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41


Designing and Publishing a Home Page


by William Robert Stanek

Publishing on the World Wide Web might provide your ticket to success. Success can be measured in many ways. Your success might include increased sales, attracting new clients, or simply gaining widespread visibility for your ideas. Every success story has a beginning and in Web publishing, the first step involves creating a Web document to tell the world who you are and what you represent.

As the Web publisher, you are responsible for more than the content and quality of the information you provide. You must also make the information friendly and usable. The HyperText Markup Language provides the easiest markup language for creating friendly, usable, and informative documents. This chapter takes you through the seven steps necessary to create and publish a Web document. These steps include the following:

  1. Develop a strategy.
  2. Define the document structure.
  3. Create the document.
  4. Add features to the document.
  5. Proof the document.
  6. Test the document.
  7. Publish the finished document.

Developing a Strategy


The Web represents the ultimate forum for your ideas. By adding sound, graphics, and video, you can create visually stunning, highly interactive, dynamic documents that will entice readers to visit your site time after time. You have only a few minutes, however, to convince readers to read your Web publication. If you do not, they will go somewhere else for their information needs as quickly and as effortlessly as you can change the channel on your television with a remote control. Thus, you should carefully organize your ideas and develop a specific strategy before creating a Web document.

Creating your Web document can either be a continuous struggle or a logically flowing process. Take the time to organize your ideas. Not only will the payoff result in a better product, but it also means time and resource savings. Your strategy should focus on four areas:


Defining the Purpose of the Document


The purpose of the document focuses on the reason you are creating the document. Are you creating a Web document to tell the world about your latest book? Are you creating a Web document to tell the world about a service you offer? Are you creating a Web document simply because you want to share your ideas or expertise?

If your purpose is to sell a service or a product to Web users, do not hide that fact; come right out and say it. This approach ensures that readers become informed about what they are reading. Value the readers’ time, and they will probably return if they need the product or service later.

If your purpose is to provide an Internet community service, make sure the readers know that, too. You can build tremendous goodwill by simply providing free information. So why not share a bit of your expertise with the world?

Defining the Scope of the Document


Another key concept to keep in mind is scope. Scope sometimes is defined in terms of the focus and size of the project. As you organize your thoughts, determine the subject matter you will discuss and how broadly or narrowly you will cover the subject. Will your document have a broad focus and cover many topics related to computer games? Or will it have a narrow focus and cover very specific topics related to Multi-User Dimensions (MUDs)?

After you determine the focus, you should determine the level of detail for the document’s subject matter. You could briefly discuss many topics, or you could discuss a few topics at length. If you decide you want to cover a few specific topics at length, you might want to cover the topics on a single Web document. If you want to cover many topics at length, however, you might want to present your ideas on a series of documents with increasing levels of detail. For example, the initial document serves as an overview document discussing the popularity of Multi-User Dimensions. From this document readers can access other documents that discuss the features of specific MUDs in detail. From the detailed document, readers can access other documents that cover newsgroups, mailing lists, and Web sites related to a specific MUD and so on. Documents set up in progressive levels of detail shows the basic format for a Web site. For more information on setting up a Web site, see Chapter 42, "Designing and Publishing a Web Site."

Defining the Audience for the Document


Developing a strategy with your audience in mind represents an essential element of your success, yet determining the group you want the work to reach does not always occur easily. On the Web, you can reach an extremely diverse global audience, and words written in your native language might be read by people from dozens of countries. A document that specifically focuses on resources for U.S. writers might exclude or alienate writers from dozens of other countries. A document written in Spanish might be read by native speakers from the many Spanish-speaking countries in the world or by the millions of people who speak Spanish as a second language.


TIP

Although English is the dominant language used on the Web, it is not the only language in use on the Web. Many European Web publishers create documents in several languages; consequently, millions of people who otherwise couldn’t read the document can access the information. If you have proficiency in a second language, you might want to consider publishing your ideas in both your native and secondary language. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by ensuring your publication can reach the largest audience possible.


As you consider the potential audience for your ideas, products, or services, focus on specific ideas of who, what, why, and how:

Tell yourself you are writing a document for anyone interested in extreme sports who is between the age of 16 and 35. Readers want your service because you are the only such service featuring excursions in the Australian outback and the mountains of New Zealand. You plan to reach readers by featuring a virtual tour and offering a 2-for-1 discount that only Web surfers can use. Got the idea?

