, then activate your GeoGuide. Part of the instructions will tell you to place the following in your HTML document right under the BODY tag:
    <!--#geoguide-->
     Geo Cities will then automatically add a Java script to your page's document that places an ad banner at the top of your page. Awful! I agree......but that is the price for the "free" pages. You are given the choice of limiting those ads to those "suitable for any viewer" and I suggest you do so!
  12. Geo Cities designates the URL of your page as
    http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/2107/index.html
    notice that there are 6 parts to the URL and each part is separated with a slash:
    • first is http://     that is the way most URLs begin
    • then www.geocities.com/     the name of the server where your files are stored
    • then Heartland/     the neighborhood you chose would appear here
    • then Valley/     the neighborhood section you chose would appear here
    • then 2107/     your assigned site number would appear here
    • and last index.html     the name of the file of your opening page



    KEEP BACK-UP FILES:
     Now that your page is published and your files are stored on the server, you will want to be sure and keep back-up copies of those files. They can be used to reload your page in case something goes wrong at your server and you will need them to work on additions to your site.


    PROMOTING YOUR PAGE:
     You can now be very proud of the page you have created all on your own. You will want to now write the pages for the rest of your web site. Then you will ready to show your family and friends.....and the whole world your site. You can:
    1. send the URL to your friends and family, inviting them to come view your site
    2. list with the search engines
    3. go leave a message with your URL (sort of a calling card) in the guest books of other pages
    4. offer to link other pages in exchange for a link to your page



    Are you ready to learn to add the "bells and whistles" now?

    Well pack your bags.... you are now headed to "HTML COLLEGE" where you can learn even more! Try adding some of the extras to your site such as using special fonts, adding sound, and using "lists" and "tables" to better align things on your page. Then go on to the advanced extras such as using JAVA scripts, image maps, and CGI on your page.

    click to continue
    or go to:
    [ HOME , lesson 1 , lesson 2 , lesson 3
    extras , advanced extras , colors , graduation ]



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