--------------------------------------- Boring disclaimer bit. Please note: Everything in this document is my own, personal opinion. It is not an official Zetnet document and the information and views expressed herein are not necessarily that of zetnet or any of its staff. I have no connection to zetnet other than as a customer. I provided the information in this document as an aid to others who may find it useful - I make no guarantees that any of the suggestions will work for you or on your system and I am not responsible for any problems which may occur after attempting to follow any such suggestions. Boring disclaimer bit over. --------------------------------------- A Zetnet User's guide to creating your first Web Site ------------------------------------------------------- Last updated: 31 March 2000 You design a web site in the same way that you design any other document. You decide what you want to say, what graphics you wish to use to illustrate it and additionally you decide what links you wish to include to other pages which you have written, and other pages on the web generally. Then you have to create the HTML document. There are two ways to do this: 1. Use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor such as WebExpress or Outlook - there are lots of them and any search on the web for "HTML Editors" will find them for you and also probably sites where you can download them. The problem with this approach is that you don't learn much about HTML and therefore don't have fine control over the finished results. The advantage is that it is very quick to give a finished result and doesn't require you to learn the details of HTML. OR 2. Use Wordpad or notepad or Arachnophilia or(best in my opinion) HTMLkit (free from www.chami.com). Then get a book or read one of the on-line tutorials about the basics of HTML. I used "HTML for Dummies Quick Reference" - very easy reading, read it from cover to cover in a week and had written the bulk of my site within a fortnight. On-line sites I have seen recommended (but not used myself) include: Case Western Reserve University's "Introduction to HTML" http://www.cwru.edu/help/introHTML/toc.html (an award-winning tutorial) Kevin Werbach's "Bare Bones Guide to HTML" http://www.werbach.com/barebones/ (among other general help, a no-nonsense list of what the various tags do, including which ones only work in particular browser software). http://www.stack.nl/htmlhelp/ http://www.glover.com/ http://junior.apk.net/~jbarta http://www.sandia.gov/sci_computer/html_ref.html Any specific questions will normally get a quick and helpful response in zetnet.help.internet.web. Hint: ===== Make your main page "index.htm" - this will then be the default page which will be loaded for anyone visiting your site. Hint: ===== Links are case sensitive on the internet - but not on your home pc. So make sure all your file names are in lower case (be especially careful if you are using W95 as the default is to have a capital first letter). Hint: ===== Be ESPECIALLY careful that your main page is called "index.htm" and NOT "Index.htm" - this is THE SINGLE MOST COMMON MISTAKE people ask me about when their masterpieces are invisible after uploading. Hint: ===== Make sure you type all your links in lower case too. Problems will not show up until your page is live on the web - very embarrassing! Once you have got some HTML pages using either method 1. or 2. or a combination of them, test them by opening them in your browser OFF LINE (without connecting to the www). Check that everything looks as expected. Check that links between your own pages work (obviously you can't check links to other sites yet). If possible, check using more than one browser - things can sometimes look different. Once things are coming together, mail webweaver@zetnet.co.uk (or your ISP's webmaster if not Zetnet customer) and ask for your free web allocation to be set up (or arrange to pay for some if you don't have an account which gives a free allocation). Tell him what you want your site to be called i.e. my site is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/barrass as I asked for mine to be called "barrass" He will mail you back with your URL (to confirm that you got what you asked for, or to tell you what it will actually have to be if what you asked for was already in use or for some other reason unacceptable) and also your password. Some ISP's such as Freeserve automatically allocate you your free webspace and will have told you what your site address is when you set up your account. Sometimes, this address does not exist until you connect to it with some FTP software (see below) - at which point it is created automatically - in this case you don't need to ask for your site to be created. Now you need some FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software. I use WS_FTP which is free to use (for personal use only) and available to download from my site - go to www.users.zetnet.co.uk/barrass/download.htm Others are available such as Cute_FTP but most of them cost. Enter in the details of your URL and password etc. to the FTP software and connect to the www. Then you can copy your HTML files up to your web space. ================== For WS_FTP users - how to set up WS_FTP: (this is just a very brief guide - see www.users.zetnet.co.uk/barrass/wsftphlp.htm for a step-by-step guide to downloading, setting up and using WS_FTP) The info supplied by Webweaver should be something like this: URL: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/barrass Login: barrass Password: nottelling FTP Host: www.users.zetnet.co.uk all of which are case sensitive! When you start WS_ftp you will get a "Session Profile" window with the following prompts which should be filled in : Profile name: Clairs (or something which means something to you) Host Name: www.users.zetnet.co.uk Host Type: Automatic Detect User ID: barrass {or whatever Login you were given} Password: nottelling {case sensitive!} Account: {mine is blank} Initial Directories Remote Host: /www {that's where you should put your index.htm} Local PC: /web_page {or whatever your directory/folder is called where you have written your masterpiece!} Once you have entered that lot, I recommend you click on the "SAVE" button under the profile name to save that profile so you don't have to type it again! Click on "Save Password" first too if you are the only person with access to your machine. Don't save the password if others might misuse it. Now click OK. Hopefully the "Remote System" side of the screen will become active with "/www" in the top box and "index.htm" and other file names listed in the directory list box. The buttons on the Remote System side will also no longer be "greyed out" =================== That's it. Now you can post a message in zetnet.help.internet.web asking for comments/crits of your site if you want, or for help on solving any problems you still have. Other useful sources of info about all of the above can be found at http://www.zetnet.co.uk/zetpages/userpages.html zetnet user help pages http://www.zetnet.co.uk/zetpages/userftp.html FTP help http://www.zetnet.co.uk/faqs/web/webspace.html Webspace FAQ http://www.zetnet.co.uk/faqs/web/counters.html Zetnet Page Counters I hope some of this helped. Good luck Clair