This site is being developed to provide extra resources and help to students in the Beginning HTML class at Spectrum's Virtual University. But whether you are taking that class or not, hopefully these pages will provide some help in learning to build a web site, get it online, and ways to improve the design.

  If you are just starting out, a good way to begin learning HTML is to use a very simple text editor like Notepad (Windows) or Simple Text (Mac). Learning to write all the tags and what they each mean, will help you to understand how HTML works much faster than trying to use an advanced WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get).

  Once you feel comfortable with how to code your web pages this way, you can use a good editor like Allaire's Homesite. Editors that allow you to write your own code, but "automate" functions like adding tags automatically, do save a lot of time and still allow you full control over your HTML code.

Two excellent editors that are free are: 1st Page 2000 and Arachnophilia.

  When you have learned to build a simple web page that works, then you get to do all of the fun part of building a web site! That is the part where you add all the colors, pictures, sounds,...all of the things that can make a web site look good and be easy and fun for your visitors to look at.

  Learning to use a graphics program like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop can be a big plus when you are designing a web site. Even if you use free graphics, you may want to add some of your own photos or graphics. So I have added some help in graphics for web sites, as well as fonts and more advanced techniques like CSS and DHTML.

  When you have your pages looking the way you want them, you will want everyone else to be able to see them too. So there is a section on how to upload them to the web. And lastly, how to let everyone else know that your web site is ready to be viewed!