Here are some Bare Bones Basics to get you started, designed with the
Robinson Mac lab in mind (i.e., your mileage may vary in other settings):
First, login to Liberty and choose 5 (for 'Liberty functions') and
1 (for 'UNIX')
- From the Liberty $ prompt:
- type mkdir public_html (to create a subdirectory)
- type cd public_html (to move to that subdirectory)
- type pico index.html to call up a text editor ('pico') and
edit a file named 'index.html', which will be your Home Page.
- Now type something (anything....) in this filespace, just to have
something to look at.
- And SAVE what you've typed by holding down the <CONTROL>
key
and hitting the X key. (Hit the Y key when asked if you want to save).
- Now start up Netscape by double-clicking on the icon. Click on the
Open button and type this into the
space:
http://www.wlu.edu/~yourusername (thus, mine would be
http://www.wlu.edu/~hblackme)
and click on 'Open' to see your index.html file displayed
as a Netscape document
- Once your document is displayed, go to the Bookmarks menu and
choose Add Bookmark. This will put your index.html file into the
bookmarks list so that you can connect again quickly after you've edited
the file further.
- Now go back to Liberty, type pico index.html, and make some
changes to the file. Save it again (with <CONTROL><X>), go
back to Netscape, choose index.html from the Bookmarks menu. You'll need
to click on the Reload button to get your changes to show.
The next step is to make a hypertext link --to link your
index.html file to something else.
- Go back to Liberty and type pico number2.html, hit <ENTER>, and then type some text and
save the file in the usual way.
- Now type pico index.htmland <ENTER> and add a link
by typing this line:
<a href="number2.html">Here's a link</a>
Save as usual and go back to Netscape.
- Use your bookmark to call up your index.html document, use the Reload
button, and click on the hypertext link ("Here's a link"). It should
take you to the second document.
- Now let's complete the link: go back to Liberty, type pico
number2.html and <ENTER>, and add
the line
<a href="index.html">and this one takes you
back</a>
Return to Netscape and test the links.
The links above connect documents in a single subdirectory. If you want
to link external resources the URL must be more detailed. Let's add a
useful link to number2.html:
- Go to Liberty again, type pico number2.html, hit
<ENTER>, and add
this link:
<a href="http://www.yahoo.com/new">What's New on
Yahoo</a>
These few essentials will provide you with enough understanding of HTML
to benefit from looking at the source code of Web documents
--you'll be able to see how pages were 'marked up' and also generate more
questions for next time.