Web pages are simply text files with the filename extension of htm
With the three characters htm after the dot in a file's name the web browser 'knows' how to treat the file for display purposes.
To create and manage web pages you need somewhere to store them before transfering them to your server. You may use the hard drive or C: drive on your computer. First, make a new folder on your hard drive. Use the program Windows NT Explorer to create a folder called web where you can easily find it again!
Then open your web browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) in another window on your computer.
Click twice in the Address (or Location) box near the top of the browser's screen to gain control of the cursor.
Erase the whole web address that is currently showing and then type in the location of the new folder you've just created, for example
C:\web\
Don't forget the colon after the C: drive.
You'll be able to store and edit your web pages in this folder, view them with your web browser, and edit them using Notepad.exe or Dreamweaver if you're using that package.
In these exercises we'll use Notepad so that you can see how the HTML code is written and how it makes the browser display the web pages in the layout that you have marked-up. HTML is a mark-up language that lets you control how a page of text looks on the screen.
Let's find Notepad.exe on the computer (note: use Simple Text if you're on a Mac), On a PC click the Start button on the bottom left of your desktop screen, it looks like this:
and select Find from the pop-up menu, extend your selection to Files or Folders. In the input box type Notepad.exe and click search. When a .exe (say dot ex-ee) version of Notepad appears in the search results, click-and-drag the name of the file out onto your desktop. This will make a shortcut that you can use anytime. It'll look like this:
Double-click your Notepad shortcut now and see how the program opens to give you a very basic word processor.
Type and erase a few characters to see how it works.
We use Notepad because it adds no special layout characters of its own as WORD does. When we're writing in the hypertext markup language (HTML) we decide what layout or markup codes to add to the text.
Now type the word test into the notepad and click File, select Save As, and you will be presented with the File Directories window, using the Save in: box point to the new web folder you made at the start of this activity. Then, in the File name: box type over the highlighted text with this filename test.htm making sure you use a dot or full-stop.
Go back to the window where you have your web browser open and use the Address box to point to your newly created file test.htm