Defining the Document Structure


Before you start creating the actual document, you should carefully consider how you want to organize the document. Getting organized becomes extremely important. Not only does it save you time, but it also helps you create a better document. The quality of your document convinces readers your document is worth reading.

You can write out the initial structure for your document as an outline or simply as notes you scratch down during a brainstorming session. As you write down your ideas, focus on the purpose, scope, and audience you defined earlier. The following are the key areas of the document that you want to concentrate on:

After you develop the basic concept for the document, you might want to try to improve your ideas through freethinking, brainstorming, or storyboarding. These and other techniques for unleashing your creativity and better organizing your publications are explored in-depth in Chapter 43, "Managing Large-Scale Projects," of Web Publishing Unleashed, Professional Reference Edition, published by Sams.net.

Creating the Document


Creating the document serves as the next step. You can use the knowledge you gain as you create your first document as a stepping stone to more advanced projects.

With this in mind, you can create your first document for fun or business, but you should try to keep the document simple. If you don’t know what type of document you want to create, try creating a document that involves something you find interesting or that revolves around a subject about which you have expertise. For example, I love books. I could spend hours in the local library just wandering the aisles looking for books on any of a hundred topics. One of the first Web documents I created relates directly to my interest in reading and writing. I called this document the Writer’s Gallery and, as Figure 41.1 shows, I designated it as "A place for anyone who loves the written word."

Figure 41.1. The Writer’s Gallery: a document on the Web.


NOTE

The examples in this chapter show how the Writer’s Gallery looked in the early stages of development. You can visit the current incarnation of the Writer’s Gallery on the Web at http://tvp.com/vpwg.html.



TIP

Creating Web documents in FrontPage is easy. If you haven’t already created a Web for your use, create one now by pressing Ctrl+N in the FrontPage Explorer. So that you can create your own home page following the techniques you learn in this chapter, you should base the new Web on the normal Web template.


As you create your Web document, you will want to use the strategy and structure you developed. My strategy for the Writer’s Gallery was to create a document for anyone who was as interested in the written word as I was. Although I was not trying to sell a service to the people who read the document, I wanted to make the document an interesting place to visit, and I planned to freely share my knowledge of Web resources related to writing. Readers would have an interest in the Writer’s Gallery because it provided a resource for many different areas related to the written word. The primary audience I focused on was writers, but I made sure the document would also interest readers and anyone who might want writing resources.

Adding Features to the Document


After you create the basic outline of the document, you can add features to the document. You want to include features in the document that add to its visual impact and that make the document interactive.

Introducing the Document


The primary way to increase the visual impact of your document is to use images. You can use images to enhance all aspects of your document. As Figure 41.1 shows, the first section of the Writer’s Gallery document uses a graphical logo to introduce the document. This section also provides an overview of what readers can expect to find at the site.

The overview gives Web surfers who have an interest in writing a reason to continue reading the document. The organization of this part of the document becomes critically important. In this area, you want to establish the purpose of the document and grab the reader’s attention.

Creating the Main Features of the Document


Although images represent the most obvious features that can add to the visual impact of the document, other features that can add to the visual impact of the document include using line breaks to create a column of text and adding horizontal rules to visually divide the document into sections. You can also add any of several types of lists to your document, which can add to the visual impact of the document by clearly organizing material.

The more useful your document is, the more powerful it becomes. The key to increasing the usefulness of your document and its impact on readers lies in interactivity. To increase the interactive nature of your document, you can create links to other documents on the Web. Interactivity was added to the Writer’s Gallery page using three interactive lists.

The first list included in the page is a glossary list, as shown in Figure 41.2. A glossary list helps relate the key terms with related phrases. Adding interactivity to your glossary list is easy, and you can include links wherever they make sense.

Figure 41.2. More interactive lists.

The second list included in the page is the bulleted list shown in Figure 41.3. A bulleted list was used because the items have no specific order.

Figure 41.3. Using a linked bulleted list.

As you can see from Figure 41.4, the final list has a numbered list. Instead of providing a simple list of resources, you can include links that enable readers to jump to the resources in your list.

Figure 41.4. A numbered list of important resources.

Creating Additional Pages


All your information doesn’t have to appear on a single page. As Figure 41.5 shows, you can provide a link to other pages containing additional resources. The header Newsgroups for Writers contains links that will take readers to a document called wnewsgroups.html.

