Making A Web Page

One option for your final class project for English 441/541B is to make a Web page on a subject that interests you. A web page is a site on the internet where you can present information or ideas: you are reading a Web page at this moment. The page can include quotations, pictures, and tables. You can click on words in a web page and it will take you to another web page--so for instance, you could click here to get to one of my class home pages.

What you see on this screen differs slightly from what I have typed in putting up this page. To see what I really typed, move your cursor up to the menu at the very top of the Netscape screen, under the blue bar, and click on "View" to open the drop-down menu. Move your cursor down to "Document Source" and click on it: you will then see what I actually typed in producing this web page. Do that now.

The codes in arrow brackets, <>, tell all web browsers (not just netscape, but all of them) to make the page look at certain way at that point. Knowing what codes to insert is just a matter of learning the language you need to use in making a web page: this language, this set of codes, is called HTML language. It is not at all difficult to learn to enter codes in order to make a web page look the way you wish it to look.

Making Web Pages directly in the VAX Account:

In the instructions below, all of the things you type at the dollar prompt when in your VAX account appear in capital letters, but you do not have to use capitals--I've put commands in capitals only to make thems stand out.

To get into your sample web page to make changes, perform the following steps:

1. Log onto the VAX.
2. At the dollar sign prompt, type WWWSETUP
3. At the dollar sign prompt, type

   CD WWW

   It means "Change Directory to the World Wide Web."
4. Now type DIR to see your files in that directory. One of them should be INDEX.HTMLX (ignore the semicolon and the number that comes after it if indeed those things are added to it at this moment).
5. To get into that file, your sample web page, to edit it, type EDIT INDEX.HTMLX which means "Edit [that file]."
6. You will now be in a file in which you can put text and images using HTML. When you are learning HTML, try many things.
7. Open a Netscape browser at the same time. Go to the URL of the file you are working on. Your URL will be:

   http://www.muohio.edu/~[your username for your vax account]/index.htmlx (or leave off the x)

   or

   http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~[your username for your vax account]/

   Remember after you make changes to hit "Reload" at the top of the Netscape browser. (If you made changes but what you see on Netscape still looks the same, click here.)
8. Go back and forth between Netscape and VAX windows, making changes in your document and looking at the results.
9. If you don't like what you did and don't want to save it, hit Control F to exit and abort; if you do like what you did and want to save it, hit Control Z to exit and save.
10. At the dollar-sign prompt, type DIR
11. Now you should see INDEX.HTMLX;1 and INDEX.HTMLX;2. The first is the file before you went in and fooled around. The second is the new file you saved. The Web browser will always take viewers to the last version (#2). If you don't want to rename and keep the first file, type PU at the dollar prompt so that only one copy, on the latest version, will be left in your directory.
12. Type DIR at the dollar-sign prompt; you should now see only INDEX.HTMLX;2
13. You can create another Web page by typing at the dollar-sign prompt (after you have already changed to the WWW directory, step #3 above) EDIT [make up a name of 4 or 5 letters, adding ".htm" or ".html" to the end of the name: EDIT WEB.HTML.
14. About the X: That "X" has been added to the ordinary "html" for your sample page on our program here at Miami; usually on web-file addresses, there is no such thing.
15. About file names and the URL: Your personal web directory is: http://www.muohio.edu/~[your userid on the VAX]/. The file that you name "index.html" or "index.htmlx" will come up as the default file if anyone types simply: http://www.muohio.edu/~[your userid on the VAX]/. As soon as you create an "index.html" page, it supercedes the sample "index.htmlx" page as your default. To get to any other web pages that you make and place in your directory, people will have to add to your basic URL (http://www.muohio.edu/~[your userid on the VAX]/) the file name: http://www.muohio.edu/~[your userid on the VAX]/web.html.

Other ways to make web pages:

Use any web-page composer (Netscape, Dreamweaver, etc.) to make the files you want. Then use an FTP program to transfer the web pages into you vax account.

1. Make a web page on your local computer and save it, noting the place where it exists on your C drive; MAC USERS: save it to the desktop.
2. IBM: Open Rapid FTP; MAC: open Fetch. Both of these programs are available under "MUNet Comm."
3. IBM and MAC: The information you need to get to open a connection to a remote host (i.e., connect to your VAX account, is): Remote Host: miavx1.muohio.edu; UserID: your userid; password: your password; initial directory: www. You can leave everything else blank or default.
4. IBM: Click on the "c" at the top part of your screen. A box will come up asking you if you want to change directory to "c," and click on "change." Below will be all your folders: find the one containing the web page you made by clicking on all the various folders until you get to it. Then click on the file you just made, and click on "Copy" in the right-hand command box. Look down at the remote host: your file should now appear there as well, and it is now in your VAX account.
5. MAC: Click on "Put." A box will come up offering you ways to get to files: click on "desktop," and then find the file you wish to transfer. Click on it. A box will come up asking you if you want to transfer it, and so click on "yes." Look at the list on the left: the file should be there; it is now in your VAX account.

Easiest Way:

Write the text and gather together all the pictures you wish to put together into a web page. Pictures can be in the form of URLs (pictures already on the web) or pictures, books, or slides to be scanned. Have the text in word processing files on a floppy disk. Go to the CIM center in the library, and say, "Can you help me make a web page?"

More Information

• The Library offers links to many good HTML guides. Go to the Library Home Page. Go down to Web and Internet Resources, then click on "Guides to the Internet, HTML, and Web Design." Scroll down to HTML Style Guides. Click on any title to go to pages explaining HTML markup. If you like a particular guide, print it out and keep it!
• I passed out in class excerpts from the NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML; click here to see the whole thing!
• To get a shortlist that defines internet terms and tells you the basics of HTML language, click here
• One important way to learn HTML: whenever you come to a Web page you like, move the cursor up to "View" under the blue bar at the top of the Netscape screen, click on it; cursor down to "Document Source" and click on it. Look at how the codes work to achieve the effect you like.

Notes

*If you made changes in your document but what you see in Netscape doesn't look any different, there may be a problem with your browser (some of them are affected by daylight savings time.) On older versions of Netscape, click on "Options" at the top of the screen for a dropdown box; click on "Network Preferences"; click on clear cache and clear memory, then "o.k." That should make Netscape really go out to the internet and check your page again, if reload doesn't work. For newer versions of Netscape, to clear cache, you click on "Edit," "Preferences," "Advanced," "Cache." Then clear cache and memory.

GOOD LUCK!!

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