Create Your Own Web Page
OMU User Home Page Assistance
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You want a web
page don't you???
Trust me, you do! You can let the world know who you are, what you want to sell them, how you can help them, keep everyone up to date on sports scores, or put some great baby pictures online to make the rest of the family jealous. From Serious to Silly a website is exactly what YOU make it. OMU is here to host and to help you along the way. Remember, making a web page can be both frustrating and rewarding but it isn't impossible. Anything you want to do CAN be done as long as you are willing to put the time into it (and it doesn't go against our user agreement).  HELP!!! support@osage.net |
Where
to Begin?
The NCSA Beginner guide to HTM Getting Ready WebMonkey Teaching Tool http://www.webmonkey.com Some Tips! Webmonkey HTML cheat sheet. Getting a Bit Fancier Sizzling HTML Jalfrezi Project Cool Tools Hotdog Sausage Software Flexed WYSIWYG flaws WYSIWYG Editor Shootout Dreamweaver Putting Your Page Online! WS_FTP Ipswitch Ipswitch Software FTP Log-On Info Transferring Files The Finishing Touch Adding your site to OMU. |
| Where
to Begin? Okay, let's get one thing straight, no matter how you cut it, web pages work because of HTML. Html is an acronym for Hypertext Markup Language. Actually Web pages work because web browsers read ASCII files and interpret them into what you see on the screen. Put simply, web browsers SPEAK in HTML. So, if you want to tell a web browser what to do, (how to display your page) then you're going to have to speak some HTML too. The nice thing is you don't have to be fluent in HTML to make your first web page. In fact if you don't even want to bother learning the language you can use a translator (of sorts). However the effort of learning HTML can be far more satisfying and lead to better results than using a web page editor. So I would suggest learning some HTML or at least taking some time to get to know what it is and how it works. The NCSA Beginners Guide to HTML is a great place to start. I am biased, of course, because this was the first document about HTML I ever read. It's been updated since then but still gives you all the basics. |
| Getting
Ready Once you have some basic HTML knowledge under your belt, I'd recommend browsing through the Webmonkey Teaching Tool. Brought to you by the Wired Webmonkeys, the Teaching Tool goes beyond theory and into actually making your own page. The Webmonkeys at Wired are some of the best of the best in web page creators out there. If you get serious about making web pages you will find yourself visiting http://www.webmonkey.com/ fairly regularly. They have a large archive of tips, tricks, hints and most importantly Tutorials. Next you are going to need to pick a tool to write your HTML in. Remember HTML is just ASCII with an attitude! For your first page (presumably your VERY first basic "just trying to get something on the screen" page) I would suggest using a simple text editor, like Notepad in Windows. You CAN use about any word processor to write HTML, but you MUST be able to save it in ASCII or your efforts will be in vain. |
| Some
Tips! You should also have your first page with an .htm or .html extension. This is a good habit to get into right from the start. Forgot a tag name? Try the Webmonkey HTML Cheat Sheet. Name your first page (home page) file "index.htm" or "index.html". Our servers are configured to display index.html (or index.htm if index.html is not present) as your main home page. When you go to http://www.osage.net/~smitha you are ACTUALLY going to http://www.osage.net/~smitha/index.htm ! Case sensitivity is important! If you call <img src="Photo.Gif> when the file name is actually photo.gif , the image will show up as broken! View Source is your new best friend. If your are having a hard time figuring out how someone has done something on their web page, you can see how they have done it by using YOUR BROWSERS "View Page Source" feature. Learning by example will make life much easier for you! I recommend looking at the "source" of a few web pages before you try making your own. And a word of caution: REMEMBER WHERE you saved your file!!! yes that sounds silly, but you can't even start to look at your page if you can't find it! Indeed opening a file in your Browser can be nearly impossible with an older browser if you don't know where you saved the file. If you saved your first page as "test1.htm" on your Windows Desktop, your browser will find it as "file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/test1.htm" Keeping track of ALL files associated with your web page is a VERY good idea. I recommend creating a folder especially for Web Design. Put all of your HTML, pictures, sounds, etc. In that one folder. Again, this can save you a lot of headache down the road. Once you have made and looked at your first page, you can either go on to something a little more complicated, or skip down to Putting It Online. |
| Getting
