| Welcome to my website design page!! |
| Why I'm making this site: Many people that have visited my website have told me that it was cool and gave me other comments like that. Now, I want to pass those skills along to everybody that's willing to learn them and hope to see a bunch of great sites popping up. Keep in mind: the software I use is Geocities software, and even if you don't know any HTML, you can still make a website. Just follow my instructions, and you'll do just fine. I will also add intermediate and advanced website design pages after I finish this one. Need more help? Email me at [email protected] or [email protected] -Charles |
| Step one: Right click here and open the link in a new window, or open a new window and go to www.geocities.com, as you will need my website's directions. Once you get there, start a Yahoo account and MAKE SURE THAT YOU PUT IN AN AGE THAT SAYS THAT YOU'RE OVER 18!!!!! If you don't, the people at Geocities won't let you build a website. Make sure your usermane and password are both memorable. Also, to speed up the process, you can just put your first name and your last initial. Note: If you don't log into your account for a few months (three months, maybe), your account will be frozen. You can also use Yahoo! Mail (with 100 MB of storage!!) and other Yahoo! goodies by logging into any part of the Yahoo! website. |
| Step three: Click on Yahoo! PageBuilder, NOT Yahoo! PageWizards. Once you get to the next page, click on "Launch PageBuilder". Wait for it to load and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CLOSE THE LITLE WINDOW THAT POPS UP!! You may have to turn off your pop-up blocker if you have one installed. Depending on the speed of your computer, another box will pop up soon that says "PageBuilder loading". Next, you'll get a big window that will look like your website when you actually go there. Note: If you don't see a link, don't panic. It just means you have to install Java or turn it on. The links below the Launch PageBuilder button (in your case, a gray square) will help you. |
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| Step two: Go back to Geocities. Click on the thing that says something along the lines of: "Start my website". Click on one of the buttons that says what your ads should be about, and go on. |
| Click here to go back to my home page. |
| Step four: Congratulations! You can now start building your website! From this weird-looking page, you can determine how your site will look like, what will be on it, and so on and so forth. A few things you should start with include: a background, text (of course), a counter, a time and date stamp, links to other sites, a text trail (for the mouse), horizontal and vertical lines, and other odds and ends. |
| Beginning level (level 1): Starting your website |
| Background: Every website should have a good background. So here's how to add one. 1. Click on Add-ons on the toolbar. 2. Click on Basics (on the side) if it isn't already there and click on Background (the symbol looks like a yellow tic-tac-toe board with black lines). 3. Click on something on the side (under Picture List) I suggest you start with Generic. 4. Click on a background and look at the preview and see if you like it. 5. Once you find a background you like, click on it and click OK. |
| Text: The most essential thing every website needs. Here's how to put it in. 1. Click on Text on the toolbar. 2. Move the text box where you want it. 3. Stretch it or shrink it as needed. 4. Click on it to move it, click on it again to type in it or change the text in it. 5. Click on it once and hit Delete to get rid of the text box and everything in it. |
| To cut and paste text from other programs: 1. Copy the text that you want to paste. 2. Click where you want the text (in a text box, of course) 3. Click on the Clipboard button (under Link and Add-ons) 4. Paste the text into the window that pops up (using Ctrl+V). 5. Click Paste. |
| Links to other sites: Every website has to have links to other sites. Here's how to add one. 1. Highlight the text that you want to be a link. 2. Click on the Link button on the toolbar. 3. Type in the website that you want the link to go to when it's clicked on. 4. Click OK. |
| A text trail: Probably the most addictive part of any website. Here's how to add one. 1. Click on Add-ons. 2. Click on Page Effects (on the side). 3. Click on Text Trail (the symbol looks like a cursor with ABC following it). 4. A little box will pop up. From there, you can change what your text trail will say and its speed, spacing, size, color (of the text), and look. 5. Click OK when you are happy with your background. |
| Counters: These show how many people have visited your site. Here's how to add one. 1. Click on Add-ons. 2. Click on Basics or Instant Info (on the side). 3. Click on Counter (the symbol looks like a box with 1234 written on it). 4. A little box will pop up. From there, you can decide what style, how many numbers, and what colors your counter will have. 5. Once you are happy with your counter, click OK. 6. Move it where you want. Note: You can add as many as you want. |
| Time and date stamp: A very helpful thing that will tell you what time of what day it is. Here's how you add one. 1. Click on Add-ons. 2. Click on Instant Info. 3. Click on Time and Date Stamp (the symbol looks like 5:28 and 1999 with half of the 5 and 8 cut off). 4. Move it where you want. |
| Inportant (and helpful) tips and hints: Once you are done with your page, click on Save on the toolbar. ALWAYS save one of your pages (preferrably your homepage) as "index", or your page won't show up when you try to go to your page. This will be the page you visit when you type in your URL. SAVE OFTEN when you're working!! Your website's homepage's URL will be http://www.geocities.com/ (your Yahoo! username). This will be the page you called "index" when you saved it. Again, don't close the little window that pops up. If it doesn't pop up, turn off all of your popup blockers. Don't log out of your Yahoo! account while you're working on your website. Spread the word! Tell everybody about your website. If you want to use your new Yahoo! account for email, set a signature that goes along with every email you send. Look at everything that Yahoo! has to offer. Not only do you get a mail account with a huge amount of storage and a free website with 15 MB of storage, you also get news, Briefcase (30 MB of storage to store your files), a personalized Yahoo! front page when you log in (with your local weather and more) and lots more. Click here to go to Yahoo! now! |
| Page properties: Important stuff. Lets you determine the title of your page (at the very top of the screen, or the <title></title> thing in HTML), keywords to help people find your page, and lets you type in the author (you, obviously). It also allows you to make your page wider and longer, so you have more space to work with. Last, but not least, you can determine the default font color and the color of links and visited links. |
