- What Are Web Pages?
- How Do You Actually Make a Web Page?
- It Can Be This Easy
- Format the Text
- Change the Colors
- Create Links
- Make an Email Link
- Add a Graphic
- What Are Layers?
- Make a Table
- Absolute vs. Relative Table Widths
- What Are Frames?
- Add Code, If You Like
- Build More Pages
- Then What?
- Self-Guided Tour of the Web
- Oh Boy, Its a Quiz!
How Do You Actually Make a Web Page?
To make a web page, you could, as we’ve discussed, write the code to create the page yourself. At first, that was the only way to do it. Now there are a number of web authoring software packages that let you create a web page as easily as you make a word processing page: You type the text you want on the page. You select text and make it bolder, bigger, smaller, or italic by clicking buttons. You center the text, or align it to the left or right by clicking buttons. You import a graphic by clicking a button. You tell the text to line up along the right side of the graphic or at the bottom of it by clicking buttons. You create links to text and graphics by selecting the item and typing in the address of the link, or just dragging-and-dropping. You can even create certain “behaviors” like rollovers (where a graphic changes when the pointer “rolls over” a button) with a few clicks.
Because there are so many different software packages and several different platforms (kinds of computers) to use them on, there is no way we can provide step-by-step directions for every program. And besides, if we did this book would be outdated instantly. So what we’re going to do in this book is tell you the things that apply to every program—how to make your graphics, how to name your files, how to get your web site posted on the World Wide Web, etc. It will be up to you to learn to use the individual software package you choose. Trust me, though, it’s easy to make a web page (to make a well-designed web page, however, takes a little more care).
To make web pages without writing any code, you need a web authoring software package. Listed below are some free and commercial packages and their approximate prices (which may change, of course). Most of them are available for both Macintosh and Windows.
Mozilla Composer |
free |
www.mozilla.org (comes as part of the Mozilla Internet suite) |
|
Nvu |
free |
www.Nvu.com (stand-alone application based on Mozilla Composer) |
|
Adobe GoLive |
$399 |
Macromedia Dreamweaver [*] |
$399 |
NetObjects Fusion |
$200 |
www.NetObjects.com (PC only) |
|
Microsoft FrontPage |
$199 |
www.Microsoft.com/frontpage (PC only) |
For beginners or those on a tight budget, try Mozilla Composer. It’s free, relatively easy to learn, and has plenty of features that will have you designing great web sites in no time.