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Creating your own web page - Part 1

© Chris Cruickshank

This week sees the start in a series of articles about creating a web page. In the series we will look at the following areas:

· Talking HTML

· What are the components that can make up a web page

· Creating links - Bookmarks, other pages on your site, other web sites and email

· Using a web page editor

· Handling graphics

· Creating forms to allow users to enter information that is emailed to you

· Uploading your web pages to a web server

Talking HTML

To start off, let's take a quick look at what HTML is (the language used to create web pages). HTML (Hyper-Text-Markup-Language) is a text based series of instructions that tell your browser how to display a web page.

Web pages are "text documents" and this allows any browser/computer to read your web page. If they were not text, then you would only be able to read web pages created for the same browser/computer. The only common factor between different browsers and different computers is plain text and even then, the two main browsers - Internet Explorer and Netscape do vary slightly.

In order for people on the Internet to be able to view your web page, these "text documents" need to be placed on to a "web server". This is a computer that has a permanent connection to the Internet and is most likely to be controlled by an ISP - Internet Service Provider - AOL, CompuServe et al. When you view a web page, the content of the web page is transferred from the web server to your computer (via the Internet) where you browser takes the instructions and converts it into a displayable format. This is why you often have to "wait" for a page to appear. You are waiting for the web server to send all the components of the web page to your computer (and this is not just the text, as we shall see later).

Web Page Components

Rather than go into the myriad forms and controls that can be on a web page, I will keep this as simple as I can and mention only the basic components. On a web page you will find...

· Text. Basic text which can be in a variety of languages.

· Graphics. These pictures can be used to decorate a site, they can provide a way of getting from one page to another (a link).

· Backgrounds. I've listed this separately from graphics as although a background can be (and often is) a graphic, backgrounds can also be plain colours.

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