Please do not email more than once. Please do not email Alphalink requesting web space if you are not a paid up member of Alphalink. PLEASE NOTE: Your webpage address will be http://www.alphalink.com.au/~yourloginname PLEASE NOTE: If you are a Budget or Standard account holder, you must upload your webpage with an FTP program. You cannot use Microsoft Frontpage.

Introduction A good homepage can be something to be proud of. Creating a simple homepage is very easy once you understand how it all works. The following guide may help you to get started!

Table of Contents HTML - What is it? How do I make a page? What approach should I take? Images in Pages Java and Javascript Cgi and Page Counters Uploading the Page Interesting Webpage Creation related Links Final Notes

HTML - What is it? HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and this is what most webpages on the internet are constructed with. HTML is not a programming language. It simply tells the browser how you want everything laid out on the webpage. You can write HTML in a plain text editor (e.g. Microsoft Notepad) if you know how to use the HTML tags. These are not very complicated as far as languages go, but can be challenging for the beginner. <center>this centers the text</center> is a simple example of HTML. Resources for those who want to find out more about HTML: HTML Writers Guild W3 consortium (highly technical)

So how do I make a page? There are two approaches you can take when making a homepage. Learn the HTML and write it yourself Use a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) editor If you wish to take approach 1 then you can find out more from the resources listed in the "HTML What is it?" section above. Using approach 2, you use a WYSIWYG editor to help you put together your homepage. These editors are quite self explanatory and easy to use for beginners. An example of this kind of editor is Microsoft Frontpage. To use the second method in creating a homepage, you can download several WYSIWYG editors, shareware and freeware from the following links on TUCOWS. HTML editors for Windows HTML editors for Macintosh

What approach should I take? Many people prefer to write in plain HTML because of the control it gives over the layout of the page. Some layouts simply cannot be done in WYSIWYG editors. It is also often a lot easier to maintain as well, as many WYSIWYG editors make the HTML code look more busy and "confused" with every revision. On the other hand, particularly for the novice or those who do not have the time, WYSIWYG editors allow you to get a homepage up and running with a minimum of fuss about learning HTML. The best approach for you will finally depend on whether you want to learn more and take the challenge, or learn less and take it easy.

Images in Pages At this stage, you know a bit about HTML. You have either downloaded an editor or learnt about how to write HTML yourself and now wish to know how to make use of images in your web page. Images can be background or foreground images. Everything else goes on top of the background images, whereas foreground images do not have anything over them. Background images also repeat automatically. There are two main types of images used in homepages, JPG and GIF. GIF supports animation but only up to 256 colors, JPG supports up to 16.7 million colors but does not support animation. You can either create your own images or take images from other clip art pages to add to your page. The following links on TUCOWS have shareware software you can use to create your own images. Image Editors for Windows Image Editors for Mac Not everyone, however, is a graphics guru and sometimes you want a nice looking image for your page that you just do not know how to make. As it is neither polite nor appropriate to go taking images from other people's pages without their permission, we have included some links to free image resources on the internet. Yahoo search for "free clipart" Yahoo search for "free homepage images" Aphid Communications Image, Icon and Graphic resources

Java and Javascript Many webpages on the internet use Java and JavaScript to add interesting effects or special features. The following are some free resources available to research the inclusion of this type of thing on your page, should you wish to. Hot Scripts Javascripts.com - Free Javascripts Free Applets

CGI and page counters You have probably seen web pages that have Page Counters and CGI mailing forms or guest books. Alphalink currently allows members to create their own page counters. Create a Counter You may use other cgi scripts, but you must keep them in your own directory (ie. create a sub-directory called cgi-bin). See Final Notes for more information.

Uploading the Page Once you have a web page ready to go, you should first test it on your hard drive with your web browser. For example if you saved your page as c:\homepage\index.htm, type that into the URL field of your browser to view it. Everything should work except for counter images (if you have a counter, this will need to be online before it can work, so it should work once you have uploaded your web page). Make sure that all of your image links in the html are case correct; ie the file extensions of your images will need to match the same case as that of the link. For example if you have a title image in your page named title.JPG and you linked <img src="title.jpg"> in the page, it will work fine on your hard drive but a "broken image" will appear once uploaded. This is because of the way the webservers work. You will need to rename the image to title.jpg The same applies to linking to other pages. Once you have tested out your homepage, and requested that web space be enabled on your account, you will be ready to upload it. If you do not have an ftp program here are some links to FTP programs you can download from TUCOWS. FTP applications for Windows FTP applications for Mac Once you have an FTP application you will need to type some settings into it. User Name: Your Alphalink Login Name (usually the first part of your email address) Password: Your Alphalink Password (the one you use to log in) Once you have uploaded your homepage you can view it in your internet web browser using the URL: http://home.alphalink.com.au/~yourloginname (where yourloginname is your Alphalink Login Name). This will display the contents of the public_html directory. You should name the first page you want people to see: index.htm or index.html, as the server will automatically display this to them when they go to the site. We have created a page with graphics describing how to setup WS_FTP, which is an easy-to-use FTP program. (You can download this from the FTP download links just above) Uploading Your Home Page

Additional Links Related To Web Page Creation CNET's Builder.com Digital Thread Design Gallery Dynamic HTML Zone

Final Notes Once you have finished your page you may want to list your homepage at the Alphalink Members Portal by registering at that page. Budget and Standard accounts are hosted on our Linux server. It supports CGI and Perl scripts. Scripts must have a .cgi extension to work. Perl is located at /usr/bin/perl. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to assist in setting up scripts. This server does not have access to FrontPage server extensions. The Business accounts are hosted on our IIS web server, which supports dynamic site needs (MSSQL, ASP, Perl, PHP4.2, Frontpage 2000).