ON-LINE SERVICES GIVE USERS CHANCE TO BUILD WEB PAGE.Byline: The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The easiest way for your family to communicate with the world (or at least the wired portion of it) is to publish your own home page on the World Wide Web using CompuServe, America Online See AOL. or Prodigy An online information service that provides access to the Internet, e-mail and a variety of databases. Launched in 1988, Prodigy was the first consumer-oriented online service in the U.S. . When FamilyPC tested the home-page features of all three services, CompuServe's were found to be the best. CompuServe gives you the most flexibility, has the most sophisticated editing tools, and is the simplest to use. A bonus is that you create your home page while you're off line, so you don't pay on line charges while you're building it. America Online ranked second best because of the wide variety of graphics the service lets you use. Prodigy was the worst of the lot because of its buggy Refers to software that contains many flaws. Many in the software industry swear that bugs are inevitable, and perhaps they are right. As long as we work in the competitive, pressure-cooker environment of our high-tech world, products will more often than not be developed too hastily and beta home-page builder. To build a home page on CompuServe, you need the Home Page Wizard, which you can download from the service (Go HPWIZ). After you download and install the Home Page Wizard, you fill in some basic information, such as the title of the home page (the name that will appear at the top of the home-page window) and the name for the entire project (the site name). CompuServe automatically generates a URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. (universal resource locator Universal Resource Locator - Uniform Resource Locator ) for your page. Next, fill in personal information, such as name, home address, hobbies, occupation and e-mail address See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address . If you don't want this information to appear on your home page, uncheck the Use Personal Information in Home Page box. Choose a template (1) A pre-designed document or data file formatted for common purposes such as a fax, invoice or business letter. If the document contains an automated process, such as a word processing macro or spreadsheet formula, then the programming is already written and embedded in the for your home page. Templates include different backgrounds and logos, as well as buttons to let people send you e-mail from your home page. (To start from scratch to start (again) from the very beginning; also, to start without resources. - Thackeray. See also: Scratch rather than use a template, click on the Blank Page button.) You now have a home page that includes basic information about yourself. Adding text, graphics or links is simple: Merely click on the proper icon on top of your screen and follow the instructions. You can preview your home page with the Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. you use through CompuServe. Go to the Options menu, choose Select Web Browser and follow the instructions. When you click on the Test icon, your Web browser will launch and give you a sneak preview sneak preview n. A single public showing of a movie before its general release. Noun 1. sneak preview - a preview to test audience reactions of your home page. When you're satisfied with your work, click on Publish. Your home page and any related files will automatically be uploaded to CompuServe for all the world to see. Creating Home Pages on America Online The good news for those who want to create home pages on America Online is that it's easy to do and there's a nice collection of graphics you can use with your page. The bad news is that the results are pretty uniform - AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. puts information you select in pre-formatted areas, and you have no control over your page's layout. To build your own home page on America Online, head over to the Personal Publisher area (Keyword Personal Publisher). Click on Create/Edit My Home Page to get the basic information about yourself that will appear on your home page, such as your name, address and screen name. America Online gets this information from the member-information form you fill out on the service. Click on the Create button at the bottom of your screen. A form appears with your personal information, plus places where you can put other things you want on your home page. You can edit existing information, add new information or add links to your favorite places on the Web. You can also add more text, graphics and multimedia files to your page. When you're done, click on See My Changes to see your work thus far. To add graphics, sound or a multimedia file, go to the Upload Multimedia File box and type in the name of the file you want. After you've uploaded the file, click on Add Multimedia File to see a list of all the files you've uploaded. Choose the one you want on your page and where you want it displayed. Finally, type in a description of the file you just uploaded. To check out your work, click on See My Changes. Click on Edit to change text, or on Add to change graphics or multimedia files. If you're happy with what you see, click on Save Changes. Your page is done, your URL is created automatically, and you're ready for your Web debut. Creating Home Pages on Prodigy Creating home pages on Prodigy using a beta copy of its home-page tool was very limiting - we couldn't use any graphics. But if you're a Prodigy member, you'll want to see if the service has worked out the bugs in the final version. Jump to the Personal Web Pages Main Menu (Jump Web) and then choose Browse the Web. |
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