Many people have been writing and e-mailing me asking me how to do some  basic web things.  I thought I would include this information page.

Now for the basics!

1.  You need a web page to display your graphics, photos and stuff.  So first, select where you want your page!

Making a homepage is fun, and you can do a lot of things with it. It's your way to say whatever you want to the world.

That's the fun of the web. It's interactive. You don't have to just surf around, you can be a "creator" too! Some people put up their own poetry, talk about their family or their interests, whatever they want to say. Do what you want, it's your page! And you can get your own page free.

You can find a whole list of free or inexpensive web page servers here. The first thing you have to do is pick a server that your page will be located on.  You need one that will give you lots of flexibility in designing your page and allows you to use your own graphics. A few that I know of are:

Yahoo Geocities
Angelfire
Tripod
Fortune City

Geocities has a page building tool called a "PageBuilder," that enables you to make a home page without knowledge of html. Some of the other web page servers have different kinds of "building" tools as well.

So now you've selected a web provider.  Go to the site of the provider you have selected and follow the directions given there for signing up for that service.  Basically, this means picking out a name for your site and filling out a form.   You will have to supply your name and email address, and sometimes the confirmation has to come first to you for email. Just look carefully at the directions, and make sure you follow them.  

2.  Now you can start on your website.  You will need to make your own web page.  There are a number of ways you can do this.  One way is to use a program that makes a page, such as Front Page, Microsoft Publisher, or Web Studio by Sierra.  You make a page in these programs and then upload it to your site, following the instructions in your program.  To upload a pre made page to your site, you will need to log into your server with your name and password.  Then, you use a FTP program or the file manager from your web space provider to upload your pages and graphics.  Each graphic and page must be loaded separately.  

Another way is for you to check out and see what ways your web server has for you to make a page.  For example, if you are on Geocities, they have a page building program, the Geobuilder, built right in.  Again, you log into your provider with your name and password and follow the directions each one gives you.  

A third way to make a page is to learn HTML.  You can create a page right from the page editors in Geocities  or any of the other addresses,  using HTML.   There are many great tutorial sites. A good place to start is So you want to make a web page!   You can learn the basic commands in just a few minutes, and then work your way up to more complicated topics, like how to use tables. The more you learn, the better your page will look. Over time, as you learn, your pages can look as good as any professional site. Don't think, "I'm just a kid, so my page just isn't going to look any better then this." It takes time, like anything you have to learn, but the end result can be more rewarding then a good grade. You can say, "This is my page, and it looks beautiful!"  Check here also for some of my basic html tips.
 
You should learn the basics of how to make your page before you start asking for  graphics or html codes. Have at least a title, background color, and some kind of introductory text, like maybe something about yourself. Then you have a home ready for all the great things you find. 

3.  Learn how to copy & upload graphics. You should learn the basics of how to make your page before you start asking for  graphics or html codes. Have at least a title, background color, and some kind of introductory text, like maybe something about yourself. Then you have a home ready for all the great things you find. 

To copy a graphic, do the following:

• First, move your mouse over the image you want.
• Second, right click on the image you want with the mouse.
• Third, choose "Save Picture As" from the popup menu.
• Decide where you want to save the picture to. You can save it to a floppy disc on your A drive, or to a place in your h ard drive.  (If you are in AOL, and save to the hard drive, it will go to a directory called C:\AOL\download, or something similar to that).   IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER WHERE YOU ARE SAVING YOUR IMAGE TO.  If you forget, it will be hard to find it again. 
• Click on save or ok button to save the image.

