HTML Tips
In our business, we work hard to develop good web sites, we're always learning, and we're happy to share some tips we've learned over the years in the interest of helping to make the web a better place for us all. It's a mass medium, so get in there and try it out! We're proud to have helped train some good web masters/divas who haven't given up their day jobs yet.
Web pages are simply text files with HTML instructions that tell the web browser program how to display the elements of a page, what images to load with the page, where to find them on the server, etc. HTML stands for "hypertext markup language," the cross-platform dialect that is at the heart of the Internet's hypertext transfer protocol (http). There are many good HTML resources on the web, including tutorials, downloadable HTML authoring software and art sources.
Here are some HTML editors:
Some word processing programs such as ClarisWorks, WordPerfect and PageMaker offer HTML translators, but their scope is fairly limited. You'll have more fun with a "real" HTML editor, and there are plenty of good ones out there, many of them available as free demos.
As you begin to experiment and have fun with HTML, remember that good web sites are the products of good content and are often simple, straight forward, easy to read and quick to load (beware of distracting wallpaper backgrounds, blinking text, annoyingly slow-loading frames and images over 20k). But there's plenty of room for fun and many tools to help you as you let your creative energy flow.
FTP
Once you've created your home page, you'll need to load it to a server. Use an FTP program ("file transfer protocol") to do this if you want maximum flexibility. You can also use Netscape to upload your pages to your server. Our favorite FTP programs:
The easiest way to do this is to create a directory on your hard drive that will mirror the files on your server.Use a folder or directory called "pub" on your desktop. Inside that folder put all the files needed for your web site to load properly, with the default page titled "index.html". The location of these files and the path to them as defined in your HTML is critical in the way your page will display.
If you find there are images missing, you probably don't have the right path defined in your HTML, or perhaps the image isn't in its proper location on the server. Also, be sure you are in the correct directories on both your local machine and the remote server when transferring your files.
Have fun, and start expressing yourself on the web! You'll be a web master/diva before you know it. | 
