If you're on the Internet the next obvious step is to create your own homepage,
and actually "be someone". It's strange really, how much a personal website can
add to netizen's online "personality"… It's nice to be able to say you've
got a place you can call home.
There are many ways to make a homepage, but there are a few things you'll need to
understand.
The first is the concept of HTML, or Hypertext Mark-up Language. Imagine your site like a
conventional home. HTML is like the frame what holds everything together. It's a
programming language which is designed to display pictures and text together, which can
then be clicked to take you to another page of HTML, and so on. The best thing about it is
that it works on every kind of computer - all you need is a browser, like the thing you're
looking at this with (usually Netscape,
or Microsoft Internet Explorer).
You might not realize this, but even these words are programmed in HTML and putting this
link here, requires putting something in the document that looks like this:
Fortunately, a few years ago someone realised that this was much to difficult, and
invented a program called a web editor, which took much of the programming out of website
design, and replaced it with something that looks a bit like a wordprocessor. One of these
original people was Steve Outrim, from the Melbourne based company Sausage Software. Their software was
called the Hot Dog web editor, and it did a remarkably good job.
Unfortunately for Steve (one of Australia's first promising young web talents), Microsoft
and other big American companies soon realised what they were missing out on, and
subsequently put out new products, which although much more expensive that HotDog, were
easier to use.
I'd still recommend that you buy a copy of Microsoft Frontpage 98, when making your own webpages.
One thing to remember when making your site, is that you will need a computer to put it
on. This computer will need to have a full time connection to the Internet, and be
permanently left on. Because such a system costs a large amount of money, most designers
rent space on a computer called a server at an Internet Service Provider (the sort of
company which supplies you with access to the Internet), or a specialised Web Hosting firm
(try Webcentral in Australia). And
for a free service, you can't go past Geocities
in America, which will give you some space and an e-mail address for nothing.
Server space can sometimes cost a bit of money, but often you'll find that some hard disk
space on a server at your own ISP is bundled with you connection package.
----> next page
about | add your site | browse | e-works
(C) Copyright 1997, The Teenage Computer Network