10 Steps to Creating Your Own Web Pages

The ability to create new web pages for your site is surprisingly easy, and it will give your business a dynamic capacity without costing an arm and a leg.

1. Download a FTP program.

A FTP (file transfer protocol) program lets you transfer documents from your hard drive to  your web site and vice versa. Ipswitch FTP-Home offers a free trial version to get you started.

The program provides two windows, one on the left with documents from any folder you choose in your hard drive, and one on the right for your live web site. Between the windows is a column with two arrows pointing in opposite directions.

2. Input your web site's FTP address, user name and password in the three boxes at the top of the screen.

You can get these from your webmaster, hosting company or I.T. person if you don't already know them. After entering the items, the files from your live web site will load into the right-hand window.

3. Download a standard page from your live web site.

Simply highlight the file in the right-hand window and click on the arrow pointing from right to left.

4. Open the downloaded page as a Notepad / text file (see item #9 for use of Microsoft's Dreamweaver).

You'll see a lot of html coding, but at this stage, just leave the coding alone and make any changes you wish to the text of the web page.

5. Once you've deleted, edited or revised the text to create a new document, execute the "save as" command.

This lets you save the file with a name for your new web page (if you're just editing a page, keep the same file name). Make sure the name ends with  a .html extension.

By keeping the html coding the same, you will maintain the structure and framework of all your other web pages.

6. Load the new file online.

Refresh the FTP program to update it with your new document. Then, simply highlight the file and click on the arrow pointing from left to right. You now have a new live web page.

7. Make your web pages look nicer by using fundamental html coding.

At its most basic level, html does not involve any sophisticated programming. It consists of opened and closed brackets. For any open bracket , there is a corresponding close bracket .

(NB: I will use [] for brackets in the rest of the article to prevent activation of the html coding, but you should use <> for the brackets.)

For example, if you type [b]text[/b] -- b stands for bold -- then the resulting output will be text. You can find a list of common html bracket commands by searching with Google.

8. Include active links in your html coding.

The most simple format is [a href="URL"]anchor text[/a].

By adding links to your existing web pages, you can connect them with any new web pages you create.

9. Dreamweaver makes life easier.

After learning how to use a FTP program, you can graduate to a more sophisticated program such as Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver can be formatted with a split window showing the coding at the top and the appearance of the live web page at the bottom.

Dreamweaver also enables more complicated coding for adding an image or changing navigation bars. Once you have purchased and activated Dreamweaver, you will be able to use it with your FTP program instead of Notepad / text files.

10. Always keep an entire copy of your web site on your hard drive.

By downloading all the active files in the right window of your FTP program, you can create a copy of your web site as a backup for fail-safe operations.