Quick Start Guide

A "Quick Start" Guide to Making Your Very Own Web Page

MAKE YOUR OWN WEB PAGE.... It is lots of fun to have your own page on the World Wide Web. I started with the Notepad editor and just doing the simplest of things on a single page. It all grew from there and now I can talk to people all around the world. You will need a site on the World Wide Web for hosting your page.

This is a simple Three Step process:

1. LOCALLY.... Make your web pages with FrontPage Express or Nvu including the pictures and store them all in the C:\MyPage folder.

2. WEB HOSTING.... Sign up for your own domain name and 1.0 Tb web hosting site with Globat.com. 
Note: I get a commission if you use Glogat.com from my page.

3. UPLOAD YOUR SITE.... Upload your HTML pages, picture, and other files to your web hosting site location.

That is all there is to it. Now the details!

Step 1:

FILES TO GET YOU STARTED.... Here are the files for a sample two page web site with example links and pictures. Download this self extracting file MyPage.exe (793Kb). When you execute it, it will make a C:\MyPage folder on your C: drive. I have scanned MyPage.exe with Norton Antivirus and it is clean. You are welcome to also do a virus scan on it before you unzip it. If you would rather have a standard zip file so that you can put the contents in a folder of your choice, download MyPage.zip and unzip it in a folder of your choice.

Here are the files included in the MyPage.exe and MyPage.zip files.

Note: All of the file names are lower case letters. It is advisable to use all lower case letters in the names and also not use spaces in the names. Some browsers get fouled up with spaces. Most web hosting servers are Unix based and distinguish between A and a. They are not the same thing in Unix. A file named Page1.htm is not the same file as page1.htm on the Unix servers.

VIEW THE PAGE FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE.... This is a two page example web site to get you started. You can go to the C:\MyPage folder and open the main page (index.htm) for viewing with your browser, by merely clicking on the file name. You can view it and page2.htm which is the second page. You will be viewing the web pages off your hard drive just as if it were the internet. If you don't know how to open the C:\MyPage folder, you can use the Find command (First click on Start at the bottom of the desktop) then click on Files and Folders. In the Named: window type index.htm and in the Look in: window click on the drop-down arrow at the right of the window and select the (C:) drive. It will probably find more that one file with the index.htm name. Double click on the one that is in the C:\MyPage folder.

EXAMPLE PAGE.... I have put a few example lines of text, pictures, and links on the pages so you can see how they work. For your own web page, merely edit the page with FrontPage Express and replace the text with what you want to say and insert you own pictures. However, you may keep and use these pictures on your web page if you like. Note, this is very important. Before you add any pictures to your web page, be sure to save them to, or copy and paste them to the C:\MyPage folder. If you don't do this, they won't have the correct URL address when you upload them to the web.

VIEW WHAT YOU GOT.... From your C:\MyPage folder, double click on the index.htm file and it should activate your web browser. You will be viewing the file right from your hard drive. It will be just like surfing the internet, but without the phone connection. You can view the second page by clicking on the link to Page 2. Then you can go back to the main page. The links that take you off either page and to the Internet will not work from your hard drive when you are not connected to the Internet. It is a good idea to test your page locally with your browser before you upload it to the web.

A BETTER MOUSE TRAP.... There is a better HTML editor out there and it is FREE! It is called NVU. It seems to have all the bells and whistles and is easy to use. Click here to go to the NVU web site and download it. If you are running Windows then you want to download either of these two files and install it.

• nvu-1.0-win32-installer-full.exe - Windows full installer
• nvu-1.0-win32-full.zip - Zip version of the above file for those behind restrictive firewalls.

The NVU site has many help pages including a forum for asking questions.

THE WRITING TOOL.... FORGET FRONTPAGE EXPRESS. USE NVU above. FrontPage Express was your web page writing tool. FrontPage Express is to web pages like Word is to letters and documents. Here is where FrontPage Express is probably located on your computer:

"C:\Program Files\FrontPage Express\BIN\FPXPRESS.EXE"

It came bundled with earlier versions of Internet Explorer and was installed automatically. Click Start in the lower left corner and then Find and look for fpxpress.exe in the C: Drive. Once you have found it, you can right click on it and "Create a Shortcut" which will be placed on the desktop.

Go to your Desktop and double click on the FrontPage Express icon. Go to File and Open C:\MyPage\index.htm and make your changes and write your web page. It operates like Word. You can insert pictures and make hyper links etc. You can have many separate pages if you like. The page2.htm file is a second page and you can see how it is linked to from the index.htm page and how the link on page2.htm gets you back to the index.htm page. It is a good idea to link back to your main page from each page you have.

