(In Microsoft Word 2002)
Much of the following is specific to MS Word, not because I endorse it or Windoze but simply because it happened to be the program available to me at the time. Several other Word Processing programs have similar capabilities, although if you are using an older version the web page publishing may not be available. It is a guide for those just starting to learn about posting their own SIMPLE web pages and not intended to be a complete web page publishing tutorial. This page is a basic text page for easy print out so that you can use it as a “cheat sheet”. I do!
1) Set Up:- Create a new folder for your web page(s), I suggest a new folder in “my documents” named “webpages” but its your choice. In order to later upload your pages they must be all together along with all supporting graphics and pictures under one folder.
2) Your Home Page:- Open MS Word and create a document the same as if you were going to print it, include background colors, fonts, centering etc etc as usual. Leave out any pictures and graphics for now. (More on that later)
3) View it as a Web Page:- Click View/WEB LAYOUT. You now see the page as it will appear on the net, you can still add to, edit and change it in this view.
4) Save the Page:- Click FILE/SAVE AS WEB PAGE. Navigate to your new folder, name it INDEX and save. (Your home page MUST be named INDEX.HTM) You now have a page ready to upload, but it has no pictures or links!
5) Adding links:- Open your new page in Word, Add new text and select it or select existing text to indicate the type of link. i.e. “my favorite web site” . Click INSERT/HYPERLINK/BROWSED PAGES. Select from list and click OK. The text should now be blue and underlined, save it and your page now has a link.
6) Other Links:- Using exactly the same method you can select PLACE IN THIS DOCUMENT and link to the top, bottom or any text entered as a HEADING. If you previously place a BOOKMARK at a location in you document you can also go there! When you have created other pages (see the following) you can link to them by clicking on EXISTING PAGE OR WEB FOLDER and navigating to the page you want
7) Inserting Index tables:- Go to INSERT/REFERENCE/INDEX select TABLE OF CONTENTS, a list of all Headings used
in your document with links to them will be inserted at you cursor position. Edit the list to suit if you don’t need all of them!
You can just carry on creating pages, saving then in the main folder, linking them to your main document etc and it will work perfectly well. However as you site gets more and more pages ( and it will, even if you didn’t intend it to when you started) it becomes:-
1) Very hard to find your way around the site.
2) Much harder to update pages or alter a small part of your site without leaving links that no longer go anywhere.
I suggest that you CREATE A SUBFOLDER for each main subject and if necessary sub folders under them for any particular item that may need more that one page and then place your new pages in the SUBFOLDERS.
Then on your HOME PAGE link ONLY to the main page in each sub folder and then from that page to the sub pages under it. Each page should also have a LINK back to its ORIGINATING PAGE, this ensures that someone who finds your page via a search engine can find their way back to your home page.
You can also provide a link directly to your home page, but I prefer to send people back to the main page of the subject that they have found and from there home.
Using this method if you change or delete pages or sub pages you have a minimum number of links to update and its easer to remember what is linked to what!
Once again you can simply insert pictures into your document and it will work ok. However you will find that if you look in the subfolder that Word creates for the pictures, you will find that all the files have been renamed and that there are two of each. The pictures are part of the page and it will be very slow to download.
A better way to put pictures in your document is to link to a file containing the pictures.
1) Create a subfolder for the pictures if it does not already exist
(if you insert a textured background or any other Jpg file, Word will make the Folder for you when you save as a web page)
2) Copy your JPGs to that folder, reformat them for quality and size if you have limited disc or web space
3) In your document click INSERT/PICTURE/FROM FILE select the picture you want.
4) Pull down the arrow on the INSERT button and click LINK TO FILE
Note:- If you just Link to a picture in another folder Word will create the folder and copy the JPG to it, BUT will rename
them numerically, this can be difficult later if you want to change pictures and remove the old files to make room.
As usual you can resize or change other properties of the picture by right clicking on it.
Frames are basically just the ability to show two pages at once, and be able to leave one showing whilst you display your other pages above, below or alongside the first page. This enables you to leave, lets say the index, at the top whilst the pages are shown below without having to repeat the index and all the links on each page. They also add the ability to fix the width of the page so that the formatting does no change with the width of the window being viewed.
For more on this see your Word Help screens, when I have it
all figured out
1) If your ISP provides free web space, take advantage of
it, just let them know and they will provide the path to your site and the
access code. If not then you must rent it from either your ISP or one of the
many commercial sites on the net.
2) Download a FTP File Transfer utility from the internet or
purchase one. I suggest WS_FTP from http://www.shareware.com
. Install it in its own folder on your hard drive.
3) Enter the necessary connection information, phone #, password etc. Also set up the default directories to point to your web pages.
4) Run the program and connect to your web site, make sure you are in the right directory in the right hand window (as provided by your ISP)
5) In the left hand window locate and open your WebPages directory, you should see your INDEX.HTM file and all your subdirectories.
6) Highlight all files and directories you want to upload and click on the right ARROW on the center bar. Wait till upload is complete, disconnect and exit.
7) The path to the directories will be automatically changed to suit your web site!
8) Go to your site and see if it all worked, again test the links and check the pages for errors!
9) When updating pages make sure that BOTH windows are open to the same directory. If you put a page in the wrong directory on your web site the links wont work.
These are my views of how to do things, you can do as you please!
Do:- Keep your pages simple with few pictures, icons, flashing doodads etc. It really pisses off people like me with slow rural connections when I see “downloading item 53” and I’m still waiting for the home page to come up so I can find information deeper in the site.
Do:- Use Titles and Subtitles to split up long text documents like this one, and provide links to them.
Do:- Provide a Back to Top link at the bottom of the page.
Do:- Provide a link back to either the main page for this subject or to your Home page.
Do:- Use a variety of text sizes and backgrounds to make your pages interesting
Don’t:- Put to many photos on one page, try and spit them up by subject. Again for us rural users it’s a pain waiting forever to find that that wasn’t what was wanted!
Don’t:- Post your pages to your web site without testing all the links, links that don’t work annoy people.
Don’t:- Expect you ISP to help you with you web page creation, most just sell access and will not give free advice on web page publishing.
Don’t:- Post your pages to one of those “free” sites that
have multiple banner ads popping up all over. Banner ads are like Telephone
soliciting and Door to door salesmen. To put it VERY nicely:- I have no time or
patience for them!
Don’t :- Expect to find your web site with a search engine until about 6 to 8 weeks after you’ve registered it with a search provider (google, altavista etc)