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Your
Homepage

Now we are going to take our first steps toward putting together a personal homepage for the Web. The language of the Web is called Hypertext Markup Language or HTML, and our homepage will actually be a little program written in HTML. We will learn more about HTML later, but as you will see, we don't need to know too much about it to begin to do some interesting things.

Constructing a Simple HTML Document

If you haven't opened a second browser window already, do so now (by selecting "New Window" from the "File" pulldown menu).

  • Use your mouse to copy the following text: 

 
<html> 
<head> 
<title> 
Baby Homepage for Jane Doe 
</title> 
<head> 
 
<BODY BGCOLOR="#000030" TEXT="#ff0000"  
LINK="#336633" VLINK="#336633" ALINK="#FF0000"> 
 
<center> 
<hr size=10pt> 
<font size="+4"> 
<b>Local Home Page for Jane Doe</b> 
</font> 
<hr size=10pt> 
</center> 
<b> 
<h1>Some Favorite Web Sites:</h1> 
<ol> 
<li> 
<a href= 
"http://www.webteacher.org/"> 
webTeacher Tutorial</a> 
<p> 
<li> 
<a href="http://www.korrnet.org/fis/FIS.html"> 
Farragut Intermediate School</a> 
</ol> 
<hr size=5pt> 
</b> 
 
</body> 
</html>

  • Open a text editor like NotePad and paste the text copied with the mouse into the editing window. Don't use an editor like Word that displays HTML as a web page rather than allowing you to edit the file; the simplest text editor on your machine is probably the best choice. Save as a new file under the name index.html in your home directory (or whatever directory you wish).

  • Now edit this file, replacing the two instances of "Jane Doe" with your name, save the corrections, and hide the editor window.

  • Use the Browser to open this file in the second browser window by selecting "Open File ..." from the "File" pulldown menu and navigating accordingly. This should display something like the following, but with your name inserted in place of Jane's:

Local Home Page for Jane Doe

Some Favorite Web Sites:
  1. webTeacher Tutorial

  2. Farragut Intermediate School

  • While still displaying this file, use the mouse to copy the URL address appearing in the Location window.

  • Go to "Tools" pulldown menu and select "Internet".

  • When the "Internet" window opens; click on "General"(1) tab.

  • In the General window, delete the address(2) shown and replace it with the URL address you just copied.

  • Click on "USE CURRENT"(3) button.

  • Click on the OK button(4) to save.

  • Now click the "Home" button on the browser; if everything has gone well, your new personalized homepage should come up as the default homepage. Now every time that you launch the Browser your new homepage will come up as the default document.


Congratulations, Budding Webmeister!

You have just constructed a rudimentary homepage! But this is just the beginning. As we proceed through the tutorial we will add additional pieces to this homepage so that when we have completed the tutorial, this page will be a personalized template for your use in general Web page design. Ya ain't seen nothin' yet!

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