Making a Local Web Site and a Home Page

Webs are created by links that connect things together. If all of the objects of those links reside on your PC, you have what is known as a local Web site. You can use your Web browser to run a local Web site on your PC, whether or not you are connected to the Internet. Thus, you can practice making local links to create a local Web site before you take the further step of learning how to publish your Web site and make it work over the Internet.

In this module, you will create a home page and link it to the Web page résumé you created in Chapter 18. Since both of these pages will reside on your PC, this linkage will create a local Web site that you can run on your local PC, whether or not you are connected to the Internet. After testing your local Web site with a Web browser to make sure it works properly, you will be ready to proceed to the next module, which shows how to publish your files on the World Wide Web.

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Define the concept of a local Web site.
• Create a personal home page.
• Make a local Web site by linking your home page to your Web page résumé.
• Link your résumé to your home page.
• Test the links with a Web browser.
• Cope with case sensitivity in hypertext and hyperpicture links.

Reading

Read Chapter 21 of the Internet Literacy textbook to study the concepts covered by this module.

Online Activities

There are several strategies you can follow for creating a home page. You can use a home page template or a wizard that will create the page for you. You can design a custom home page that's totally done by you; or, with proper permission, you can clone someone else's home page and then customize it to make it your own.

• If you see a nicely designed page on the Web, and you want to make a page with a similar design, it is possible to clone the Web page, make modifications to customize it as you wish, then save the page under your own filename. When cloning Web pages, however, you must observe copyright law and the principles of netiquette. Refer to the copyright and fair use section of Chapter 25, and follow the Interlit Web site links to copyright, fair use, and netiquette. If you get sued for copyright infringement, ignorance of these laws is no defense. A common myth about the Internet is that since the Internet's public, everything on the Internet is in the public domain. It just isn't so. You must assume networked information is copyrighted, instead of believing it isn't. Always ask permission if you have any question regarding whether your use of the material is a fair use. With the laws of copyright and the principles of ethics in mind, you can learn how to clone a Web page by following the steps in Table 21-1.
• The most original way to create a home page is to design your own. By using tables to divide the screen into the rectangles you practiced making in the previous chapter, you can layout your Web page into different regions on the screen, and enter your text and graphics into the different rectangles to create a unique screen layout with a custom look and feel. To learn how to create Web pages by creating your own design, follow the steps in Table 21-2 (Netscape) or Table 21-3 (FrontPage).
• After you have created your home page, you will be ready to create a local web by linking your résumé to your home page. To link your résumé to your home page, follow the steps illustrated in Table 21-4.
• Now that you have provided a way for the user to link to your résumé from your home page, you should also create a link from your résumé back to your home page. While it is possible for users to return to your home page by clicking their Web browser's Back button, it is customary to provide a return link to your home page. By now you should be able to create such a return link on your own, but if you need help, follow the steps in Table 21-5.