I put much of this site together in a couple of weeks at the end of August 1995, in my spare time. During that period I went from knowing nothing about using HTML to create Web pages, to learning enough to put this humble effort onto the Web. I did this by searching the WWW for places that explain how to create Web pages, and by looking at the source code of interesting pages. I also got specific instructions from my Internet provider on how to upload completed pages to my server. If I can do this, so can you.

To make a Web page you have to decide what text and graphics (and/or sound, movies, etc.) you want your page(s) to contain, and what HTML tags you need to use to tell a browser how to present the text and graphics (and/or sound, movies, etc.--I'm assuming you have a real connection to the Internet, not a Unix text-only connection or something like that). What you see when your Web browser shows you a Web page is a representation of information contained in a glorified text file that contains this combination of text and HTML tags (with links to whatever graphics and such you might add). For an example of such a text file, select "Source" from your "View" menu (if you're using Netscape; use the equivalent command for a non-Netscape browser) and then click back to your browser after it shows you the source code for this Web page (do it right now). If you just viewed the source for this page, you saw the raw text of what you're reading now, accompanied by HTML tags that tell your Web browser how to display it (and you also saw addresses for the graphics on this page accompanied by HTML tags telling your Web browser where to display them). Figuring out how to use those HTML tags (the things that start and end with "<" and ">") is your first task in publishing a Web page.

Here are a few of the places you can look to learn HTML (there are also printed books; check your local library): "A Beginner's Guide to HTML" (this page also contains links to other similar resources); the "Creating Net Sites" page found in Netscape's "Help" menu; various resources you can find by using search engines and directories such as those found on the "Internet Search" page under Netscape's "Directory" menu; the "Creating Your Web Page" chapter in the online version of The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh (this also contains pointers to sites where you can download background textures, icons, etc., and you can find more such sites by using search engines to search Web indexes by keyword. In addition, this site lists other sites that will check your HTML for boo-boo's, and also suggests ways to publicize your page once it's uploaded); and "The Home Page Maker" to give you a little shortcut if you need one. There's an explanation of some Netscape-specific tags called "How Do They Do That With HTML?" Again, another way to learn how HTML tags work is to surf around for interesting sites and then view the source for those pages to see how they were made (but realize that most people, including myself, don't write very good HTML. My pages, for example, often fail to include paragraph tags--a major boo boo--and don't always include nice things like tags defining the pixel size of graphics, ALT tags, and so forth. On the other hand, I avoid tables, refuse to use those awful frames, and don't have any kitschy animated GIFs or scolling Java messages!). (You can also steal images from a site by clicking and holding your Mac's mouse button (you do use a Macintosh, don't you?) and then picking the appropriate choice from the pop-up menu; if you're using lipstick-on-a-chicken, I hear that you click the right mouse button or something like that.) There are HTML editors that make it easier to write Web pages, but I haven't used them so I can't recommend one; there are reviews of them in various places on the WWW if you have more sense than I do and want to make things easy on yourself by choosing and using one.

When you have a text file complete with HTML tags and you want to upload it to your server (and/or to upload any graphics or such to go with it), you'll have to find out from your internet service provider exactly how to do this. If you have an account at the University of Utah, there are U of U-specific instructions on how to upload your pages. If you have a U of U account and are trying to follow the U's instructions, after you create your directories and such you'll find it easy to upload your HTML files, graphics, etc. to your "public_html" directory if you use "Fetch," an application you should be able to download from almost any Mac archive. Use Fetch to upload your HTML files, graphics, etc. as "raw data" (and just name your files and such something like "stuff.html" or "cool.gif" or whatever--the point is that you don't need to include a whole URL string starting with "http://" if everything is in the same place (but your URL address (what you and others use to access your page from a browser) will still be a long string starting with "http://")). You'll still need to Telnet or dial in to the Unix shell (arghhhhhh!) to initially create your "public-html" directory and later to do the chmod business. Remember to always do the chmod stuff after uploading something.

Well, good luck. It's great when you see you've made something nice that actually works.