The World Wide Web(WWW)¹⁴ had its birth place ¹⁵ in Europe at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN¹⁶. 

This organization created the standard language for use by web servers and web browses for data exchange, HTML¹⁷, Hyper-Text Markup Language. This language is the standard interface that is used by web sites to transfer information in a page format to the user. The language works by using a series of ASCII tags that markup the document to include different formatting, fonts, images, etc. The transfer of this page is accomplished using HTTP¹⁸, Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the standard that transfers web pages from a web server to a web browser. The HTML 4.0 standard for the World-Wide Web is currently being spearheaded by the World-Wide Web Consortium ²⁰, , a group of computer vendors and those interested in creating a standard that will help the web browsers to improve.

3.1 Publishing on the Web 

Publishing on the web is much like publishing a book or magazine or newsletter.   There are differences in that a book is a little easier to navigate when it is on paper. You correct this problem by providing easy ways to navigate through the publication. 

Examples of web sites that created by paper publishers show how the creators of these sites transfer their talent in publishing to a web site: 

Lionheart Publishing, Inc.²¹ is an example of a company that is moving from the paper media to the electronic media of the Web to present their paper media products. 

Another example of a publisher that is moving toward using the Internet is the newspaper publisher. 

²² in Columbia South Carolina is an example of a newspaper creating a web addition for those of us browsing the Web. 

3.2 HTML Editors 

There are numerous HTML editors²³ that have been and are being created to edit HTML. These editors vary from editors that show you the HTML code and let you edit with HTML code to editors that never show you one bit of HTML code and create the HTML file for you. Some of the editors, such as some Word for Windows editors, save the file in both the native Word format and the HTML format. The list of editor links²⁴ compiled by Tom Magliery at ncsa.uiuc.edu is a good list of HTML editors.

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3.2.1 Which editor is best for you? 

When first starting out to create web pages, the editors that basically do all of the coding for you are the best option. The disadvantage of these editors is that they do not usually take advantage of all of the variations of HTML that are being developed. Also if you wish to use some more advanced formatting of the web page these editors will not let you edit the code until after the HTML is created. After editing the HTML manually, you can no longer use the tool to update the document. 

A better editor is one that allows you to edit the HTML code manually when the editor does not create the effect that you desire. 

3.3 Using Graphics/Sound to enhance web pages. 

HTML code allows for the insertion of graphics into a web page using the <IMG²⁵ "tag". this allows the page to include information that is graphical in nature and often more informative to the user. an example of how the HTML language is being changed to include other forms of multi-media is the use of the <OBJECT²⁶ tag which will replace the <IMG tag and allow for different types of information in a web page. If the visitor of you page has a multi-media system he will be able to listen to sound that you add to your page. You can use the <BGSOUND and <EMBED tags to add background sound for a visitor using Netscape or Internet Explorer to browse your page. Images and sound are just the beginning of the multimedia content that can be added to a web page. Live audio and video can be added and a ball game can be listened to and also possible viewed over the internet. Live information requires special software on the server to take the live feeds in and output the data to the attached users.

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3.3.1 Graphics creation and conversion tools 

In order to create a page that is pleasing to the visitor you need to include graphics in the page. A program that helps you to create graphics and animation is very useful. I have used several different programs, but really like LView Pro 2.0 for Windows 95 and NT 4.0²⁷. This program will assist you in making transparent gif files and animated gif files for you web pages. A transparent gif is nice because it appears to float above the background pattern and does not appear as a block on the page.

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3.3.2 Use of software "plugins" to add multimedia content 

The following code loaded the background music that you may be hearing. The second tag <EMBED refers to a software plugin in Netscape Communicator. If you have installed the plugin you will see the Crescendo control panel below. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, the tag <BGSOUND automatically plays the sound file and the plugin is not required. Both of these tags are not part of the HTML standard, but are allowed. Be aware that a browser that conforms to the standard will just ignore these tags.

 

<BGSOUND SRC="sound/stairway.mid"> 
<EMBED TYPE="music/crescendo" SONG="sound/stairway.mid" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.liveupdate.com/dl.html" 
WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=55> 

²⁸

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3.4 Image map tool. 

Image maps are useful tool to let the person browsing the web page locate links to other pages in the web site. Often a navigation bar is made from one graphic with hyper-links from different areas of the graphic. One of the advantages of a single clickable object versus a group of objects is that the single object requires only one request from the web server and does not require any more processing until the user selects an area on the graphic and clicks on it. 

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3.4.1 Format of the image map file. 

There are basically two different types of map files depending upon which one your web server can handle. The map files originally required the server to have a separate map file for clickable images. As the standard for HTML continues to grow there are now Browser driven map files that reside totally in the HTML document and the client's browser processes the information to obtain the correct link. 

²⁹ is a piece of software that helps you create a sever-side map file or a client-side map³⁰ file, as they are called. 

3.5 Web site management tool 

Once a web site is created it does not maintain a static state. The web site sill continue to grow and change. In order to maintain the site it is necessary to have tools to maintain the integrity of the pages. SiteCHECK³¹ - is a Web site analysis tool which analyzes spelling errors, broken links, and HTML syntax. this tool is a shareware program. 

A good list of all types of tools for web site creation and management can be found at the  tools page³². The list includes tools to check HTML, Hyperlinks, maintaining pages, editing HTML, etc.

3.6 Document converters 

Often information that you wish to put on your web page is in an electronic form as a Word or Word Perfect document or in some other form. A good way to get these documents into HTML code is to use a document converter³³. These programs work to varying extents. Some documents have formatting that does not easily convert to HTML or the programmer has not gone to the trouble of programming a conversion for the document.

3.6 Total Web Page Creation Software 

PageMill³⁴ - a fully What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG)-based editor assists you in creating a web page from the beginning. Microsoft creates a product called Frontpage that also helps you to create a web page without knowing a bit of HTML code.

I originally started creating these pages using a text editor, then switched to using Internet Assistant for Word 7.0³⁵ which saves Word documents in HTML format. I then switched  to using Netscape Composer 4.03 which assists you in publishing by FTP'ing the required files to your web server automatically when you click on the  button. This program also gives you a (WYSIWYG) interface.

email: adippel@cs.indiana.edu