How can I make a web page ?
Creating a simple web page is quite easy using a program like Netscape Gold or Netscape Composer, available free from Netscape. Other popular programs include Fusion and HomePage, while conventional programs like Excel are now offering "HTML Conversion" options.
To get started, there's an excellent list of tutorials available from the Web Design Group (many books cover this material as well). Also very good is "webmonkey for kids," which has a great series of tutorials and projects. To develop a page quickly, many people "borrow" the basic design from another web site. Netscape offers an excellent collection of web page templates for this purpose.
Before you can publish your web page to the world, you first have to upload it to your monitor.net directory -- specifically, to a subdirectory named "web." To do this, you will need a FTP program.
In your FTP software you provide the name of the computer you wish to contact. Enter
To view your web page, enter this address in Netscape or Internet Explorer (replacing "mary" in the example with your own user name):
Why doesn't my web page work ?
The two most common mistakes are A) mixing upper and lower case or using spaces in file names, and B) placing files in the wrong directory.
The monitor.net computers use the UNIX operating system which is case-sensitive. Thus index.html and Index.html are two different files. Check to make sure that the directory is named web in all lower case, and that your index.html /default.html file name is in all lower case. Besides the restriction on directory and the entry page file name, you can name other files and pictures almost anything you want --- remember, however, that any references to them match the same upper/lower case exactly.
All of your files must be placed in the "web" subdirectory (see question above). When you use an FTP program to contact ftp.monitor.net, it first displays your home directory, where you should be able to see the web subdirectory, if it has been created. Open the web subdirectory and place your files there.
Tech support at monitor.net is always glad to answer specific questions or offer tips, as time permits. Please e-mail support@monitor.net for help. We can also provide contact information for several talented web page developers.
How
do I publish my pages with Netscape Gold or Netscape Composer ?
Netscape
Gold has a built-in editor that lets you create web pages interactively.
You can create a set of web pages locally, on your hard drive, and "publish"
them on our server, so other people can access them.
To publish your pages, you must configure Netscape with information about your account. Unfortunately, the configuration is not obvious, so we'll provide step by step instructions. In Netscape, pull down the OPTIONS menu, select "Editor Preferences...". (Using Netscape Composer, this is found under the EDIT menu and Preferences.) The dialog has three "folder tabs" across the top; click on "Publish". The bottom half of this dialog lets you set up the "default publishing location", with four pieces of information. Assuming your account name is "mary", you would use these values:
Publish To (FTP or HTTP): ftp://ftp.monitor.net/home/monitor/mary/web/
Browse To (HTTP): http://www.monitor.net/~mary/
User Name: mary
Password: your password
Don't forget to use your account name in place of "mary", and your password in place of "your password" above.
When you're ready to publish a file, have it open in a Netscape editor window, and press the "Publish" button (or select "Publish..." in the "File" menu). Whenever you add new images to your pages, you must upload them to the server as well. Press the "select all" button, next to the list of images. In the "Publishing" section, press the "default location" button. When you press the "OK" button, a new browser window should open and your file is uploaded.
Can I use Microsoft Front Page to create web pages ?
Yes, as long as you use Front Page 2000. Previous versions of Front Page required Monitor to use proprietary Microsoft's "server extensions." To use Front Page 2000, first select "Page Options" under the TOOLS menu. Choose the tab at the top for "Compatibility." Uncheck the box for
"Enabled with Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions."
How can I provide a form for someone to fill out on my web page ?
Do you have your own domain name ("mycompany.com")? If so, first e-mail
support@monitor.net and ask that your domain name be added to the list for using FormMail.
To design a fill-in-the-blank form, we suggest starting with an existing model. Look at the calendar item page once used for the Albion Monitor, which is a simple form that is easy to understand.
Problems arise because the information sent that way is often hard to interpret; spaces are turned into "+" and other odd characters may make it very difficult to read. A popular solution is FormMail, a generic CGI script that will e-mail you the data in an easy-to-read format.
