Web pages are built with a computer language called HTML.
How computer languages work, I'm not sure. If I could tell you that
I'd be sitting in Southern California earning millions of dollars a year.
If what you do works, then just use it.
HTML is HyperText Markup Language. It is the programming language that
is used to create web pages.
There are four basic ways that you could create a webpage:
Save As > Webpage.
Webpage Builder on your Host website.
Dreamweaver / Microsoft Frontpage etc.
Write the HTML directly.
Save As > Webpage
Write something in Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc, then do Save As and then
chose Webpage.
This will create a file that is a ready to use webpage. It might also
create another folder with files in it to support the webpage.
You can also go to a website and do this directly from the page you want
to use.
Let's go to Crisis's Homepage - http://www.crisis.org.uk.
Go to File > Save As
Save the file directly on your desktop as we will look at it in a minute
and then delete it.
Webpage Builder on your Host website.
As mentioned in the What
I need to start a website page, you need to find someone to host your
site. Most webhosting companies have a free basic website builder that
works like Dreamweaver or some other software. They need untechnical people
to be able to easily build websites.
Dreamweaver / Frontpage etc
You can now use a piece of software called DreamWeaver, which writes the
Source code for you, while you just type in text and move shapes about.
It is not that easy to use. I know of another program called Frontpage
that is used to create webpages. Microsoft created Frontpage. I'm sure
there are plenty of others.
Write the HTML directly (This in known as the raw code in the business).
Go to View > Source.This is a notepad text file that shows you what
the code is that builds the Crisis homepage. If we do a more advanced
course than this one, then we will look into this in more detail. Click
here to learn very Basic HTML.
Just to warn you at this stage there are hundreds of other aspects to
website building and I only know a few. Someone in Lancaster Schools built
a really good website that I learnt most of my stuff from.
Do a Google search and you will find hundreds, if not thousands of webpages
giving you tips on how to build with HTML.
I personally started at University in 1998 with four 1hr lessons on HTML.
Everything else I have learnt has come from using HTML and reading things
on the internet.
Layout - Frames, Tables, CSS
There are various ways of laying out your webpages. You can simply type
in HTML tags to enter data. This is quite difficult conceptually and leads
to disorganised webpages.
Frames split the page up into various area and then each of those areas
has its own HTML page that displays different things.
Tables are a big unseen table on the screen. The table has various boxes
with different sizes and shapes. Information is then displayed in the
different boxes.
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.
This is a separate file to the HTML file. It defines the attributes for
the whole page - for example headers <H1> are all in Times New Roman,
and where they will be positioned.
Java
This is another programming language that you can also use in webpages.
For Java to work on your computer you need to install a Java Virtual Machine.
You simply type in (or Paste) the Java language (known as JavaScript)
into your HTML document and it is then read from there. This is known asEmbedded Java.