Generating Text Files For Your Web Page

When someone goes to read some part of your web page, the browser looks for a file called "index.html" or "index.htm" in the appropriate folder (directory). If it finds such a file, it displays it. If not, it simply lists the files that exist in that folder (directory) and lets the user choose. All of the text files must end in .html or .htm to be readable by Netscape Navigator. Note also that Index.html or other variations will not work; it must be all lower case.

So how do you create a file called "index.html"? There are a number of ways. Following are three of the most popular ones.

1. Go to the Communicator menu at the top of your Netscape web browser and select Page Composer. This will start up Composer. You can type a web-ready text file as you would on a normal word processor. Composer allows you to add links by selecting the text that you want to link and clicking on the "link" menu item. Note that when entering a url on Composer, you must include the http:// part. When you're done, save the file to the desktop (name it "index.html" if you want it to be your main page) and transfer it to your leland account. Go to the "Moving Files" menu item on the left to see how.

2. Write the file in MS WORD. When you are ready to save, go to the File menu. If a Save as HTML option is there, select that. If not, select Save As. At the bottom of the dialog box, next to where it says "Save as type:," there will be a field that says Word Document (*.doc). Click on that field and select HTML Document. Then save the file to the desktop (name it "index.html" if you want it to be your main page) and transfer it to your leland account. Go to the "Moving Files" menu item on the left to see how.

3. Login to your leland account as if you were going to check email, but then don't check email. Instead, type
   cd WWW
   to change to your WWW directory and then type
   emacs index.html
   You'll get a screen that already has some formatting tags on it. Type stuff on it. Type Control-X Control-S (sequentially) to save it and Control-X Control-C (sequentially) to exit emacs when you're done. You won't need to transfer the file over to your account because it will already automatically be in the right place! (To see a listing of files, type "ls".)

   This is the most difficult option to use because you have to type your file directly in html. (However, many argue that it is well worth investing the time due to the greater degree of control that you will have over your finished page. Also, creating an html document can be easier than learning html if you use some tricks and shortcuts. If you see a web page you like, you can click on view-source from the browser menu and that will show you all the html that generated the page. Then you can just copy-paste it into your own file. You can learn a lot of html that way!)

   Resources for learning html are numerous on campus and online. Meyer, Sweet Hall, and the Tressidder LaIR all have leaflets on the subject. The online tutorial that I use the most was created by one of last year's SME TA's: Ton Sistos. Alternatively, there is a longer tutorial here. Also, ITSS's Instructional Program offers Web-based computer training courses from CBT Systems. The URL is http://www.stanford.edu/group/itss-customer/ip/cbt/content/courses.html.