Making a Webpage or a Website
You will need two things
A Webpage editor, FrontPage or Word for example
An FTP Client program to
transfer the Webpages to and from the Website
WS_FTPLE is good
Have a folder on your PC called say Website perhaps
If you have some files on the sig homepage you will probably want to retrieve them and then edit them. Save them in C:\Website (or whatever)
If you don’t have any files in the site, either use the webpage editor to create index.html and save it in C:\Website or pinch a likely page using your browser and start with it. The base page in a site is called index.html. The site will work with this – the rest is frippery!
Now any linked pages you mention in the index.html file or others including graphics (small !!) may be created and saved in the same folder; in other words a flat arrangement. Something like C:\Website\index.html, C:\Website\index-p1.html, C:\Website\index-p2.html, and so on. Make sure it all works perfectly in your browser. You can use sub-folders but simple is good! (In the address box enter C:\Website\index.html or doubleclick the file in Windows Explorer). All your links should work.
Get a copy of the program WS_FTP LE from http://www.ftpplanet.com/download.htm mentioned in the Christmas 2001 edition of PC Update – it’s free for students.
In the Christmas 2001 edition of PC Update, follow the section on configuring WS_FTP. It’s an older version in the tutorial but basically works the same way. If you haven’t got the PC Update edition, it’s available online at http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2112/2112article3.htm
Next, login to MelbPC, the ISP used in this example. You must use the ISP on which the website is located, a different ISP will NOT do. If you wish to view the MelbPC webpages, go directly to them at http://groups.melbpc.org.au and then select the particular page. Then startup WS_FTP and click Connect. This logs you into the ftp site member.melbpc.org.au. If you configured WS_FTP correctly you will see the files on the website in the Remote Site window and your files in the Local System window. You may wish to save the originals on your local drive backup folder for disaster recovery. In the Local System window, point at the C:\Website folder and transfer your chosen files up to the Remote Site, the MelbPC server. (Highlight the files and use the arrow or the Transfer button – you know how)
That’s it!
Now you can edit and save back to the website.
You’ll need to experiment with pictures and layout but basically, once you’re in it all falls into place.
This is a higgledepiggley set of instructions but where you start depends on what you know and have already. I hope this gets you going.
The bigger the picture, the better the result on the screen.
There is no point in making a picture larger in pixels than the maximum screen size.
If you have the advantage of broadband you may not find downloading large resolution picture files a problem, but those with dialup connections find large files tedious.
While some may choose greater screen resolutions than 800 x 600, a picture of this size is a reasonable compromise.
You have some pictures you want to display on your website. These may be photo prints from your local pharmacy or digital from your digital camera. With prints you will need to scan them into your computer, choosing a reasonable resolution, say 800 pixels wide for landscape pictures. Save them and name them using a logical protocol, for example pic22.jpg, pic23.jpg and so on.
A good graphics editor should allow you to resize a picture and save it as a jpeg of medium quality producing a file size of around 100k. If your editor offers the option to Save for the Web, the file size will reduce by a further 20% or so by removing all the embedded picture properties text, resulting in a file size 60k to 80k. Also save a resized copy of the picture of 150 pixels wide for landscape pictures, naming it pic22t.jpg, the ‘t’ is for thumbnail. It will be around 4k in size.
These two picture files and any other pairs go in your web page folder. Create a page, inserting the thumbnail pic22t.jpg on the page. Create a hyperlink from the thumbnail to the full size file pic22.jpg
Viewing in the browser will show the thumbnail. Click on the thumbnail and the full size version is shown. Click on the Back key to go back to the thumbnail page.
The display of the full size version will automatically re-size to your browser page size.
This is very simple to create and maintain.
An album of many photos can be made with a page of thumbnails, each linked to its full size version. This album could be contained in a sub-folder.