Figure 41.5. All your information doesn’t have to appear on a single page.

In your first document, these additional areas don’t have to contain dozens of resources or even be finished. If the area is under construction, however, tell readers the area is under construction. To do this, you can use an image such as a warning sign. Because most pages on the Web are "under construction," meaning that they constantly change and grow, you should remove the warning signs when these areas have useful content.


CAUTION

The construction areas shown in Figure 41.5 serve as examples only. Normally, you would not include links to multiple pages that are under construction. Pages like that become frustrating for readers. If a linked section of your document has bare bones content, warn the reader before they access the section as you see in this example. You may prefer to wait until you have useful content for the page and then add a link to the page.



Bringing Visitors Back


Growth potential provides a key attraction for Web surfers. Web surfers like to visit sites that continue to change and grow. Add a section to your document that gives readers a reason to return to the site. The Writer’s Gallery also has a section that continues to change over time called Critique Corner, which Figure 41.6 shows.

Figure 41.6. Include a section of the document that will grow to give readers a reason to revisit the site.

Finishing the Document


In addition to providing readers with another area to explore in the future, the final section of the document, shown in Figure 41.6, provides contact and copyright information. Well-designed documents provide a point of contact for questions, technical or otherwise, about the document. Typically, the point of contact for technical questions is called the Webmaster, an electronic mail alias. A mail alias is a generic mail address that you can assign to an individual or group who will receive mail directed to the Webmaster. The mail address for the Webmaster is typically webmaster@yourcompany.com.

If you cannot use a mail alias, your site can still have a Webmaster. In this case, you could use the following:




This page was webmastered by william@tvp.com.

You could also use a special type of link that starts a create mail session in the reader’s browser. To do this, you create a link that uses the mailto protocol. The mailto reference shown in Figure 41.7 tells the reader’s browser to open a create mail session that will be sent to william@tvp.com. This type of link enhances the interactivity of the page and provides a mechanism for getting feedback from readers. Don’t forget to anchor the link to the page with text or graphics that readers can click.

Figure 41.7. Creating a link with a mailto reference.

The final section of your document should also contain copyright information. Adding a copyright notice to the document tells the world that the document is an intellectual property, and as such, receives protection under U.S. and international copyright laws.

The Complete Document


As you have seen, your Web document can have many features and still stay fairly basic. You should create a document that has enough features to attract visitors but doesn’t become so complex that you never get it ready for publishing. You can always include places that will grow and bring visitors back.

Take a few minutes to examine the HTML code for the Writer’s Gallery document shown in Listing 41.1. Because FrontPage allows you to create HTML documents in a WYSIWYG environment, you can easily forget that the documents contain markup code. This markup code can be viewed or edited directly at any time by selecting HTML from the View menu in the FrontPage Editor.

Listing 41.1. The Writer’s Gallery Web page.




<HTML>



<HEAD>



<TITLE>The Writer’s Gallery</TITLE>



</HEAD>



<BODY>



<P ALIGN=CENTER><IMG SRC="vpttl11.gif" ALT="The Virtual Press Present’s">



</P>



<P ALIGN=CENTER><IMG SRC="wgttl.gif" ALT="The Writer’s Gallery"></P>



<H2>A place for anyone who loves the written word!</H2>



<P>Do you have short stories, poetry or articles that are so wonderful



you feel compelled to share them  with the world?  Why not post it to the



<A HREF="#CCorner">Critique Corner</A>?</P>



<P><IMG SRC="boom.gif" ALIGN="BOTTOM" ALT="* ATTN *">



Put a bookmark here.  Come back and visit!</P>



<HR>



<H1>Writer’s Gallery Features</H1>



<H2>Books, Magazines &amp; More</H2>



<P>Find hundreds of zines, thousands of books and links to all



good things related to writing!</P>



<DL>



<P><DT> <A HREF="gopher://rsl.ox.ac.uk/11/lib-corn/hunter">



ALEX Catalogue of Electronic Texts</A></P>



<DD>The ALEX catalogue of electronic texts is a comprehensive list of



books, magazines and periodicals available for reading on-line.



<P><DT> <A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Books/">



Book links at Yahoo</A></P>



<DD>Yahoo maintains a list of books available on the Web. If you haven’t



visited Yahoo before and are interested in book resources on the Web,



this is a great place to start.