If you don't have or can't find FrontPage Express on your computer, check these links:

FrontPage Express Tutorial for Beginners
Download FrontPage Express

WATCH OUT FOR THIS.... Note... This is important. You have seen web sites with pictures that don't appear, but have the little instead. Here is one way it happens. There is a nasty quirk in FrontPage Express. If you want to add new pictures to the pages or links to more of your own new pages, you must put the picture files and html files in the C:\MyPage folder before you include them or link to them in your pages. If you insert a picture or link to a HTML web page in a different folder than C:\MyPage folder on your Hard Drive, it will include "the path on your computer" to the picture or web page. When you view the finished page from the internet, you will see everything perfectly, but when you upload your page to the web, the path on your computer will not work and other people will see the picture as a box with a little .

REDUCING THE IMAGE SIZE.... You have seen huge pictures on the web that go completely across the screen and then some. The files are usually very large and take a long time to load. If you merely reduce the size of the picture with FrontPage Express on your web page, the picture looks small, but the file size is still the same large size and it will still take the same long time to load. I use Ulead's Web Razor to compress picture files, but there is free software that will actually take large picture files and reduce their size, sharpen the focus, adjust the colors, contrast, brightness and compress the data. Here is one that I have tried and it works very well. Larry Blotch Compressing & Saving Images for your web page with IrfanView. Download Irfan View from TuCows.

Step 2:

ESTABLISH A WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT.... Globat.com is the host for both my www.varmintal.com and www.varmintal.net World Wide Web domains. They have done a very good job of keeping the sites up and available on the Internet. They will register your unique domain name for about $12.00 for one year (I think there is a special on now and the domain is registered free) and provide a hosting site for about $1.99/mo, for the first year. That adds up to about $24 and you can talk to the world. The hosting service provides 300 Gb/mo of traffic and a huge 10 Gb of storage space for your web page files. My previous hosting provider kept charging me more for each additional increment of traffic and it was breaking the bank. Globat has not raised the rate on me a single time.

You also can view your traffic. You can view the traffic for my varmintal.com page, click here. You will be able to view your traffic in a similar manner.

I think www.globat.com has a better deal in the long run than any other web hosting provider I have heard of. If your site attracts more and more traffic, they will not nickel and dime you to death for each extra tiny bit of traffic since 300 GB/mo is a very large traffic allotment.

Note: There are many other web hosting sites out there. The only ones I know about first hand is DotEasy and Globat.com. Even if you don't use Globat.com for web hosting, you are still welcome to use this Quick Start info and file download to start your own web site with other web hosting sites.

Here is an example of what you will need for your domain with names and a password I made up (you will use your names and password):

Domain.... huntforbucks.com (has to be 3 or more lower case characters before the .com)
User ID... jackhunter (has to be 8 or more characters)
Password.. 7184bBbB (the password is case sensitive and has to be 8 or more characters)

It will take about 2 to 3 days for Globat.com to setup your information and provide your web space. They will email you when it has been completed. Yes, I got hooked and am enjoying it.

Step 3:

BETTER FREE SOFTWARE TO UPLOAD YOUR PAGE.... I have tried out Filezilla and it is excellent software and free! Download it here. It is easy to use, small, and fast! What more could one ask for from free software? Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=21558

UPLOAD YOUR PAGE TO THE WEB.... FORGET WS_FTP EXPRESS. USE FILEZILLA Unzip the WS_FTPLE.ZIP file you got in the MyPage.exe file into a junk folder on your computer. Run the install.exe program and install it to the default location. Now you're ready to upload your web site from your hard drive to your web hosting site so the world can see it. If you put a WS_FTP icon on the desktop it is easier to find and run. Double click on the WS_FTP icon. Click on the New button and fill it out like this, except you use your information. Note that there is an ftp in front of your domain name and no www.

Then click on the OK. It should connect to your site. In the left window, Locate the C:\MyPage folder on your computer and double click on the folder name. The list of your files should appear. The right window is what is at your site on the web. It will have a welcome.htm that you can delete when you get around to it. Highlight your files in the left window that you want to upload and click on the Right Arrow in the center divider. Voila! The files will start transferring to your web hosting site. When it is all done, you will see your files also listed on the right window. Now you can exit WS_FTP.

YOU NOW HAVE A WEB PAGE.... Here comes the BIG MOMENT. Open your web browser and put www.huntforbucks.com (you actually put your domain name) in the address window of the browser and hit the Enter key. You will be reading your page from the World Wide Web! You are talking to the world.

There are numerous other free web hosting sites on the Internet. You might like one of the others better. I personally like the service I am getting at Globat.com and they do not include ads,  pop-up windows, or banners. And, they DO NOT alter your HTML file by adding scripts to them.

Soon, I will write a bit on how easy it is to add a counter, a guestbook, and a search engine to your site. If you are in a hurry, email me and I will help you.

Good luck with your web page. It is loads of fun and besides, you get to talk to the world. Let me know when you have your web page up and running and I will add a link to it. I recently found an old floppy disk from early 1997 with my very first web page on it. View it here. Good web page building from Varmint Al.

Good Hunting from Varmint Al

	Web www.varmintal.com

Varmint Al's Hunting Page  

 
Last Updated: 02/09/2013
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