July 2004
Creating a Web Page- Part 1
Recent research has confirmed
that many of you want to continue working part-time from home well into your
70s and 80s. You may be involved in a charity or association or perhaps you
teach private pupils, proof-read or translate, produce home-made jewellery,
paintings or pottery, grow herbs or type manuscripts and CVs etc. Whatever
your skills, you will want to reach as many potential clients as possible.
That is why you should be
thinking about creating a web page. So this month, I want to answer some of
the questions you may have about getting on the Web.
Do I need to know HTML?
Most web pages are written in
a code known as HyperText Markup Language (HTML). However, you will be glad
to know that you can produce a web page without knowing anything about this
at all. Obviously, understanding the underlying code can be a good idea if
you want to “tweak” your page and make fine adjustments, but a simple page
can be created very easily using normal word processing skills.
How can I make sure the
address includes my name or business?
For serious Websites, you are
going to need a domain name – the bit after www e.g.
myname.co.uk - that makes sense. The easiest way is to buy a
domain name from an Internet company such as
www.123-reg.co.uk or
www.uk2.net You can type the name you want for your
address into the box on the site and find out if anyone has already taken
it. If the name is available, you can buy it for two years for under £10
and keep renewing it as long as you are in business.
Decide if you want to end
co.uk, com, org.uk, biz or name – they have different costings
and some domain names may be more suitable if you are running a UK or
international business or providing a free service. (It may be worth buying
a range of domain names if you have thought of a really excellent business
name and don’t want a rival setting up with a similar address.)
If you want to save money and
don’t expect to have a Website of hundreds of pages, you don’t need to pay
anything for storing (hosting) them. Instead, take up some of the free
space provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
This will have an address such
as
www.users.isp.com/~myname which is not very memorable. Included in your
domain name registration fee will be a free web forwarding service. This
simply redirects anyone typing in your new address
www.myname.co.uk to the web pages sitting on your ISP server.
Do I need to buy special
software?
If you have Microsoft Word,
one option is to use the Web Wizard included with the document templates to
help set up a web page, or to create a normal word processed document and
save it as a web page which can then be published on the Web.
A better method is to use a
free cut-down version of web authoring programs such as FrontPage Express to
help set up your pages. This program was included free with earlier
versions of Internet Explorer but if you do not have a copy, find it or
alternatives to download and use by searching the Web for freeware or
shareware authoring software programs. One site:
http://www.knopfler.com/pc/ offers a link to free or trial versions of a
wide range of programs.
For more advanced features you
will want to purchase a full-sized authoring package. Visit
amazon or use a search engine to find a package in your
preferred price range.
How do I publish my page on
the Web?
Once you have worked out how
you want your page to look, you should save the file as a web page into a
new folder on your computer. This folder should also contain all the
pictures, backgrounds and any other files that have been added to your page
so they are not left on your computer but will be published together on the
Web. (If you forget to transfer an image, it will appear on your page as an
empty box with a small red cross – you have probably seen this quite often
when searching the Web.)
File transfer from your
computer to your ISP’s web server (a computer dedicated to web pages) is
quite simple if you use a program such as CuteFTP that is available to
download from the Internet. Your ISP will provide all the details you need
to locate your personal space, including any settings for Cute FTP. When
you are ready, connect to the Internet and then locate and drag all your web
page and image files across into your space and they will be stored ready to
be viewed by your visitors. If you want to make any changes, you can update
the published pages by dragging across the revised pages and overwriting
those already on the Web.
Next month –
creating a web page from scratch.
