PREFACE:
Some ISPs do not support home web sites. So check with your ISP first and determine what they do and do not support.
Before creating your website consider these two things: What do you want to convey, and how are you going to organize it. Organization is very important. A disorganized web site makes it difficult for people to browse your web site and find information. You construct this organization by creating web pages and linking them to each other.
A web site is a collection of linked web pages. Each web page is a file. What you are reading now is a web page. What you can see here by using your scroll bars is contained in one web page or one file. Each web page file contains special code that the lasercannon web server and your browser can interpret.
This special code is called Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). HTML filenames have an extension of .htm or .html like test.htm as an example. HTML is a programming language. You can use any simple text editor program to write your own code and save it to a file like notepad as an example.
There are many resources for the HTML programming language including books, CDs, and on-line listings. However, you do not need to know HTML to create your own web pages. There are many Graphical User Interface (GUI) programs that allow you to create web pages.
Building your own website is fun and easy if you use the right tools! I suggest using Microsoft® products if you are already familiar with their products. If not, there are quite a lot of web page development applications available.
There are two basic considerations. The first is for those whose Internet Service Provider (ISP), does NOT support Microsoft® Frontpage® server extensions. The second method is for those lucky people whose ISP DOES support Microsoft® Frontpage® server extensions.
If Your ISP Does Not Support Microsoft® Frontpage® Server Extensions:
The process takes two steps. First create a web page and secondly put it on your web site. There are many programs available to create your web pages and put them on your web site.
If you use Microsoft® Office® 97 or earlier, download the internet assistant for your choice of Microsoft® Word®, Excel®, or Powerpoint® and install it. Use the help dialog and learn what options are available. When you are done creating your homepage, save it as either default.htm or index.htm. This filename is determined by your ISP, so check with them for the correct name. Microsoft® Publisher® also does a fine job of creating web pages.
If you have Microsoft Office 2000®, you can publish directly from any office application to the web. You first setup a 'web folder' for your web site and then save to that web folder from within Office 2000.
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® can be installed with an optional component called Frontpage Express® or FrontpadTM. FrontpadTM is a downsized version of the full featured Frontpage®.
Netscape® CommunicatorTM has an optional component that can be used to create your web pages called Netscape® ComposerTM.
You can use Microsoft® Frontpage® to create a web site even if your ISP does not have the server extensions installed, but many of the special features will not work.
After you have created your web page(s), you must put them on your web space provided by your ISP. Use the Microsoft® Publishing Wizard® if your ISP supports it, or alternatively, if your ISP supports File Transfer Protocol (FTP), download an FTP client and install it. You can find an FTP client through the Shareware page. Then use the FTP client to transfer your web pages from your computer to your ISP's computer.
If Your ISP Does Supports Microsoft® Frontpage® Server Extensions:
Buy the commercial version of Microsoft® Frontpage® 97, 98, or 2000. You will be very pleased with the product. It provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for creating and organizing your web site and automates the transfer of web pages to the server. You can even create and modify your pages directly on the server without having to save them on your computer. As an example, this entire lasercannon web site was created with Microsoft Frontpage. It was very easy to do and took very little time. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to create this site without it.
For instance, creating graphics like the animated buttons you see at the top of each page on this site took a lot of time to create. However, I only had to create one set of blanks. By using shared borders, themes, and navigation bots, the Frontpage® server extensions automatically create the text to put on each one. Otherwise, I would have had to create hundreds of buttons manually for each page. With Frontpage®, all I have to do is click on create a new web page button and 'poof' all the buttons are already there. If I were doing this manually, I'd still be making them...and I wouldn't have the time to write this content.
You can also get a trial version from Microsoft® or use the Free FrontpadTM utility that comes with Microsoft® Internet Explorer®. Be aware however, the trial version expires and FrontpadTM is very limited.
EITHER WAY:
Even if your ISP does not support Microsoft® Frontpage® extensions, you can still use Microsoft Frontpage® with your ISP. You won't get all of the handy built in functions like hit counters and search bots, but the site management and organization ability will still be present.
Be sure to checkout
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OTHER SOURCES:
JAVA:
JAVA can add pizzazz to your web pages. There are tons of JAVA scripts and JAVA programs out there. Some are free while others are not. The following link is usually pretty busy so be patient. You can also search for 'free java' on any search engine and find a bunch more.
