By Rob Pegoraro
Washington Post Staff Writer
April 1998

Maybe you want a way to show the pictures from last year's vacation to the relatives in Poughkeepsie and Portland at the same time. Maybe you need to share some specialized nugget of knowledge (your list of used-CD stores in Annapolis or maintenance tips for 1968 Datsuns). Maybe you just want to put your résumé online.

Whatever it is, a Web page is the way to do it. And it doesn't need to be that hard, as long as you get your hands on three things.

The Place
A Web page needs a "Web server" – a computer, connected to the Internet by a fast, full-time link, that dishes out copies of your page to other Web users. (You can't "host" a Web page on your own computer, since you're probably not logged on all the time, and your modem is a little slow for that job anyway.)

Almost all Internet providers allow their customers to use their Web servers, usually allotting one to two megabytes' worth of disk space to each user. That might not sound like much, but the files that make up Web pages are tiny things. (For example, the front page of The Post's Web site is built on a document "weighing" less than 33 kilobytes; two megs would store 31,775 copies of that file.)

If your provider is one of the few that doesn't offer Web space, two major Web sites, Tripod and GeoCities, offer free (advertiser-supported) Web server space. Tripod's advantage is its ridiculously easy "homepage builder," which, for all its limited design flexibility, makes getting on the Web now a snap. Pick a design template, then type in your words and links and provide an image file or three; the site does the rest.

The Tools
Web pages are actually plain text documents, filled with the words you see on your screen and formatting codes – HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language – that tell Web-browser software to display those words in certain ways. For instance, to put a word in bold type, you would surround it with < b > and < /b > (the first turns bold formatting on; the second turns it off).

Don't worry about learning all that now. Instead, get started with a "WYSIWYG" ("What You See Is What You Get") Web-authoring program, which will hide the HTML behind a word-processor-like interface (for instance, to put some text in bold type, just click the "bold" button). Netscape's Communicator browser includes a decent Web editor (to use it, click on the "Composer" button in its floating toolbar); it's easy, relatively simple and free. All this makes it a good way to start.

If you happen to have another Web editor lying around your hard drive – say, Home Page from FileMaker (formerly Claris) or PageMill from Adobe – use that if you want. It's not that big of a deal.

You'll also need a basic image editor if you plan to include any illustrations – say, pictures taken with a digital camera, clip art from a CD-ROM, or stuff scanned in at home or at the local Kinko's. Most programs bundled with new computers, scanners and printers (usually Adobe's PhotoDeluxe) will suffice for entry-level Webwork.

The Stuff
Words: Web pages begin with words; start yours by considering who is likely to encounter your creation. Will it be long-lost high school buddies? Then brag about how great your life is. Will family and friends visit the page after getting e-mail from you? Try writing it like a holiday newsletter. Or will the audience be strangers who see your Web address in e-mail or newsgroup postings? Adopt a résumé-esque approach that gives people a sense of who you are.

Then ask yourself this: What can I say, what do I know, that other people don't? The same goes for any links on your page – it's more interesting to find some novel obscurity than it is to stumble across still more links to Yahoo and the White House.

Then write out what you want to say – in a word processor. Worry about design next.

Pictures: Look for illustrations that can add to your words, then scan or import them into your computer. A word about file formats: If you want to use a photo or other complex illustration, save it as a JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) file; if it's a small, simple illustration, save it as a GIF, short for Graphics Interchange Format. (Why? JPEG's file-squishing techniques work better in detail-filled images.) Most typical image editors can play ball with both formats; for instance, in PhotoDeluxe, click the vertical toolbar's "Send" button, then click the "Web" button at the top of the screen; the program will coach you through the rest.

Design: Here's where that HTML editor comes in. Have fun and be creative; there's no set rule to Web design. But if you follow these steps, your page (and, by extension, you) will look better:

Most important: Keep your image file sizes small! Larger files take longer to download and annoy people more. So: Simply crop or shrink your pictures in an image-editing program. (Recall that a browser window isn't likely to run more than eight inches across.)

Add "alternate text" to your images, so people using browsers that can't or aren't set to display images will know what's going on. (In Netscape's Composer, when you click the "add image" button, type a brief description in the little "Text" form you'll see under the "Alternative Representations" heading.)

If you have more than one page, include a link to your home page on every one of them, so your visitors won't get lost.

Write an informative or memorable page title (what shows up at the top of a browser window). "My home page" won't stick in anybody's memory, while "Rob Pegoraro's Crypt of the Inane" might.

Don't use text below standard, 12-point type (what you'd see in a typed letter). Even if it looks fine on your computer, other people will probably have to squint to read it.

If you use a background pattern, go easy on it – too many Web-page backgrounds are eyestrain-inducing, polychrome horrors. Here's a guideline: If you wouldn't want to wake up to see your Web page's background pattern on the bedroom wall, don't use it.

Don't embed a "background sound" that will automatically play when the image loads. We won't tell you how to do this, but, trust us, it's annoying.

A Final Checklist
Before you upload the page to your provider's server (each one does this a little differently, so follow whatever instructions you get carefully), do two things:

Proofread your words: Spell-check your page, then proofread a printout again. (Especially if you plan to post a résumé at your site.)

Check your links: Having a site filled with "broken links" that don't go anywhere is a great way to annoy visitors. Make sure the links you have work, and re-check them regularly.

Once your Web billboard is up, keep this in mind:

Change your page: Give the reader something new. Find new things to write about, new sites to link to – that's what keeps people, be they friends, family or just random strangers, visiting your page again and again. And sending you e-mail about their own Web pages.

Questions? Comments? E-mail rob@twp.com