Well, here we are straining at the traces to get that all important first web site written. So let's get started with the structure of a web site.
All web sites should conform to some logical structural rules, if only to make them easier for you to work with! The first page of any site should be called yoursite.com/index.html (or htm). The reason for this is that when someone puts yoursite.com into their address bar the search engine or browser will automatically look for the index.html file. This is affectionately known as your home-page .
There are myriad of ways to set entry pages to your site, mostly known as portals, but these are both beyond the scope of this site and unnecessary unless you are building a commercial site (in which case things get a bit more complicated to say the least!) so we shall stick with the tried and tested methods.
The files that comprise your web site should all be grouped into one master file called something like "My Web site". This master file will contain both the individual web-page files (ending .html), your cascading style sheets (ending .css) and a separate folder containing all your image files. Image files should carry a name (any name that makes sense to you and end .gif or .jpg ) Refer to the Graphics section for why not to include .bmp files.
To faintly confuse things, the text (html) files will have another name (within the head section called Title) and this is the name seen at the absolute top of the screen when viewing the page in a browser. It follows from this that you can call the files anything you want e.g. index, contents, intro etc. equally they could be called page1, page2, page3 etc. as long as the Title Name is the description that you want your visitors to see.
The index page is the first page that a visitor will see, so work on it to make it look both compelling and give an inducement to enter. Briefly explain what your visitor will find inside the site and why they should look. This is also the page on which to, prominently, display your logo. Once inside, your visitor should encounter a contents page with links to all the sections within the site. These links can be to individual pages or to sub-menus and one page should be an introduction either to the site itself or you as the author (or both). [See the contents page to this site]
For the sake of simplicity. we shall build a simple site without sub-menus or external links. These can come later, when you feel more accomplished and confident in your capabilities.
Let's start by opening a new page in your web editor. The page will look relatively empty apart from the pre-coded bits supplied with the editor software. From the top you will see something like the following:
Familiarize yourself with this layout as you will see it every time (at least for the near future) that you start a new page. It will become almost second nature to fill in the relevant bits before starting on the page content.
We shall now move onto the 'fun' bit; The actual writing, inserting graphics and page lay-out. The Basic Web Page
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