Creating a Website Tutorial
You've seen them—beautiful clues, carefully hand-crafted and customized for a specific letterbox. And you always wanted to know, how do they do that! A simple HTML page can be whipped out in just a few minutes, and this tutorial will show you how. You'll gain the ultimate control over the look and style of your clues to really make them stand out from those hosted here on Atlas Quest or on Letterboxing North America (LbNA).
Marjorie was shocked to find George Junior oogling naked chicks instead of studying his HTML!
Yes, programs exist that will create HTML pages for you. You can create Word documents and save them as HTML, or use FrontPage to make your webpages for you. But even if you do ultimately decide to go that route, it's still good to know how they do that! Every webpage generating program has limitations, and if a time comes when you want to do something that the program does not support or does incorrectly, unless you understand how it works behind the scenes, you're out of luck.
This tutorial will show you how to create your own webpages in just five easy lessons. The techniques discussed here, in fact, are the same ones that Atlas Quest uses! Pop open the hood and get control of your clues today by mastering HTML!
If you've never used a computer before, this tutorial is not meant for you. This tutorial will not explain how to open or save files, or how to navigate a directory tree. It will not explain how to download and install software you might find useful nor explain how to Google the web for additional information. You are expected to have a basic, rudimentary understanding of how to work a computer. Without that, this tutorial will give you nothing but trouble!
If you are familiar with the basic workings of using your computer, let's get started:
- Getting Started: It's tradition to create a 'hello world' program when first starting to learn a new programming language. We'll do that in this lesson with HTML, and learn the proper structure for an HTML page at the same time.
- Marking Up Your HTML: You've made your first webpage, but we aren't fooling anyone. It's ugly. Let's spruce it up a bit with tags and colors!
- Creating Style With CSS: We've got a nice page laid out, but that was a lot of effort. Let's make things easy on ourselves and use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control an entire website.
- Publishing Your Website: You're website is done—let's make it public so the rest of the world can enjoy it! Get your own domain name, and even learn how to make it pay for itself!
- What Now?: This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you're interested in learning more about creating websites, here's where you might consider taking your new-found skills.
- Reference Page: Resources on the web and in print you might find useful.
By the time you finish this tutorial, you'll be able to create an amazing webpage of your own!