<P><DT> <A HREF="http://white.nosc.mil/books.html">



Books and Libraries</A></P>



<DD>On the Web, there are many virtual libraries. These libraries



feature collections of creative works available for on-line viewing.



<P>



<DD>One of these virtual libraries is the



<A HREF="http://eryx.syr.edu/Main.html">ERIC Virtual Library</A>,



which is an educational resource.



</DL>



<H2>Writer’s Gallery Literary Resources</H2>



<P>If you need a literary reference on the Web, this is a great



place to start.</P>



<UL>



<LI> <A HREF="http://chronicle.merit.edu">Academe This Week</A>



<P>



<LI> <a href="http://auden.fac.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/amlit.html">



American Literature E-texts</A> from Hawthorne to Melville -



University of Texas



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://rs6.loc.gov/amhome.html">American Memory</A>



Collection on Americana at Library of Congress



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/m059/mh/britper.html">



British Periodicals from the Early Nineteenth Century</A>



a resource from the University of Minnesota.



<P>



<LI>The <a href="gopher://gopher.epas.utoronto.ca/11/cch/disciplines



Â/medieval_studies/keefer">DILS Project</A> includes studies of



10th Century England and much more.



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.clas.ufl.edu:80/english/exemplaria/">



Exemplaria</A> is a journal for Medieval and Renaissance theories.



<P>



<LI>An excellent <A HREF="http://info.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth



Â/greek_myth.html">Greek Mythology</A> resource on-line.



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://edziza.arts.ubc.ca/0c:/english/emlshome.htm">



Journal of 16th and 17th century English literature</A> is a terrific



resource from the University of British Columbia.



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/labyrinth-home.html">



Labyrinth</A> is a topnotch collection of Medieval resources



from Georgetown University.



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~andrea/LiteraryLinks.html">



Literary Links from Keats to Shakespeare to Wordsworth</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://gopher.well.sf.ca.us:70/1/Publications">



Literary Sites on the Internet</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~jntolva/">Renaissance Studies



and E-texts</A> - University of Washington



</UL>



<H2>Writer’s Companions</H2>



<P>12 reference works you wish were on your bookshelf.</P>



<OL>



<LI> <A HREF="gopher://uts.mcc.ac.uk/77/gopherservices/enquire.english">



American English Dictionary</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.columbia.edu/~svl2/bartlett/">



Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations </A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/">Computer Dictionary</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.eb.com/">Encyclopedia Britannica</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.halcyon.com/jensen/encyclopedia/">



Global Encyclopedia</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.library.upenn.edu/grammar.html">



Grammar and Style Guide</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/grolier.html">



Grolier’s Encyclopedia</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Handbook/Handbook.html">



Handbook of Poetry Terms</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://c.gp.cs.cmu.edu:5103/prog/webster">



Hypertext Webster</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="gopher://odie.niaid.nih.gov:70/77/.thesaurus/index">



Roget’s Thesaurus</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.ic.gov/94fact/fb94toc/fb94../index.html">



World Factbook (1994)</A>



<P>



<LI> <A HREF="http://www.digital.com/gnn/wic/refbook.10.html">



Worldwide Telephone Codes</A>



</OL>



<H2><A HREF="wnewgroups.html">Newsgroups for Writers</A></H2>



<P>Looking for a great way to meet fellow writers?



Join a discussion group!</P>



<H2><A HREF="vpwart.html">Art</A></H2>



<P>Interested in finding art resources? Try these resources.</P>



<P><IMG SRC="constr.gif">This area is under construction—watch out



for the bulldozers!</P>



<H2><A HREF="vpwart.html">Movie Reviews</A></H2>



<P>Movie reviews & great movie information</P>



<P><IMG SRC="constr.gif">This area is under construction—wear



your hard hat!</P>



<H2><A HREF="vpwart.html">Music</A></H2>



<P>Music resources & a whole lot more!</P>



<P><IMG SRC="constr.gif">This area is under construction—watch out



for the bulldozers!</P>



<HR>



<H2><IMG SRC="ccorner.gif" ALT=""></H2>



<P><A NAME="CCorner"><P><IMG SRC="bfly.gif" ALT="">



Critique Corner is a place for writers and readers.</P>



<P>Here you’ll find creative works by aspiring writers:<BR>



Poems, essays, short stories, and more.</P>



<P>You are invited to visit, read and make constructive comments.<BR>



If you’d like to post your work-in-progress here let us know!<BR>



Watch here for short stories and more as we grow!</P>



<HR>



<P>Questions or comments pertaining to this document can be directed



to webmaster@tvp.com</P>



<P>This page, and all contents, are Copyright (C) 1996 by



The Virtual Press, Hawaii, USA.</A></P>



</BODY>



</HTML>

Proofing Your Web Document


Proofing represents the most neglected aspect of Web publishing. Time and time again Web documents appear with multiple typos and formatting inconsistencies—even at major sites. Documents with glaring typos and inconsistencies reflect poorly on you and your Web publishing practices.

