Some information and notes together with the why.
I've gotten a lot of info off the web, this is a small repayment.
Well the content are things I have done, doing or contemplate doing.
I think it best to stick to the things that interest you, that way you won't run out of enthusiasm.
Having said that, putting things up on the web is not fun for me. So don't expect these web pages to be as current as the things I am really doing.
If you want that then you'd have to pay me as I don't have that much free time.
I used a simple approach. I did not use a fancy program that creates HTML files. This way I have control of
everything that occurs!
For lessons I used http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/ (general tut),
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32.html (THE organization, reference section)
and http://werbach.com/barebones (quick reference).
For fun look at
http://www.WebPagesThatSuck.com/
(Web Pages That Suck -- learn good Web design by looking at bad design).
To write the code I used http://www.chami.com/html-kit/
rather than a simple text editor as this has some features that help
(colours the commands automaticly, not to mention a spell checker that I should make more use off).
It also incorporates "tidy" a html checker that many commercial HTML creators fail to observe.
This checks that you have ended things you have begun and not left control characters in the middle of your text.
Very help full as it overcomes some of the browser problems that exist if you don't do everything correctly.
If it passes tidy then it should work with all the browsers.
Yes well I'm still learning this. Firstly photos can take a LOT of disk space! You should be concerned with disk space
as this will translate to download speed to the viewer, if it takes too long they will go elsewhere or fall asleep.
To reduce the disk space
realise that you are displaying them on a screen that has a resolution of 96 dots per inch, so a common photo of 6 inches by 4 inches should be
around 600 dots by 400 dots. Photos should be in a JPEG encoded form.
OK that is the basic stuff, but it is normal to have a smaller "thumb nail" photo in the text and link that to the
larger photo, The thumb nail can be 100 by 50 pixels at 50 dots to the inch - lower quality and size as you only
need to convey the impression. This way the viewer gets the whole text and small photos fast,
they can look at the larger photos that they like by selecting them.
I use MS Photo editor that came with the 'operating system'. This will allow basic cropping, balance, sizing and
resolution to be done. You probably got some tools with the device you use to get the photos into the computer,
I use a scanner so I can get my old film type photos onto the computer.
If I want more editing features then I use GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ .
This is free rather than Photoshop that costs a lot.
I find GIMP does everything I want, even if it can be hard to remember where and how to do something.
I selected a free web page host (Yahoo) so that as my personal circumstances may change the web address remains the same.
I chose Yahoo as they looked to be stable. Signs of instability have (to my way of thinking)
just (March 2002) shown themselves (reduced mail services and removal of FTP file transfers).
If Yahoo disappears then I'll have to move elsewhere...
There is (or was) a list of 'free' web pages on
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/kenkon8.htm
Many web page disappear! When you come back they are gone just when you need them! You should learn how to save a copy on to your computer, this way you get quick access off line and if it does disappear at least you have a copy. Be sure you have all of the page, some incorporate other files like gifs and jpgs so you have to save these too to get a complete copy. Failing that the authors of these web pages may still be contactable through lists or groups where they had been regulars. You may get contact with them and have a copy sent. Try to keep copies of the important stuff. Pages, documents and people all are transient so keeping your own copies is a good idea. You'll find all my web pages carry a title with my name - just so you'll remember where you got it.
Pages that are slow to load, have flash players shock wave, ....
I'm after information not entertainment (the information can be entertaining in itself, but forget the rest).
Bookmarking (or favorites) that don't have a good descriptive title - when you look in the saved bookmark (favorites)
list you find "Home Page" or "I don't know" very helpful amongst the 1,234 others that I have saved!
Put a sensible title and maybe include your name?
A good structure so you can find your way around. As my pages have grown, I've gotten a bit disorganised..
So I've reorganised. Trouble is some people who have bookmarked the older pages will not find them there.
The solution, well I could put up redirection pages everywhere but if they (you) come across the problem simply
delete the text in the URL that you have before the last / and you might get something,
if not remover the last / and the text to the next / and repeat until you get something.
One other thing, pages that you cannot bookmark at the level you want, ie you can only bookmark the top page, the rest are hidden in some way.
This does make life easier for the web master but harder for us plebs.