Creating Your Personal Web Page

A web page is the essence of the internet. Millions of people are learning the skills and having their say.

Designing web pages is not for everyone. If you are only interested in getting on the internet, without knowing the details, then you may prefer to call in the services of a professional web design company. But if you want to have a try yourself then check out some of the information below.

What is a Web Page?

You're looking at one! Alright, you knew that. So what makes a web page look and behave the way it does? It's all very simple. Let's start at your computer and work towards the TelstraClear end. To view a web page you use a Web Browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer). It is the browser that takes the web page from a web site (such as telstraclear.co.nz) and formats it into what you look at.

How? It starts by you connecting to your Internet Service Provider. This can be via a dial-up modem or through a broadband network connection. When you connect, your browser requests a web page from our web server. This request includes the name of the page (URL or Uniform Resource Locator) that you want to view. When you first connect you may see the TelstraClear home page because this is set as the 'default' home page in your browser. Our web server retrieves the page and returns it to your web browser via the connection.

Once your browser receives the requested page from our server, it interprets or decodes the informaton that the web server sent. It can do this because a web page is laid out using a language that tells the browser how to place the page content on your screen. It uses what is known as HTML (HyperText Markup Language).

HTML is a constantly evolving language that is having features added to it all the time. This can lead to situations where older web browsers do not support all the newer features of the language. Another problem is that different browser software authors can support different features or even develop their own extensions to the language. This means different brands of browser might show pages differently or sometimes with parts that don't appear correctly. All these things have to be taken into consideration when creating web pages.

Web pages are obviously more than just text. You only have to look at a couple of web sites to see that images, sounds and various other special effects can be included on a web page. HTML gives you the ability to include all these things on your web pages. And of course don't forget one of HTML's most useful features, the ability to link to other web pages anywhere on the internet.

Tell me more about HTML!

Web page design is both an art form and a science. The best way to develop your skills is to get right in there and design some web pages. A great way to learn about designing pages is to surf the web. When you find a site you particularly like, have a close look at it and make a note of what it is that appeals. You will find in your browser (usually on the View menu) a command called 'View Source' or 'View Page Source'. By clicking on this you will be able to see the HTML code behind the web page. This is a very useful way to learn about HTML and page design.

The following are links to sites that you will find useful. These are mainly sites that tell you about HTML (from basic to the official definition) or Web page design (including some sites designed by Web gurus!).

The list is by no means all inclusive. And don't forget you can use any search engine to find more. Just search for "HTML" or "Web page design".

1. D.J. Quads Ultimate HTML Site
    In the words of the sites Webmaster "This site serves as a one-stop HTML authoring and design site." Judge for yourself! A very useful site.
2. David Siegel's Creating Killer Web Sites
    Also a best selling book by the same name, this web site shows you some advanced techniques for creating out of the ordinary web sites. With lots of 'Tricks of the Trade" for the more advanced Webmaster. Inludes a 'follow the fish' guided tour!

What tools are there to help me?

While some people prefer to create their web pages using Windows Notepad others prefer to use a more user friendly tool. There are many different types of HTML editors out there and to list them all would be impossible.

We have included links to some tools which you may find useful. Some are Shareware, some are Freeware and others are commercial software products. We don't endorse any one of these products and don't guarantee their suitability to your task, but have a look and you may find the perfect tool! Remember to use your favourite search engine to find more.

1. Microsoft FrontPage
    A WYSIWYG editor with spell checking, easy link creation, clickable images, form creation and more. A commercial product with Windows and Macintosh versions. clear.net Professional Web Hosting supports Front Page extensions so you can use the nifty web bots to create an interesting web site.
2. Hotdog
    Hotdog, Hotdog Professional and Hotdog Express, all from Sausage Software. Some people swear by it. The developers have a great sense of humour too!

• Creating Your Personal Web Page
• Enabling your Personal Web Page
• Publishing your Personal Web Page
• Access Control