Proofing is neglected in Web publishing primarily because of the ease with which ideas and words can be published electronically. You can create a document in FrontPage and publish it on the Web within minutes of finishing—seconds if you work fast enough. You do not have to spend hours checking spelling and grammar and generally poring over every punctuation mark on the document, worrying about whether you have missed something glaringly obvious that would cost a fortune in reprint of 10,000 copies. If you make a mistake, you just open the file, correct the mistake, and republish your masterpiece on the Web for the world to see. Right?

Wrong. The quality of your work directly reflects you. Thousands, and possibly millions, of people around the world will see your published document. Doesn’t it seem worth a few hours of your time to ensure that days, weeks, or months of hard work gets the credibility it deserves?

The following list has a few tips to help you better proof your Web documents:

Some typos and inconsistencies slip by—the dragon wins every once in a while. If you find an error after you have already published your document, correct it.

Testing Your Web Document


Testing all aspects of your Web document before you publish is crucial. At this stage in your Web publishing operation, you want to focus on the accuracy of your links and HTML markup. As you add features such as images and multimedia, however, you should test these features as well.

Testing Your Links


One way to test links is to load the document in your browser and click the links one at a time. You want to ensure that all internal document links access the appropriate section that corresponds to the keyword you have designated. Watch out for multiple sections of the document labeled with the same keyword that can produce strange results. If you know that a section of your publication has a certain keyword as a label and the browser jumps to a different section of the document, check the keyword label in the section the browser displays. You probably mislabeled the keyword.


NOTE

You can use the FrontPage verify link function to check internal and external links. FrontPage, however, won’t tell you that a link leads to SciFi Channel’s Dominion site at http://www.scifi.com/ when the anchor text said the link was to the Internet Shopping Network at http://www.internet.net/.


You also want to ensure that all document links to other documents are valid and access the appropriate document. If you cannot access a document that you know should be available, check the syntax of your links. Did you specify the protocol correctly? Did you use the correct filename extension? Did you forget the tilde (~) symbol?


NOTE

In UNIX, the tilde symbol specifies the home directory of a user whose system name follows the tilde. Using the tilde symbol in a URL, you can refer to the Web documents in the user’s home directory as follows:




http://www.aloha.com/~william/vphp.html

The Web server servicing this request would know to look in my home directory for the file called vphp.html. Although Web documents typically appear in a directory called public_html under the user’s directory, Web servers know that when you use a tilde in a URL, you are referring to the directory containing the user’s Web documents. The process of inferring a directory using the tilde is called mapping.



Troubleshooting Problems in Your Document


What if everything looks okay, and you have fixed all the typos, but your browser still won’t display the third sentence in bold face. This problem can usually be traced to your browser or to the code. You might want to check your browser’s compatibility with character styles.

Your browser has to have the capability to display the physical style you have selected. Additionally, when displaying logical styles, the browser ultimately makes the decision about what style to display your text in. A quick way to check for a compatibility problem or a code problem is to display your document using a different browser. This browser should preferably support the specific style you want to use.

Publishing Your Web Document on an External Server


Publishing your documents using the Personal Web Server occurs automatically. You simply create a Web and documents for that Web. As long as you have a connection to the Internet, the world can access your documents. Most Web publishers, however, don’t have their own server and must use an Internet Service Provider’s Web server.

When you use someone else’s server, you might need to export your documents from FrontPage. If you cannot use FrontPage server extensions, you might also need to modify your documents, especially if they use WebBots. Part X of this book took an in-depth look at managing your Web. This section provides additional tips beyond what the other chapters already covered. You should refer back to Part X to answer any specific questions you might have related to publishing and managing Webs.

Checking the Name of the File


When moving files between different types of platforms, you should check the filename to ensure its appropriateness for the system you plan to move the file to. Some systems restrict the length of filenames. Other systems have case-sensitivity, meaning a file with a name in uppercase letters becomes a different file if saved in lowercase letters.

