Home -> Workshops -> Faculty College 1996: Internet -> Own Homepage

Create your own Homepage

Creating your own homepage on the Web is not difficult, but it may not be as easy as you like. Here are the ingredients that you need:

Software
Netscape (or another Web browser)
Notepad (or another Text editor)
Ftp (if you want your page to be on the Web)
Equipment
Internet connection (modem or otherwise)
Account on a Web Server (different from your PC Network account)
Access to a scanner (not necessary but nice)
Access to audio/video recording devices (not necessary but nice)
Knowledge
A desciption of valid HTML tags
An idea about what is available on the Web
A plan for what you want to do and what purpose it will serve

For the purpose of this workshop, we have the necessary software and equipment, so we need decide about a plan of action. I would suggest we create a homepage that does the following:

Introduce yourself - some info about yourself (incl. a picture)
Classes you are teaching - brief description and syllabus
Your favorite links - links to useful and/or fun sites

Keeping the design issues from yesterday's workshop in mind, we want to create on 'top' level page from which most other information can be accessed. That means we need to create three files:

index.htm - the top level document with biographical info and list of links
classes.htm - a list of classes you are teaching, with brief descriptions
sites.htm - a list of favorite, useful, or fun sites

It is a very good idea to always group several related documents into different subdirectories. There is nothing wrong with having plenty of subdirectories to organize your information. In our case, we will not use subdirectories at the moment, sin ce we do not have that much information to organize yet.

Stage 1 - Creating the basic documents

  1. Use Notepad to create a new document (our main document)
    &ltHTML>
    &ltHEAD>
    &ltTITLE&gtMy Homepage</TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    &ltBODY>
    &ltH1&gtMy Homepage</H1>
    
    &ltHR>
    
    Bert Wachsmut is currently a faculty member in the 
    Math and Computer Science department at Seton Hall
    University. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from 
    Indiana University in 1991.
    
    &ltHR>
    
    &ltUL>
       &ltLI&gtClick here for info on classes I am 
       currently teaching &ltLI&gtClick here for a 
       list of fun and useful sites
    </UL>
    
    &ltHR>
    
    </BODY>
    </HTML>
     
  2. Save this file as index.htm
  3. Start Netscape and open this file to see if it looks correct. If not, go back to the Notepad Window and edit your file. Save the file in Notepad, go back to Netscape and reload until your document looks satisfactory.
  4. Use Notepad to create a new document (our class document):
    &ltHTML>
    &ltHEAD>
    &ltTITLE&gtClasses I am Teaching</TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    &ltBODY>
    &ltH1&gtClasses I am Teaching</H1>
    
    &ltHR>
    
    &ltH3&gtIntro to Computer Science</H3>
    
    This class covers the essentials of computer science
    
    &ltH3&gtReal Analysis</H3>
    
    This class is for senior math majors. It meets MWF 
    from 9-9:50am
    </BODY>
    </HTML>
    
    
  5. Save this file as classes.htm
  6. Start Netscape and open this file to see if it looks correct. If not, go back to the Notepad Window and edit your file. Save the file in Notepad, go back to Netscape and reload until your document looks satisfactory.
  7. Use Notepad to create a new document (our list of sites)

    Enter similar code as in the other documents. Our goal is to give the document a title, a main heading, and an unsorted list that describes some sites of interest for us

  8. Save this document as sites.htm
  9. Start Netscape and open this file to see if it looks correct. If not, go back to the Notepad Window and edit your file. Save the file in Notepad, go back to Netscape and reload until your document looks satisfactory.

    Stage 2 - Linking your documents

    1. Use Notepad to open the document index.htm
    2. Enter the &ltA HREF="document.htm"> and </A> codes for your links
    3. Save your document
    4. Switch to Netscape, open the index.htm file and test your links. Go back to Notepad, edit your document, save, switch back to Netscape, check links again, until all links work.
    5. Use Notepad to open the document sites.htm
    6. Enter the code for the links, as in the previous document
    7. Save file, switch to Netscape, check your links. Repeat until all links work

    Stage 3 - Transfer all documents to the Web Server

    1. Open the FTP program and connect to your web server. Enter your username and password.
    2. Switch to the public_html directory on the web server
    3. Transfer the documents from your PC disk to the web server
    4. Switch to Netscape, open the location http://www.yourwebsite.edu/~username and check if everything works correctly

    Stage 4 - Add more information

    1. Determine which document needs additional information and open it with Notepad on your PC disk.
    2. Edit the document, save, switch to Netscape, load the document and check it
    3. Repeat until everything looks okay and all links work
    4. Use Ftp to transfer every file that has changed to your web server
    5. Use Netscape to load the files on the web server and check them
 

Bert G. Wachsmut
Last modified: 05/03/00