• The Purpose of your Web site
• Responsibility
• Finding Web space
• Designing Your Web Site
• How Do I Create the Pages?
• The Importance of Testing
• Installing Your Files on the Server
• Controlling Your Site

• HTML Editing Tools
• Graphics Tools
• Browsers

• Troop 24's Scouting on the WWW
• Troop 24's Scouting page templates
• Browsers

The first step when trying to accomplish any task is to decide why you are doing it and what you want to accomplish. What is the reason for this Web site? To put information that the members of your unit can access? To brag about your Unit? To list other scouting sites that are interesting and useful? To let your community know about your Scouting program? These and many other things can be accomplished by a Web site.

An important thing to consider is the question of who will be responsible for this project. Creating and maintaining a Web site can be a time-consuming project if the site is kept up-to-date with lots of good information for your members to access. Some units that have Scouts that are interested in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) have created a Scribe position to handle their Web site. Some units have an adult member that does this job. Other units, like Troop 94, use a combination of these methods, with an adult handling most of the maintenance, and youth members doing some of the work.

Every day it gets easier and easier to do this. Increasing numbers of ISPs (Internet Service Providers), whether they are one of the giants like America On-Line or your local Service provider in your hometown, are making available free Web site space for their subscribers. There are also some providers that will provide space for Scouting Web sites for free or at reduced rates. Click here to go to Troop 24's list of free Scouting web space providers, or here for another site offering free web space for Scouts. Or ask your site administrator, (usually Webmaster@yourdomain), what they can do for you.

All the thinking you can do about how you want your Web site to look ahead of time will save you time when you write the code. Surf the net and find sites you like. Download their code and look at it to see how they did it. Use the basic framework of the site you like as the beginning of your page, making changes to their code for your own page. Believe it or not, this is how most of the Webmasters got started.

There are some things to keep in mind when creating your page that will help you have a site that people enjoy visiting. Keep the first page of your site (index.html) clear, concise, and free from any large image files. If you have an image file that has to load on your home page, the visitor will have to sit there and wait before they can go on and browse your site. Put your pictures and graphic files on sub pages of you Home Page so the user can choose whether they want to see them. Put small "thumbnails" of your big pictures on the page with a jump to the big picture. It will save time loading the page and the user can then choose if they want to load the big picture.

If you are new to this, there are a few things that you need to learn. A basic understanding of HTML, the programming language used to display pages on the Internet, is recommended if you are planning on creating a Web site that is anything more than the simple display of a few lines of text. Although there are some Web page authoring tools available that allow you to create pages without actually having to write the code yourself, (and I recommend one of these to all of you that are just starting out), once you start getting into it, you will need to learn some HTML. There are even websites that allow you to create your pages on-line and download them when you are done, ready to be installed on your server. Click here to check one of them out.

I recommend that you pay a visit to your favorite bookstore and choose one of the many books you will find there on HTML and Web page creation and management. Or, you can Click here to go to a list of HTML Resources on the internet. Most of these are for the MS Windows platform. Apologies to the Mac folks.

This is the part of any programming task that is usually the most time-consuming and frustrating for the new programmer. Without a solid knowledge of HTML, it is often very hard to track down the error in your code that makes the page appear differently than you intend. While this can be a chore, it is probably the most important part of the process. There is nothing worse than surfing around the net and trying to access a page that is not working correctly or is formatted poorly.

Before you upload your files to your host, be sure to thoroughly test all the pages on your system at home, checking your spelling, punctuation, grammar, as well as the functioning of all your links to other files. Make sure you are on-line when you check your external links or you will get errors.

One consideration in Web design is the way different browsers, such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, or Mosaic display the same HTML code. It is a good idea to test your pages in as many different browsers as you can to make sure something strange doesn't happen. Along with this, the more generic your Web page code is, the more compatible it will be with the different browsers your visitors may use. Try not to use too many features that are specific to one browser or another unless you plan to provide alternate paths for other visitors.

There is some help out there for checking your code. Some editors, such as HotDog Pro, have built in HTML syntax checkers. There are also a number of on-line HTML Validation Services where you can submit the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of your Web page and it will check the code for you. My ISP has this built into his upload process so that when any of his users upload their HTML files to the server, a checking program runs and sends a message back to you telling you if you have any errors in your files. The last icon in the bottom row of this page will take you to the WebTechs HTML Validation Service, the one that I use.

The actual method of uploading or installing all the files for your new Web site vary from provider to provider. Probably the most common way is through FTP (File Transfer Protocol). In order to use this method of uploading files to a host computer, you will need to get and install an FTP client software package. Some editing packages have FTP clients built into them. When your files are tested and ready for uploading, contact the administrator of your host system and get instructions for uploading. This will usually involve obtaining the name of the directory you will upload to, and a password for access to that directory. Ask you administrator if there are any help files available to aid you in this process.

There are other methods in use to do this and they vary from host to host. My provider has an automated program that he wrote to install the files that has a built-in HTML source checker that checks the HTML files for errors and is all handled through email. I've seen providers that have you bring in all the files on disk for them to install for you.

An issue that is very important but rarely talked about is the issue of control. There are lots of problems that can happen when more than one person has the responsibility of maintaining the site. In our troop, one of our Scribes has access to upload and is responsible for keeping up our "Recent Activities" page. If I want to add something to that page, and don't have the newest copy, there will be problems. If I use the last copy that I have to do the editing, and our Scribe has changed something since then, when I upload my new version, it will overwrite his, losing the changes he made.

There are two ways to deal with this problem. The first is, of course, to only have one person responsible for uploading. If another person has changes that need to be made, they will give the changes to their "Webmaster" and they will make the changes on the host. The other method that is used is to insure that you always have the newest version of the file that you will be working on. Before you begin your editing, log on to your site and download the page you will be working on from the server. This is done by going to the page and using the "File - Save As" menu item in your Browser. Use this file to do your editing.

• NCSA--A Beginner's Guide to HTML
• Windows HTML Editing Tools
• HTML Starter Kit
• PC HTML Editors
• Yahoo! - HTML Editors
• WebTechs HTML Validation Service

HTML editing (the writing of the code for your Web pages) can be done in lots of different ways. Any text editor can be used to write the code, like Windows Notepad, but this means you have to know HTML. Beginners should probably start with one of the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors that are available. If you use Netscape Gold, it has one of these editors built into it.

Since editors are an item of personal preference, and most of these can be obtained on a trial basis, I recommend that you download a few and try them out. I have tried a few and have opinions on some, but it is not my place to endorse or recommend any product on these pages, but if you have questions, you can email me and I will answer you.

If you plan to have graphic images on you web pages, you will need to get a graphics software package. Although you can use Windows Paint to create simple graphics, the images you will need to have to display on your web site need to be in GIF or JPG format. There are many of these products available on the net. Do a search on graphics software and try one out.

Since editors are an item of personal preference, and most of these can be obtained on a trial basis, I recommend that you download a few and try them out. I have tried a few and have opinions on some, but it is not my place to endorse or recommend any product on these pages, but if you have questions, you can email me and I will answer you.

Something to keep in mind as you make your web pages is that different Browsers (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Mosaic) will display your pages differently. The more complex your web site is, the more it will vary from browser to browser. The best thing to do when you are starting out is to keep the page simple. If you decide to write the code to be specific to one particular Browser, be sure to let your viewers know, by putting a notice like,"These pages optimized for Netscape 3.0" to let them know that they may not be getting the full effect of the page the way you created it, unless they are using that browser.