When you create documents using FrontPage templates, the documents generally have an .htm extension. Some systems do not recognize files with an .htm extension as an HTML document. Thus, after moving your file to a UNIX or Mac system, change the .htm extension to .html. For example, change home.htm to home.html. This change ensures that the UNIX or Mac Web server will recognize your file as an HTML document.


TIP

Before moving your file to a DOS/Windows 3.1 machine, the file must conform to DOS naming conventions. DOS filenames can have only eight characters and a three-character extension. If, for example, you had a file called my_home_document.html, you could change the name to homedocument.htm.

Watch out for wildcard characters in filenames. Although you can use wildcard characters on a Macintosh or UNIX system, you cannot use wildcard characters in filenames on a DOS machine.

When you change filenames, you must also change all links that reference the document. You can use FrontPage to help you automatically update these references.

In the FrontPage Explorer, change to Folder view, and then select the page you want to rename. Next, select Rename from the Edit menu, or right-click on the filename and select Rename on the popup menu. You can now rename the file. If any pages reference the page you changed, FrontPage will display the Confirm Updating Links dialog box to allow you to update these references automatically.

Generally, you should not use the Save As feature of the FrontPage Editor to create a file with a different filename or extension. When you use the Save As feature, you are actually creating a copy of the original file and both files will be a part of the current Web.



Moving Your Files Yourself


To publish your documents, you need to move your files to a directory designated for Web documents on the external Web server. Typically this directory is mapped to a subdirectory in your home directory called public_html. Contact the server administrator to find out where to put your documents.


TIP

A mapped directory contains pointers to directories where the actual files reside. Web servers usually map directories to a subdirectory in a user’s home directory that you can point to using the tilde followed by the user’s system name. Setting up a Web server to map requests is easy. On most servers, your service provider or system administrator can enable this feature by setting a variable called UserDir to the subdirectory that will go to users’ home directories, such as the following:




UserDir      public_html

If this variable has the setting as shown in the preceding example, requests to http://www.your_provider.com/~you would be mapped to the subdirectory called public_html in your account and a Web document called home.html could be accessed with the following URL:




http://www.your_provider.com/~you/home.html


You should follow the steps outlined in Chapter 37, "Personal Web Server Administration," for moving your documents. If you cannot use FrontPage functions to copy your Web to the new server, you need to export your files from FrontPage and move the files yourself. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and modem transfer represent the two most common methods to transfer the files.

Using FTP

FTP is a quick and easy way to transfer files, especially if you need to transfer files between UNIX systems. The best way to transfer files using FTP is to initiate a binary file transfer. Then you don’t have to worry about which files are binary and which files aren’t.

To start a binary transfer, you could type the following at the shell command prompt:




ftp hostname



bin

You can transfer multiple files between systems using the mget and mput commands. You use mget to retrieve multiple files from the host you connected to using FTP, and you use mput to send multiple files to the host you connected to using FTP. When you transfer multiple files between systems, another useful FTP command to know is prompt. Without toggling the prompt to the off position, your system will prompt you before sending or retrieving each file. Here’s how you could toggle the prompt to the off position and retrieve all files that start with music and then quit:




ftp aloha.com



bin



prompt



cd /users/music/fun_stuff



mget music*



quit

Modem Transfer

Many modem transfer protocols could work to transfer files. Some popular transfer protocols include

Although these transfer protocols all seem popular, the most popular transfer protocol is the Zmodem transfer protocol. The reason for Zmodem’s popularity comes from its ease-of-use and reliability. You can initiate a Zmodem transfer within your communication’s program while connected to the Internet, and you only have to learn two commands:




rz     Receive via Zmodem transfer protocol.



sz     Send via Zmodem transfer protocol.

From your Internet account, you can type sz or rz at the shell prompt. If you type sz or rz and then press Enter, you get a brief summary of how to use the commands. The most basic format follows, where filename represents the name of the file to transfer:




rz filename

NOTE

If you own a Macintosh and you transfer files to a different computer platform, you should transfer your files as regular binary files. Other computer platforms cannot read Macintosh binary files and your files will be unreadable in this format.



