Choosing Software for your computer

To build a web site you will need a web designing program on your computer. Common web site design software you can buy includes:

• Dreamweaver
• Front Page
• Publisher
• Fireworks
• iWeb (Macintosh)

You can also use open source software, which is freely available on the Internet, such as:

• Joomla
• Mambo

Some people write pages in HTML which is the underlying language for all web pages. If you select a page on the Internet, go to the View menu and choose View Source or View Code, you will see the way the page is transmitted over the Internet. A knowledge of HTML is very useful as your knowledge of web design increases.

Organising your computer

You will need to prepare separate folders to store:

• Original text files
• Original photo/graphic files
• Your web site as you build it
• Images in use on your site

Creating your site

Remember that the site is the overall structure of your web site and consists of pages, images files, hyperlinks and information about how you connect to the internet.

Open the software package you will be using and find the menu item that asks you to create your site. It will seek the following information:

• A name for your site, for your own use
• The web address for where the site will live on the internet
• In what folder you will store your site on your local computer
• Where you want to store your images on your local machine
• How you will be connecting to your internet host

See the Uploading page for more information about how to create a a web address and how to connect with your internet host.

Creating your Home page

After you have created your web site you need to create your first page. Careful planning of this page can save you a lot of time in the future.

Most web designing software packages offer templates. These are pre-designed pages with set colour schemes and font selections. It is good to use them initially, but, if you want to have your own individual design you should have a go at creating blank pages later.

If you have to save the page call it index. When visitors go to a site to Internet always searches for pages called index first. Save it into the folder you created for your site. this is called the root folder.

Page Size

Start off by setting the page size. Sizes on web pages are measured in pixels, the number of small dots of colour the make up what you see on the screen. These days most computer monitors have at least 1024 pixels across the screen and 768 pixels down. Older monitors have 800 pixels across and 600 down. It is common practice to choose 780 pixels for the width so all users can see your page without having to scroll to see the page.

Headers

The header is the strip across the top of the page which usually has the name of the organisation that is presenting the site and a graphic to illustrate the organisation. If you can choose a size make it 760 pixels wide by 200 pixels high. You should use it on all pages for the sake of consistency.

Navigation

Below most headers is a row of buttons that link the pages of your site together. These buttons are joined with hyperlinks. Different design software packages create these buttons in different ways. You may have to put the file names of the other pages into the software before you actually create these pages. Make sure you know what these file names are and stick to them. Always use lowercase (no capitals) when naming files.

You may also set up the buttons at the bottom of the page in the Footer, at this time.

Many pages these days have breadcrumbs. these help visitors find their back through a site. A breadcrumb for this site would look like this:

Home | Construction

They are useful if you have pages that go off other pages at different levels.

The Body

The main part of the web page is called the body.

You can either type directly into that section and insert photos and images or set up tables to make things neater.

It is very important that your photos are prepared before inserting them into a page.

Preparing photos for your web site

Before putting photos into your site they must be the correct size. If they are too small and you try to make them bigger they will pixellate or become fuzzy. If they are too big your web site could take a long time to load up on a visitors screen and they will leave.

If a photo is going to go right across the page it should be 720 pixels wide, to allow for the scroll bars and padding on the sides of the page. If it going to be half the width make it 360 pixels. a quarter will be 180 pixels and a small photos (thumbnail) would be 50 pixels. If you are using Photoshop to edit your photos go to the File> Save for Web menu, select Image Size and type in your width. it to Apply button. Make sure that JPEG, high is selected at the top then save it, into your images folder using a single word, lowercase name.

You can also go to the Image>Image Size... menu and set your width. If you use this method make sure the Resolution is 72 dots per inch. Save your picture as a JPEG into your images folder, using a single name word.

Photos as Hyperlinks

If you put photos into your web page you can select them and add hyperlinks, so that visitors can click on them and go to another page, or site

External Hyperlinks

You can create hyperlinks to other web sites by going to the insert menu and select create Hyperlink, then typing in the full web address of the site you want to send your visitor to, For example this link Rick Box Digital has the hyperlink: http://www.rickbox.com.au

Preparing your other pages

Once you have created your home page you can use it as a template for your other pages. Make sure that the information in your header and footer is correct and that the hyperlinks on your buttons and breadcrumbs are exactly right. The choose Save As.. from your File menu and save the page using the file names you have used in your hyperlinks. Save the page using Save As.. for each of your pages into your web (root) folder.

If you make any errors here you have to go through and fix up every page individually.

Testing your site

Most software packages have a a preview selection on the menu bar. Try out your page to see how it looks. Note that the hyperlinks to other pages won't work until you have uploaded to site onto the internet. External links to other sites should work.

How to Create a Site With Microsoft Publisher