Next, you must create the pages. This is something you do on your own computer. There is plenty of software to help you, ranging from full-service packages like Front Page or Page Mill that will handle virtually all aspects of webpage authoring, through specialized programs like Paint Shop Pro for creating and manipulating image files, down to very simple tools like Notepad for building text files. The selection of software you use will inevitably depend on taste, availability, and budget. Here are a few tips and recommendations:
Operating system: We assume you are working on a Windows-based machine or a Mac. Other possibilities exist, but fall outside the scope of these notes. For Windows, we strongly suggest Windows 95 or NT over Windows 3.1 (or DOS). The later operating systems have features and architecture that make page development much faster. Likewise, Mac users should have MacOS 7.6+ or 8.0+.
And a word about hardware. Strictly speaking, practically any PC or Mac of recent vintage can be made to work, but you will speed things along if you have a Pentium or Power PC chip, at least 32 Meg of memory, and plenty of free disk space (say 20 Meg to 100 Meg, depending on your choice of software). If your connection to the Net is via modem, move mountains to get at least a 28.8 K modem, preferably a 36.3K modem: you will be doing lots of uploading and downloading, and waiting on a slow modem gets old fast. (Faster connections are possible; e.g., the new 56K modems--but be sure your Internet service will support 56K--or ISDN phone service at 128K--which is more pricey.)
HTML files: HTML files are merely text files--even the HTML mark-up commands are just text strings inserted into the rest of your text. So again, strictly speaking, your favorite text editor is all you need to create HTML pages. (And many people do it this way.) But for this to work, you have to know HTML. This is not a bad idea, even if you use fancier software, and there are good reference books on HTML. We recommend HTML: The Definitive Guide by Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy (pub. O'Reilly) and How to Set Up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site by Lincoln Stein (pub. Addison Wesley). There are also many online references for HTML.
(Another good way to learn more about HTML, once you have the basics down, is to look at other people's HTML. If something in a site on the Web catches your eye, have your browser display the HTML source and look at how it was done.)
Most people prefer an editor with some knowledge of HTML. These are called web editors. There are lots to choose from. Be sure the one you choose can handle HTML tables, and frames if you want them. (Frames allow you to divide the screen into several separate windows onto your site. Our experience is that most browsers make navigation around frames harder than it should be, and many websites don't set their frames up correctly.) The editor should handle both WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) input as well as raw HTML, and should allow you to edit the HTML directly should the need arise. These editors tend to be priced from $100 on up. Examples: Front Page for Windows 95, Page Mill 2.0 or later, GoLive (recommended by web-wizards at Apple), World Wide Web Weaver. Shareware editors are also available.
Also, check whether your word processor will produce HTML. Word 8.0 for example has a built-in HTML option, and free add-ins are available from Microsoft for Word 7 and later versions of Word 6.
Be careful about mixing upper and lower case letters in filenames. On your own computer, the filenames are probably not case-sensitive, but on the host they probably will be. If they are, your host will not find a link's target if the case of the filename in the link does not match the actual filename on the host. A good rule is always to use lower case letters in filenames.
Always use the extension ".html". Earlier PC-compatible operating systems can only handle 3-character extensions, and if you're stuck with this, use ".htm"--but use ".html" in file references inside your HTML mark-up commands, and change the extensions of your files to ".html" when you upload them to your Internet host.
Image files: All of your image files should be either GIFs or JPEGs. As a general rule, use GIFs for art work and JPEGs for photos. GIF format can handle black and white photos OK, but it's effectively limited to 256 colors, so doesn't handle color photos well.
You can download images from the Internet (try right-clicking on an image or the background in your browser), and there are Internet sites that specialize in collections of downloadable do-dads like buttons, bars, and backgrounds.
But eventually you will want your own images. Digital photos are a good source; images can also be digitized with a scanner. (Scanner time can be rented at Kinko's or other full-service copying shops) Artwork can also be created directly in computer programs of varying sophistication.
At some point, you will be faced with the problem of converting from one format (BMP or TIFF, say) to GIF or JPEG. Many graphics programs can do this. We recommend the shareware program Paint Shop Pro (downloadable from several sources on the Web) as a general image editor. It can read and convert from a wide variety of formats. (Exact conversion is not always possible; you can do things in some formats that are not possible in others.)
Be aware that it is sometimes possible to dramatically reduce the size of a GIF file by some judicious changes: using only two colors, or no more than 16 colors, and keeping background areas "clean" (preferably with pixels of only one color). This is especially useful for line art like maps. Of course, the file size can also be reduced by shrinking the image's dimensions: cutting the linear dimensions in half reduces the number of pixels (and bytes) by a factor of 4.
Always use the extensions ".gif" and ".jpg". Sometimes you will see ".jpeg", but ".jpg" is preferred.
Testing your pages: Before you upload files to your Internet host, you should test them on your own computer by loading them into your browser to verify that they display correctly. More important, verify that they display correctly in both Netscape and Internet Explorer. This means getting copies of both of those browsers. IE is downloadable free from Microsoft. Netscape costs about $80, although limited versions can be downloaded free. (You can browse files on your own computer by double-clicking on the file name, or by using a URL built from "file://" and some version of the file name, possibly replacing any backslashes with forward slashes; the syntax varies from browser to browser) Be sure all the links work, especially links to pages outside of your own collection of pages. (These must be tested regularly even after your pages "go public" since external pages have a habit of moving or disappearing.)
In general, links to your own pages from within your own pages should be "relative" links, i.e., links giving not the full URL but the path to the target file "relative to" the current file. For example, a file (call it "thisfile.html") that refers to "other.html" or "images/mypic.jpg" is referring to the file "other.html" in the same directory where "thisfile.html" is located, or to "mypic.jpg" in the subdirectory "images" of the same directory where "thisfile.html" is located. These relative links will work regardless of the full URL of "thisfile.html", so they make moving the whole collection from one place (say, your computer) to another (your Internet host) "relatively" painless: you don't have to edit the links when you move the files.
Uploading your pages: Once the pages are tested and working to your satisfaction, you are ready to copy ("upload") the files from your computer to your Internet host. The usual way of doing this is to use an FTP ("file transfer protocol") program. WS_FTP is an excellent free FTP program; Trumpet FTP also runs on the PC platform. Fetch is a popular FTP program for Macs. (NCSA Telnet, below, also includes a basic FTP interface.)
The primary purpose of FTP programs is to copy files from your computer to the host or vice versa. To do this you will need two things from the owners of your Internet host: the location (full path name) of your website's home directory on the host, and a user name and password. The FTP program will offer you the choice of two transfer modes: binary and text. Binary mode is used for image files (.gif and .jpg) while text mode (also called ASCII mode) is used for the HTML files. If you use the wrong mode, the copies will probably not be readable. Just reset the mode and copy the files again; the new copies will overwrite the unreadable ones.
The better FTP programs also allow you to do most of the directory maintenance required on the host: deleting obsolete files, creating and removing subdirectories, moving from one directory to another, renaming the files if necessary during the transfer (changing ".htm" to ".html" for example). Occasionally you may need to do some work on the host that the FTP programs don't handle. In that case you resort to a Telnet program that lets you sign on directly to the host and issue commands there. You will sign on using the same user name and password that you use for FTP, but the commands are local system commands, usually Unix. The knowledge of Unix required is minimal. NCSA Telnet is a free Telnet program that works well on PCs and Macs. Trumpet Telnet is another option for PCs.