Moving Your Files with the Publishing Wizard


The FrontPage Publishing Wizard provides an automated tool for publishing individual files and even entire Webs on servers that do not support FrontPage Server Extensions. This wizard functions as a separate tool that runs as a stand-alone application, like the FrontPage Editor and the FrontPage Explorer. Microsoft FrontPage with Bonus Pack includes Publishing Wizard. Another way to obtain the source for this tool is from the FrontPage area of Microsoft’s Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/

If you follow the default installation instructions, the Publishing Wizard is added as an option under the Internet Tools menu. This means that you can start the Publishing Wizard by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, Internet Tools.

When you start the Publishing Wizard, you see the dialog box shown in Figure 41.8. The buttons at the bottom of the dialog box are standard throughout the publishing process. At any time, you can move to the previous or next phase of the creation process using the Back or Next buttons. When you have completed all the necessary steps, you can press the Finish button and the FrontPage Editor publishes your files.

Figure 41.8. Getting started with the Publishing Wizard.


NOTE

If this is the first time you are running the downloaded version, the first dialog box you see will ask you to accept Microsoft’s licensing agreement for the Publishing Wizard. After you accept the agreement, you will see the dialog box shown in Figure 41.8.



Selecting Files and Folders to Publish

To continue, press the Next button. On this wizard page, you must select the files and folders you want to publish. As you can see from Figure 41.9, there are two buttons that allow you to search your file system for folders and files to add to your list of files to publish. If you want to include automatically subfolders and subdirectories, be sure to select the checkbox labeled Include subfolders. When you finish with this page, click on the Next button.

Figure 41.9. Choosing files and folders to publish.

Identifying the Destination Server

Now you must identify the destination server. When you first install the Publishing Wizard there are several default settings for commercial Internet service providers such as CompuServe. As you can see from Figure 41.10, servers are identified by name. An URL associated with the server is displayed when you select a particular server.

Figure 41.10. Select a destination server.

If the server you want to publish your files on is already configured, select the appropriate name, then click the Next button. The wizard page shown in Figure 41.13 appears.

If the server you want to publish your files on is not available, click on the New button. You can now enter information for a new destination server by using the wizard page shown in Figure 41.11.

Figure 41.11. Select the Web you want to publish from the list of current Webs.

As you can see, you are asked to name the destination server. The sole purpose of the name designator is to help you determine which server you want to use for a particular purpose. Therefore, use a descriptive name whenever possible. In the next field, select a descriptor for your Internet Service Provider, if one is not available choose the Other Internet Service Provider option. To continue, click the Next button.

The Publishing Wizard now asks you to enter the complete URL path necessary to access your files on the server (See Figure 41.12). If you have a virtual domain or your own server, the URL path is usually your server name preceded by the designator for the hypertext transfer protocol, such as http://www.tvp.com/. If you are accessing the Web through a service provider the URL path will usually include the tilde symbol and your user name, such as http://ourworld.compuserve.com/~william.

Figure 41.12. Enter the URL path to your files on the server.

Don’t worry, if you enter the wrong information, the Publishing Wizard will try to guess the correct information based on your login. If the Publishing Wizard is unsuccessful, you will have another chance to enter the correct information.

After you identify the server, you can determine how the Publishing Wizard will connect to your server using the wizard page shown in Figure 41.13. You can either access the server via a local area network connection or with a dial-up connection.

Figure 41.13. Selecting the type of connection to the server.

Intranet publishers have it easy; they simply have to select Use Local Area Network. Internet publishers have an additional step; they need to select Use Dial-up Networking to Access the Internet, and then choose the appropriate connection. Because these are the same connections you use to access the Internet, choose the connection that accesses your Internet service provider. When you are finished with this page, click on the Next button.

Verifying Server and Connection Information

The next step is for the Publishing Wizard to verify the information you’ve entered. When you click on the Next button from the page shown in Figure 41.14, the Publishing Wizard connects to your destination server and verifies that the FTP transfer can proceed, tests the LAN connection, and confirms the Web server Internet address is valid.

Figure 41.14. To verify the validity of the server information, click on the Next button.

If there are no problems, you see the wizard page shown in Figure 41.20. If there are problems, you see an error message similar to the one shown in Figure 41.15. As you can see, this error message states that the user name and password entered are not valid. The user name and password information are automatically entered based on the connection you chose in an earlier step. Click on the OK button to update the connection information.

Figure 41.15. A connection error has occurred.