A Bit Fancier OK, who really wants an all text black and white page anyway??? Part of the fun of having your own page is putting on pictures and Links and things that make you go "Oooo neato! If you think you are up to it, check out Sizzling HTML Jalfrezi and Project Cool. From there you'll be ready to get into Javascript, Java Applets, Plugins and all sorts of things that can make people drool! |
| Tools The thing that sets us as humans apart from our furry monkey cousins is the ability to use tools. You may take it for granted but you are using a tool right now to read this page! Humans, it seems, make tools to help them do just about anything and HTML coding is no exception. I'm not knocking Notepad here, but it's most advanced feature is cut-n-paste. It doesn't even have a spell checker! Still you can make almost any web page with Notepad (or any similar simple text editor). That doesn't mean it will be any faster, easier or better. There are also text editors that have been specifically made for editing HTML. Hotdog from Sausage Software is one of the best, but I had better luck using a program called Flexed. Each of them basically lets you type the code and helps you out with "wizards" for simplifying tasks such as making links, adding pictures, making frames and imagemaps. However what most people really want is a WYSIWYG HTML Editor. Kind of like standard page layout or word processing software, WYSIWYG Editors let you make Web Pages without having to look at know or even understand HTML! It's a very seductive idea, but it has some flaws... You should really read Webmonkeys WYSIWYG Editor Shootout before deciding which one if any to use! BTW Dreamweaver *is* worth it! You should also understand that since we do not allow Microsoft Frontpage extensions, any pages created with Frontpage may not perform as you plan them to. Nor will you be able to use Frontpage to put them on our server. |
| Putting
Your Page Online! OK, let's assume your page is ready to be presented to the world. Getting your page "Online" means that your files will be on our server in your own personal "public_html" directory so that everyone in the world can see them. Your page address will be http://www.osage.net/~yourusername As an example, to visit Andy Smith's home page you would go to http://www.osage.net/~smitha All you have to do now is get your page online. It's not very difficult but you DO have to use FTP. Currently we DO NOT allow the posting of pages via Microsoft Frontpage! Unfortunately MS Frontpage opens up security risks to our system that we are not willing to tolerate. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol,
it lets you copy files to and from your computer to our servers. Some
computers come with an FTP program already installed. Others that
do not will need to download a copy to use. RCI recommends using WS_FTP.
Made by Ipswitch, Version 4.6
is easy to use can be downloaded from HERE VERY IMPORTANT: You HAVE to be connected to OMU before FTP will work. If you aren't dialed up FTP Won't work!!!!! It's simple, but sometimes people forget :) To log on to our server via FTP you will need to know some important information: Host Name: ftp.osage.net If you are using WS_FTP a Window titled "Session Properties" will pop up. The very first box is Profile Name, type in a name like "My account". Then put "osage.net" into the Host Name box. Select "Auto Detect" from the Host Type pull down menu. Type your user/account name into the UserID box. Type your password into the Password box. You can leave the Account box empty or type your user/account name into it. And filling out the Comments box isn't necessary either, but it could be helpful to put something like "This is my account at osage.net" in it. Also if you want WS_FTP to remember your password the next time you use the program, make sure to Check the Save Pwd box. Now BEFORE you do anything else Click on the APPLY button at the bottom of the window. This will save your information so you don't have to type it in all over again! When you are feeling good and ready, click on the Connect button. This should contact our server and make a noise once you are logged in. If you get a red message saying something like "Connection Failed" recheck all of your information and try again. If you can't get it to work, give us a call. Now that he connection has been made you actually have to transfer the files... the sometimes tricky part finding the files to transfer. WS_FTP will show you two file listings.
The one on the left shows files on your computer. The one on the right
shows files on our server. The very FIRST thing to do is to
double-click on "public_html" in the RIGHT file listing.
All of your web pages and graphics have to be in the public_html folder
for them to be seen. Double clicking on public_html will take you
into that folder. Once all of your files are on our server try visiting your website with your browser. Remember your address (Henceforth known as URL) will be http://www.osage.net/~yourname . If you need to make any changes, do so to the files on your computer then FTP the changes to our server. It might take a couple of tries to get it right, but it's worth it. |