"Is this HTML coding stuff really hard to do? How do I get started creating a file for a World Wide Web server?"
Jennie File, NCSA's Software Development Group trainer, reports being asked these and similar questions a lot during her training sessions for a variety of audiences, including NCSA staff. "Many people seem to think that they won't be able to do this--but they find out they can!"
Using HTML is not as difficult as you might think, and using NCSA Mosaic to view your efforts is particularly rewarding because of its graphics display capabilities.
World Wide Web (WWW) servers use the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to provide files. (Files can also be read from Gopher and anonymous FTP servers.) Files are identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), which can be considered a file's address. A URL combines the server protocol, usually HTTP, with the machine address, the file's directory, and the filename in the following format:
protocol://machineaddress/directory/filename
One thing about browsers and coded files is a change for many authors--you are not able to have complete control over the final presentation of information. For example, in a word- processed document you can format a heading as you like: bold, larger point size, different font, centered. You design the page layout to suit the needs of your readers and to integrate with other documents as necessary. In an HTML-coded file, however, you tag the specific elements of the file, but the browser software formats the final presentation. This means that you cannot specify many details of the final presentation.
Pairs of tags enclosed in angle brackets (< >) instruct the browser to format headings, insert graphics, or display words in bold or italics. The first angle-bracket tag starts the instruction; the second code angle-bracket tag--with the addition of a leading slash mark (</>)--ends the tag's instructions. If you are marking a first-level heading in your file, enclose the text between the level one heading tags as shown: <h1>Hardware enhancements</h1>. There are HTML tags for lists, quotations, headings, emphasis, and other common presentation styles. (See "For more information" below.)
To include a hyperlink in a file, you must have the file's URL. For example, to make a hyperlink to the NCSA Home Page, you would include this HTML code:
<a href="http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/NCSAHome.html" >NCSA</a>
The href= section gives the file's URL enclosed within quotation marks. The word NCSA, enclosed between the right angle bracket (>) and the end of the anchor tag (</a>), will be shown in color or underlined in your window. (The start of the anchor tag is at the very beginning: <a.)
Scan, size, and save your image in an X bitmap or GIF format. Use the appropriate extension when naming your file (.xbm, .gif). You can also create and save images from your monitor screen by using a program such as FlashIt for the Macintosh, a screen-capture utility that freezes your screen and lets you take a snapshot of any or all of the current display.
To include a graphic in your file, use the <img src> tag, which
tells your browser to retrieve and display the image file
referenced in the URL. In this example, the file that will be
displayed shows the copyright symbol
():
<img src="http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Copyright.xbm">
By putting the pieces together--HTML tags, images, and hyperlinks--you can create an interesting and informative formatted document that tells other Internet surfers about your work. Maybe you will be able to say, as someone recently did to Jennie File, "Gee, this is fun!"
A Beginner's Guide to URLs
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/url-primer.html
Information about HTML
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/MarkUp.html
Establishing a server
http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/Overview.html
More information on NCSA Mosaic
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html