NOTE

Generally, your user name and password information are taken directly from the dial-up connection settings. If you access the Internet with a local ISP but publish your Web with a different ISP, you will want the Publishing Wizard to dial the standard connection, but use different user name and password information. This strategy allows you to use the local server as a proxy to access the server on which you want to publish your files.


When an error occurs, you must manually verify everything the Publishing Wizard filled in automatically for you. By breaking down this procedure into several pages, the Publishing Wizard tries to help you troubleshoot the connection problem.

As Figure 41.16 shows, the first page you see pertains to the type of file transfer to use. Unless you are intranet publishing from a Windows-based workstation to a Windows-based server, choose to transfer the files using FTP. Because FTP is the default, click on the Next button to continue.

Figure 41.16. Choosing a transfer protocol.

Next, you must authenticate yourself to the destination server. Using the fields shown in Figure 41.17, enter your user name and password for the server you are trying to access.

Figure 41.17. Authenticate your user name and password.


NOTE

If you access the Internet with a local ISP but publish your Web with a different ISP, be sure to enter the user name and password for the destination server.


When you click on the Next button, you will see the page shown in Figure 41.18. On this page, you must re-verify the address of the destination server. Keep in mind that the server address is not the same as the full URL path. If the full URL path to your destination server was http://www.tvp.com/~william, your server name would be www.tvp.com.

Figure 41.18. Verify the server name.

As you can see from Figure 41.19, the Publishing Wizard asks you to fill in the specific folder on the destination server that is used to store your files. Usually, this directory is mapped to a subdirectory in your home directory called public_html. This directory path should be a relative path. While the absolute path to your Web directory would be /home/users/william/public_html, the relative path to your Web directory would be public_html, which is the default value for the Publishing Wizard. If you are unsure of the specific directory used on your server, ask the server administrator.

Figure 41.19. Verify path and directory information.

The next field on this page is to the complete URL path to your files on the destination server. The Publishing Wizard fills this information in based on your previous answers. Make changes as necessary to this field. As this is the last step in the verification process, clicking on the Next button causes the Publishing Wizard to re-verify the connection. If all goes well, you are ready to begin publishing your files and folders.


NOTE

The Publishing Wizard’s verification process is very thorough and should help you through most trouble spots. However, if there are still problems with the connection, contact your Web server administrator.



Transferring Your Files

Finally, you are at the last step and are ready to begin publishing your files. The good news is that the first time through the publishing process is always the longest. After you set the Publishing Wizard on the correct path, publishing files in the future is a snap. Using the page shown in Figure 41.20, click the Finish button to begin publishing your files.

Figure 41.20. lick on the Finish button to begin publishing your files.

When the Publishing Wizard is finished transferring your files, you will see a confirmation dialog box that summarizes the files and folders transferred. Congratulations! Click on the OK button and the Publishing Wizard will exit. Your settings should now be saved so you can easily publish files in the future.

Checking the Mode of the File


On some systems, files have strictly defined permissions that can be granted or denied to users. These permissions include the ability to read, write, and execute the file. Permissions generally get set by changing the mode attributed to the file. Make sure that files have the appropriately restricted mode for Web access. For example, 705 on a UNIX system means that you can read, write to and execute the file, but others can only read and execute it.


NOTE

The command to change the mode of a file on a UNIX system is chmod. The chmod command enables you to set permissions for yourself, your associated group, and others. You can grant or deny permission to read, write, and execute the file. Permissions are generally set using a 3-digit number that equates to the permissions you are setting.

The first digit sets the permissions for you, the owner of the file. The second digit sets the permissions for the group of users you are associated with on the UNIX system. The third digit sets the permissions for anyone else who can use the file. Read permissions are set by adding one to the digit count. Write permissions are set by adding four to the digit count. Execute permissions are set by adding two to the digit count.

A file with the mode of 000 has no permissions. If you changed the mode to 754, the file would be readable, writeable, and executable by you; readable and executable by anyone in your group; and readable by anyone else.



Summary


Creating and publishing your first Web document seems easy if you follow the steps outlined in this chapter. Although your first document will be basic, developing a strategy can save you time and help you better organize your material. A good strategy focuses on the purpose, audience, scope, and structure of the document.

You can add to the visual impact of your document by adding features. Although images serve as powerful features to express your ideas and enhance your document, other features you can add include horizontal rules, line breaks, links, and lists. After you finish the document, proof your work and test the features you have added to the document so that you can proudly publish your document on the Web for the world to see.

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