Programming and Technical Help for Your Website
Once you have planned your website and created the content and graphics, you will need to convert your information into a Website readable form. You can do this by converting text documents to HTML (HyperText Markup Language) Learning the basics of HTML is fairly easy. If you have only a few pages to create and some time on your hands, you can probably do it yourself. If you need help, you can hire an HTML coder for about US $25 to US $75 per hour. Software that convert documents to HTML (HTML editors) can be of great help. In fact, with Microsoft Word, you can save a document as an HTML file.
Once you begin working with forms, CGI scripts, image maps, or online transactions, you probably will need the services of a programmer. Programmers can cost US $45 to US $200 per hour, depending on your needs, geographic location and the programmer's skills. Many web developers offer programming as part of their services. You can also locate qualified programmers by doing an online search. Make sure you see some working examples of previous projects, before you hire anyone.
When all of your material is ready and you've got a programmer ready to roll, you will need a place to host your site. If you are running an in-house web server, your system administrator will have to learn the necessary skills (perhaps with the help of a consultant). Most individuals host their sites with their Internet service provider (if it provides this service) or with a web hosting company.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) can be described as a set of special codes referred to as "tags," which instruct a web browser how to display a hypertext document. Think of it is as a collection of styles (indicated by markup tags) that define the various components of a web page.
All HTML documents are written in plain text (ASCII) format, making them universally readable by different web browsers running on different computer platforms. HTML tags consist of a left angle bracket (< or "less than" symbol) followed by the name of the tag and closed by a right angle bracket (> or "greater than" symbol). Some HTML tags, like the ones used to indicate a new paragraph <P> or a line break <BR>, stand alone. Most tags however, are paired, with a beginning (or open) and an ending (or close) tag. The ending tags are the same as the beginning tags except that they are preceded by a forward slash (/). A typical pair of tags look like this: <STRONG>and</STRONG>
Each tag in a pair is placed around the text or section that you want to define ("mark up") with that tag. For example, if you want to begin a section of your document with a heading like "My First Web Page," you would use one of the six levels (sizes) of headings available in HTML and it would look like this: <H1>My First Web Page</H1>
Every HTML document needs a title. The <TITLE> tag goes inside the document header and should describe the contents of the page. This is especially important if you are going to register your website with search engines. You can have only one title per document and it should be in plain text. In other words, there shouldn't be any tags or strange characters inside the title.
There's a wealth of information on the Internet that will explain just about anything you could possibly want to know about HTML. A good place to start is HTML Primer
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