4.  Now your image is saved, but what do you do with it now?  You need to know how to upload graphics to your own website.  First, you must put the image on your page.  If you are using a web building program, load the image into the program following the program's instructions.  If you are using html code, you must refer to the image in the code.  For example, you are in Geocities.  Your address is http://www.geocities.com/Rodeo/Drive/Mall/5803.   Your image is called "alexa.gif"  You would type into your html code <IMG SRC="http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/Mall/5803/alexa.gif"> After your page is made, you must publish it to your webpage provider. To find out how, you have to get information from your own web page provider (Angelfire or Geocities or whoever you get your page from). Each provider does it a little differently.  You should be able to find an "Information" or "Member Services" area. Some providers have volunteer "helpers" - you may need to ask one for help. But what you are doing is finding the image you saved, and uploading it to the address where your page is located. Basically, you need to remember two things:

• You must upload the image itself
• You must have an html code, or a page generating program, that refers to the image EXACTLY.  Capital letters must match.  So must file endings.  If they don't, they won't show up.  In some, all images are saved to an "images" directory, so the html code must also include "images" in it.   For example, if your picture is called "alexa.gif,"  the html code would refer to "images/alexa.gif."  Sound files are also put in the images directory in some providers.

With some providers you can upload by using just your browser (if you have a later version of Netscape), and with other providers you may need to download and install an FTP (file transfer protocol) program. So "how" you do it depends on what software you have and what page provider you are using. I can't tell you a simple way that will work for everyone. You will need to research the problem for yourself by investigating the homepage of your web page provider. Find out exactly what program you need. If you are using your parents' computer, find out exactly what you need, and then you may have to ask them to upgrade the browser, or if you can install a new free program. 

5. If you are willing to help others you will end up getting the help you need, too.

6.  If you want people to sign your guest book, sign other people's guest books. If you want feedback about your site and how to improve it, give feedback to someone else about their website! Try emailing people with homepages that are just as small as your own homepage, rather then a huge supersite. They are just as anxious to get mail as you are - rather then being swamped with email like a huge site! People who have huge sites and full mailboxes probably won't have time to answer you even if they'd like to! Be sincere and helpful. Start your email by talking about the website you are emailing, rather then yourself and your own website problems. Then if you do find yourself in the position where you have to ask someone else for help, you will already have online friends who know you are also willing to help others. And whenever they find a neat HTML or graphics trick, you will be the first person they email! If you email one person and they don't seem to be online much and don't get back to you, don't worry about it or bug them again, just try emailing someone else.  Start sister sites with online friends who will help you.

7.  For graphics, link back to the site of origin & give credit to the  creator.  If you are adopting a graphic, either the graphic itself can "click through" to its home (be sure to use border=0), or you can link a "birth certificate" next to the graphic, or have a text link right by the graphic. Follow whatever rules the site you're adopting from has!

If you have a whole page of graphics, and all their links are together at the bottom of the page, it's very hard for visitors to your page to figure out which link goes to the graphic they would like to get. I know, because it's happened to me many times! Even worse, a link that doesn't work (always test every link you put on your page by clicking on it), or no link to the site at all. That's just plain rude. It doesn't give credit to the creator, and it's like telling your visitors, "I have these beautiful things, but I'm not going to let you find out how to get them!"

8. Don't steal bandwidth.

The basic problem is, if you use a graphic on my server to load on your page, it slows down the loading of my page. And, when many people link (instead of copying and uploading) graphics this way on a large site that pays for their bandwidth, it can become very expensive for the site operator and even force the whole website to close. This is not a good thing to do to someone who is doing you a favor by making cute graphics you can use!

In addition to being bad for the provider, you can mess up your own site by linking. If the site you are linking your graphics from moves, or the images on it are moved or renamed, then you'll have a missing image!

You probably have no idea how much time it takes to make a graphic. The people who are kind enough to make graphics aren't professionals (at least most aren't!) They don't work for Disney! They're just people, like you, who actually spend hours trying to make a graphic that will look good, and then give it away, for free! 

9. And say Thank You!

Don't forget that there are real people on the other side of the computer. Anytime someone gives you an award, or lets you adopt a graphic, or makes you a free banner, or offers free clip art - it just takes a second to send off a quick email saying, "Thanks for the ______!" If they have a form with a comment box, it's even easier for you to say Thank You right there. Or you can mention them by name and say Thank You right on your webpage next to the image!

To make an image link, without the border around it:

<A HREF="http://the_url.com"><IMG SRC="the_image.gif" BORDER=0></A>