Special Characters

Html contains special characters that need to represented properly to show up correctly on the web page. They are reffered to as character entities. Each character entity begins with and ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon(;). Both the amersand and the semicolon are absolutly necessary to be interpreted properly. Some are interpreted with numbers, some with words, and some numbers or words. For example, the copyright symbol(©) can be represented as © or ©. Googling the phrase "special characters html" will bring up a number of sites that have quick refrence.to most of the symbols. W3Schools is has a nice list and because they set the standards for web code, the list can be considered reliable. A cheat sheet is always nice to have on hand for quick refrence.

.doc ? .txt ? wysiwyg?

The only tools needed to publish a simple web page is a browser and Word Pad, the default text editor that comes with Windows. It is possible, but not as easy as a wysiwyg,What You See is What You Get, program. Considered by many as a top program on the market is Adobe Dreamweaver. The most current available is CS4 version but every rose has a thorn and this software retails around $400. Amazon.com did have CS4 for $359 with free shipping,and CS3, which is a great program as well, for only $99.For a highly rated open source wysiwyg editor, try xstandard. X Standard Lite is freeware, which means there is no cost. There is Xstandard Pro whick does have a fee and the specific differences are listed on the website. Do not try to publish an html page with Microsoft Word, It fills the html with program specific code that enabled Word to create the page.

Personal Web Server

It is a good idea to setup a personal web server on your machine. I am working only with Microsoft for the basic reason that it is all I know. If anyone has information on Mac or Linux, please, by all means share with us. IIS stands for Windows Internet Information Services and is the software to use for setting up your personal web server. With IIS (Internet Information Services) you can put together your website, see how it looks and functions, then upload the polished version of your web application to your virtual host. Microsoft has information on it's MSDN website about how to load IIS to your machine and which operating systems work with which version. MSDN stands for Microsoft Developer Network. The Operating Systems of Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 200 Server Professional all have IIS ready to install through add new programs in the control panel. Have your Windows CDs close by because sometimes it asks for you to insert the original program CD. The root directory for your web application will be the wwwroot directory. That wwwroot directory can be found at C:\Inetpub\wwwroot.
Next Post we will learn a bit about FTP transfer to get your files from your computer to your host server.

Free School

In the last post we talked about setting up a work space  with a computer, internet access, and a filing system based on paper.  Here we will discuss a learning option that is thorough and free of charge. There are many different ways to approach publishing a website, but all are based on  the cornerstone of HTML. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.  HTML can be formatted on the screen in different ways but the universal approach is with CSS. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee the international organization that standardizes the World Wide Web is the WC3.  WC3 stands for the World Wide Web Consortium. The WC3 offers free tutorials that are well constructed and are useful to both beginners and seasoned developers alike.
 W3C Schools are step by step.  You do not need to have any knowledge before you start the HTML, and you do not need any special tools. They have quizzes where you can test what you have learned at each level. In addition to the quizzes they offer an application where you can test out what you are being taught. Once you know the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and XHTML you’re given an option to take an exam and get certified as an HTML Developer.  There is a $59 fee to take the test but all the learning materials are free of charge.

Next post we will look into registering a name for the website.