Datasheet

Part I: Create a Web Page Today

Figure 1-1:

URL-y to

Web, URL-y

to rise.

Protocol

http://

Domain name

www.server.com/

Pathname

folder/filename.ext

The “For Dummies” Way

to Web Publishing

Reading this book is going to make you a Web publisher — because anyone

who puts up even a single, simple home page is a publisher on the World

Wide Web. Congratulations in advance!

Because there’s so much you can do on the Web these days, including on

social networking sites such as YouTube (for videos) or Flickr (for photos), I

have split the description into two basic pieces: getting your content

together (Part II) and getting it up on the Web (Part III or Part IV). Part III

describes how to get your Web page up using the tool included with this

book, CoffeeCup; Part IV describes how to “go to the bare metal” (well, the

bare fiber-optic cable) and use HTML directly.

Given the many ways you can work, and the way different Web sites and

different tools handle some of the process for you, but not all of it, it’s

important to understand the underlying steps that define Web publishing.

The steps may have different names, or be intermingled with each other, but

they’re always basically the same. Here they are:

1. Create the HTML text file that’s the basis for your Web page.

2. Create or obtain the graphic images you’ll use to spice up the

appearance of your page.

3. Create a link to the graphics in your HTML text file so they appear

where you want them to.

4. Preview your Web page on your own machine.

5. Find Web-server space.

6. Transfer the HTML text file and the graphics files to the Web server.

7. Check that your new Web page works correctly now that it’s online.

If you use an easy-to-use tool such as Google Page Creator (see Chapter 3),

the steps given here are combined and most of the details are handled for

you. However, it’s good to know what’s happening “behind the scenes,” to

help avoid problems or to help you tackle a more complicated site later.

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