Making Web Pages

Hi there and welcome! This section of Iron Spider is the jumping-off page to a series of articles which act as a kind of primer on making web pages. This is where you'll learn the following...

What is a Web Page?

Many people are unclear as to exactly what a web page really is. I've seen many friends and family members completely blur the line between a web browser (the program on your computer that displays web pages) and a web page (content created by web authors that is displayed in web browsers).

Most tend to mishmash the whole thing together and just call it the 'internet', i.e., just click on that shiny blue 'e' button on their computer's desktop and that'll 'turn on' the internet (*chuckle*).

Just to demystify that whole process here a little bit, what is really happening when you click on that shiny blue 'e' button is you're opening a web browser called Internet Explorer which then in turn automatically retrieves and displays a pre-designated home page on the internet (most probably MSN). The whole thing happens so effortlessly that it becomes akin to pressing a button on your remote to turn on your television.

But, if you're a budding webmaster, it's essential that you clearly understand the distinctions between the internet, a web browser and a web page....

Why Make a Web Page?

Yeah sure, there's Facebook and Twitter. Just sign up and away you go, no muss, no fuss. One web page on the internet, please. To go. And hold the onions (lol). But going that route is going to set limits, e.g., you'll be forced to work within the framework of the social media you selected and you won't have nearly same distinct presence on the net as, say, having your own domain name and creating a web page from scratch.

Of course, going the whole-website-from-scratch route is more work.

Much more work.

And why would I want to do that, you may ask?

Here's why...

A History of HTML

Ahh... if only making a web page was as easy as firing up Microsoft Word, typing out what you wanted to say, tweaking the font styles just the way you wanted them, adding some images and then clicking on some magic button that said something like  [PUT THIS ON THE INTERNET]. If only it was that easy.

Well.. Actually... It is that easy. Except for one problem...

You have no clue what's going on behind the scenes.

The bottom line is, ALL word processors and ALL visual web editors do the exact same thing when you click on that magic  [PUT THIS ON THE INTERNET]  button and that is they take what you just created and transform it into...

...(drum roll, please)...

HyperText Markup Language

...or HTML, for short.

This is the real stuff that all web pages are made of.

Want to see what HTML looks like? Go to the top left of your screen, find and click on the View button and then click on Page Source or Source (depending on whether you're using Firefox or Internet Explorer).

(*ahem*)...

I'll give you a moment or two to recover... heh heh..

Now... Exactly how did this gobbledy-gook HTML thing get started?

Here's how...

Learn HTML or XHTML?

Alright! so you may be thinking. Now I know what HTML is. Great! Well let's get to it! (*rubbing hands with glee*)...

Wait a minute. What's this? ....XHTML?

...(*face palm*)...

Good grief.

MORE gobbledy-gook?

Like... Do I really need to know this?