LEARNING

For people to see a Web site, its files must be placed on a Web server. At the University of Delaware, a UNIX Web server named “udel.edu” holds individuals’ Web files. The “www.udel.edu” UNIX Web server holds official University Web files. To allow the “udel.edu” server to find your Web files, you must place them in a directory on your account on Copland called “public_html.”

Before you write an HTML document, decide how you will structure it. What will the major heading be? How many subordinate headings will you have; how much text will you include; will you use lists, and so on. You’ll present your structure to your audience through special codes called HTML tags.
HTML documents consist of text, images, and HTML tags for labeling each
element. Tags come in pairs (i.e., a beginning tag and an ending tag) and are
enclosed by angle brackets (the “less than” and “greater than” signs). The format
for an HTML tag is text. Note that the ending tag name is preceded by a slash (/). It is important to include the ending tag with its slash character. Otherwise, the rest of your document will have the properties of the tag you forgot to finish.

In this class, you will prepare an HTML document for viewing on the Web. The procedure for preparing any Web document is
1. Type your text in a text editor: use Notepad in Windows, TextEdit on the Macintosh, or pico in UNIX. If you use a program like Microsoft Word, you must save your file as a text file before you can use it on the Web. (A text file contains only text; it does not contain any formatting codes [for layout, headings, etc.].)
2. Save the file as a text file.
3. View the Web page you’ve created in your Web browser.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the language used to create documents for the World Wide Web. A markup language consists of characters or symbols that you insert in a text file to indicate how the text should look when it is displayed or printed. A Web browser allows others to view your work; browsers retrieve Web information and format Web documents. Designing documents for the Web requires a shift in the way you think about presenting your material. When you prepare a document for the Web, you concentrate on the content and structure of your information rather than on how the information will look on the page (fonts, etc.). In fact, what you put on the Web may look very different on different computers. On the Web, it is the individual browser and often also the user that control what font will be used to display headings or text, whether something will be bold or italics, and so forth. So when you write text for the Web, don’t worry about what font you are using. Instead, think about the content of your document and about the most effective way of structuring your message.

Planning your Web site ahead of time will help you stay organized and present your ideas to your audience in the best possible way. It is helpful to sketch your site on paper so that you have a visual image of how it will look. Each site begins with a home page that can lead to other pages, depending upon how much information you want to convey. Some helpful considerations in planning your site are
1. What is your purpose for doing a Web page? What type of information do you want to provide for people? How can you best organize that information so that people will be able to find it easily?
2. Who is your audience? How should you present your information for the audience you want to reach? Are they interested in quick facts? In getting instructions for registering for classes? In being entertained?
Once you’ve identified your audience, you can decide what type of a Web page will appeal to them. Is plain text appropriate or will your audience expect graphics, sound, and animation?
Knowing your purpose and audience ahead of time will guide your decisions about structuring your Web site.