At some point during surfing the web, most people will wonder how a website ends up on the web. I'm sure most people have viewed the source code (HTML) and wondered what all those funny words/letters in between the < and > mean. Whilst this tutorial is only really a newbies guide and I wont be explaining the gory details of HTML (its not gory at all ), though there will be a HTML tutorial at some point.

These are the main stages of making a website:

• WEBSPACE - What it is and where to get it.
• GRAPHICS - types of graphic used on the web.
• DESIGN - How you want the site to look/function.
• CONSTRUCTION - How you are going to build your site.
• UPLOADING - How you get it on the web.

WEBSPACE
There is nothing mystical or magical about web space; it is merely a section of a hard drive on a web server which is used to store the files that are your web site. When you sign up with an ISP (Internet Service Provider) you are normally given a certain amount of web space with your account. If you dont get any, or choose not to use it, you can get free web space from lots of places on the web. The most popular ones are sites like Geocities or Tripod, but if you look at the Web Space directory (under Web Freebies) you will find a whole list of them. Most free web hosts, however, have some sort of advertising to sponsor them, in the form of popups or banner ads. This is the price you pay for free webspace, like you get adverts on TV.

GRAPHICS
The two types of graphics most commonly used in web pages are GIFs and JPEGs. These are two completely different types of graphic formats and both have some sort of compression algorithm to ensure smaller file size for quicker download on the web. Programs such as XAT.COM allow you to compress these images even further.

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. This type of graphic is commonly used to make clip art and link buttons because it supports only 256 colours. It allows for transparency and supports simple animation by storing multiple frames and playing them back one after the other. Its compression is known as 'lossless' as the image stays the same, but only the amount of colours is reduced.

JPEG stands for Joint Photographers Expert Group. This type of graphic is ideal for photographs as it supports millions of colours. It doesnt support transparency or animation like GIF's do. The JPEG comperssion is known as 'lossy' meaning that it loses detail the more it is compressed

DESIGN
First you must decide what sort of site you want. Is it a personal home page or a site about a hobby or club? It could be about several things and this may make the site more interesting. Do you want to put a lot of pictures on it or will it be mostly text? The best way to work out your design is to look at similar websites and work out which design looks and 'feels' the best.

CONSTRUCTION
Will you use the free online site designer that comes with your webspace? Or do you have a site design program that you want to use. You may want to learn HTML and do it that way

UPLOADING
Once the series of files that is your site is complete, you will need to upload them from your PC to the web server. (If you used an online site designer, your files will already be created on the web server, so you can skip this.) The two methods for this are FTP (File Transfer Protocol - a method of transferring files over the internet.), which requires a special program, although some browsers do allow you to upload files via FTP (it can also be done from a DOS prompt, but this requires knowledge of the actual protocol), or via a file manager on a web page. Whilst FTP is generally faster and easier, not all free web hosts provide FTP access, but all provide a file manager of some description.

• If your going to use pictures in your website, make sure they are optimised (ie compressed) for web use to reduce download time
• If you must use large pictures, use a thumbnail (a smaller version of the picture) linked to the large picture. This takes away the need for unneccesary download if the user doesnt want to see the picture
• Try to keep your navigation on one part of the page, preferably in the left, right or top of the page. Ideally you want to make it easier for the person viewing to get around your site.
• Stick to fonts like Arial or Verdana. Whilst they may not be exciting to look at, they are easy to read and all computers will have these built in. Not every one has or even likes fancy fonts.
• If you design your site to work at 800x600 resolution, most viewers will not have to scroll across
• Always have a link to your Home or start page in case the viewer gets 'lost'. Clicking away at the 'Back' button till they get there isnt much fun!
• Don't clutter your pages with too much clip art and animation. The chances are, its not relavent to your site and is just more to download and it can distract from what you want the viewer to really see.
• Dont assume that because you have ADSL or ISDN that everyone else has. While your entire page of holiday snaps might download in a couple of seconds, the poor 56k users will be waiting ages for them to download
• There is a free FTP client called WSftp from http://www.ipswitch.com if you are interested in using FTP