As in the calendar example linked above, your HTML "form" statement should be:
< form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/FormMail" >
The only other special setting required by FormMail is the e-mail recipient, i.e. the e-mail address the mail is sent to. The calendar example mails the information to the address in the name="recipient" parameter (in this case, "editor@monitor.net"). NOTE: In order for FormMail to work, we must add the recipient's name to a special list. Send e-mail to support@monitor.net with the e-mail address used in the form.
Full documentation on how to use FormMail is available from the author.
Can
I use an "odometer" or "counter" on my page ?
Do you have your own domain name ("mycompany.com")? If so, first e-mail
support@monitor.net and ask that your domain name be added to the list for using the counter. But anyone can use our generic, odometer-like counter which has a variety of display styles.
Currently, the display styles available are:
Style A:
Style B:
Style C:
Style D:
Style E:
(transparent:
)
Style F:
Style G:
(transparent:
)
To use a counter in your page, first pick a name for your counter. You use this name whenever you refer to the counter, so the server knows which counter to increment. You must use a unique name for every page that uses a counter. In this example, we'll use the name "mon1".
The counter is a CGI script that returns an image. You use it in your HTML just as you would an image, but you're really running a program that generates your image on the fly. Here's a simple example:
<img src="/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?dd=B&df=mon1">
| | |
CGI script name | |
style |
name
The name of the CGI script is "/cgi-bin/Count.cgi"; you must type this exactly as it is here. The question mark separates name script name from it's parameters; the parameters are separated by ampersands. "dd=B" says to use style "B" (change this to any in the list above), and "df=mon1" gives the name of our counter. The resulting image would look like this:
You can have the counter create a Transparent GIF for you, too, though you have to give the transparent color in RGB values. Since some of the styles have a white background, and we know we can represent white with RGB values of 255, 255, and 255, respectively, it's easy to use these styles as transparent GIFS, even though you need a background color which shows the black text off, unlike what we have here:
To generate this counter, we used this IMG tag:
<img src="/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=mon1&ft=0&dd=G&trgb=255;255;255" align=absmiddle>
| | | | |
CGI script name | | | |
name | | |
no frame | |
style "G" |
white is transparent
More documentation for the counter is available.
Note that some HTML editors (like Netscape Gold) won't let you type the full image reference as it is written here. Instead you must create your image with some random name, save your document, open it with a text editor or word processor, such as BBEdit or Word, and edit the IMG tags by hand. When you re-open the page in Netscape and publish, Netscape will leave your modified IMG tags alone. You should keep this hand-modified copy of your HTML, though, because if Netscape downloads it again for editing, it could change your IMG tags and you'll have to fix them up by hand all over again.
Can I see the statistics and records for visits to my web site ?
Yes, if you have your own domain name ("mycompany.com"). This question is discussed in depth at the Advanced web help page.
Can I use custom CGI scripts on my web pages ?
Yes, if you have your own domain name ("mycompany.com"). All domain name owners can have a collection of scripts for their exclusive use. Customers without a domain name are restricted to using our public cgi-bin directory which has scripts such as formmail and count, described above. This question is discussed in depth at the Advanced web help page.
Why isn't my web page available from directories or search pages such as Yahoo or Alta Vista ?
|
Directories such as Yahoo require you to submit your URL for consideration.
There are also many different ways to have your web pages listed by search programs, including the form available to the right. (This is provided by a company that wants you to purchase their services for updating still other search programs. We don't endorse that option for most customers.)
Search Engine Watch offers a very informative site with up-to-date news and tips on how to improve the rankings of your web site. But be aware that search engines can take several months to list your site, and there's still no guarantee that your web pages will be prominently listed.
The best way to bring visitors to your site is to request links from others with similar web pages. We recommend spending one afternoon a week for at least six months simply writing e-mail to people and businesses that might have visitors that could be interested in your pages. Always reciprocate with a web link back to them from your own site.