CREATING YOUR OWN WEBPAGE There are several WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editors on the market. Microsoft HomePage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive and PageMill, and Filemaker Home Page are a few popular ones. All are point and click editors that minimize the need for any knowledge of HTML (hypertext markup language). However, we at WebWizards believe that a basic knowledge of HTML is helpful in understanding the components of a home page that make it most effective. To include JavaScript additions, for instance, the user often finds it necessary to adjust the code and adapt it to the parameters of the particular page. If you are considering creating your own page, WebWizards would like to supply you with these helpful reminders: Limit the total byte size of a document. Extensive size causes long loading-times and may drive potential viewers away. If you feel it is necessary to have items that take a long time to load, do not put them on the first page of your site and warn the user about the potential wait. View the site in both Internet Explorer and Netscape. The type of browser sometimes has an effect on the way a page looks. Be careful when using tables. When viewed with the browser, they often do not contain data the way it appears to be in the editor. Make all pages in a site similar in heading, background, bullets and buttons so a visitor knows they are still in the same site. Use DOS 8.3 naming convention. (8-character file name, dot, 3-character extension) For instance, ".htm" extension for HTML documents, ".jpg" extension for jpeg graphic files, and ".gif" extension for gif graphic files. Indicate the file content as much as possible while still using the 8.3 convention. ex.: "address.htm" Start a new line with tags. When possible, place start tag, text, and end tag on the same line. Make HTML tags uppercase to distinguish them the text of the document. Home | About WebWizards | See Our Work | Articles | E-mail Us | What Clients Say