Some small tips for making HTML pages.

This file is called index.html, this page will be automatically loaded when just the path is typed in the explorer bar. Say this page is in http://www.totalwar.org/Guide/index.html then just http://www.totalwar.org/Guide would also direct to this page.  Other extensions like shtml, htm and php can do the same thing, but other names can't: index1.html won't work.

A thing to remember is that many servers are Unix/Linux and case-sensitive. Guide.zip is not the same as guide.ZIP. Those typos can be pesky.

It's possible to make the pages behave exactly identical on your own desktop as  they would on the internet. It also won't matter to which site the pages are uploaded. The internet server is just like your own harddisk. Use relative paths and not absolute ones unless you really have to. This will be explained later.

Another thing to keep in mind is navigation. It's quite obvious, but I found myself locked in some pages of very interesting sites. You have the back and forward buttons in the browser, but not always or you simply forgot about it.

There are several ways to make a navigation, but it's a good idea to make them like a book. Each page allows to go to the next, the previous or the index. Just like a book, you make the pages  first and when finished you make the book (navigation). This way you don't have to redo each link when you have to insert a page.

The template is a slightly different HTML format (shtml). Not every host supports that format. They actually allow to give every SHTML the same org look and feel (navigation). You can actually forget about it, as all that's needed is copy 3 lines at the start of each page, 1 at the end and change the extensions from html to shtml. We don't have to do that at all, we can just add something like a 'close book and return to org' button in the index.

Putting pages on the internet is usally done with a FTP client (WS_FTP, Cute_FTP), but there are also webbased tools: FileMan you use is one of them. Just upload all files that make the site work on your local computer to the website (only another harddisk) and it will work there too.

I like to learn from pictures and small examples, I hope it will be of help for you. The example makes a small book: index (this page),  page 1 and page2 and some simple navigation.

Content.

Page1: Relative path to link pages.

Page2: Just another page.

Return to totalwar.org          Contact mail                       Next Page