FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)
about creating a Home Page

Editor's note: Many students entered this course with little or no computer experience. After creating generic home pages on a Unix host, we needed help in their construction. Main sources of help have been help@oit.umass.edu and Merry Cushing, our HTML instructor, at cushing@oit.umass.edu. As students became more adept in HTMl through identifying and using appropriate research sources, we helped each other through a student-editor correspondence assignment. What follows is selected correspondence from that assignment edited for this page by the instructor. Answers apply for those with Web pages on Unix.

• Answer: Sure. To change your home page, first log into your account. From there you need to type "cd public_html" (no quotes). This will change your directory, so that you are located in the same place as the files that make up your homepage. Next type "ls". This will list the files in the directory. It's not necessary in order to edit, but I know I like to see what is there. You should have a file called index.html. This is your homepage. To edit it, type "pico index.html" This starts the editor going and from there you can do what you want. To add text, just type in what you want to say. You should have the commands to add a link or a picture to the page in the file already and can just copy them, if you want to add either. If you need any more help, feel free to email me.

Question: How do you create a new file in the public_html directory?

• Answer: If you've just logged on,at the prompt type CD public_html. Then type pico (whatever you want to call it -- but be sure to include .html) and you have a new directory. You still need to format the text with HTML. After you exit, be sure to give access privileges by typing: chmod o+r filename.html.

Question: "How do I review URL's within the text of a homepage?"

• Answer: In lynx, use the backslash key. In Netscape, use "view source."

• Answer: To format my resume, I used the html commands then checked their effect on my Web page -- It involved much going between the pico screen and the Netscape. In your case, where you don't have Netscape, I would suggest checking your work on lynx. It was a drawn out process for me. There may be a better way to do this ...."

Editor's note:  No better way that I know of -- the
process involves going back and forth from the editor to the web as
described above.  

Question: "Whenever I try to open my resume on my home page it says that I don't have 'privilege access.' What should I do?"

• Answer: Type: chmod o+r XXXX.html -- whenever you create a new file, you must type this at the prompt to give others access permission.

Same question, another response: "I have a question concerning my HTML link "My Works." I have done the formatting and linked it to my homepage, but when I called up my homepage and clicked on "My Works" I got "FORBIDDEN" in the top left corner of the screen. How do I get "My Works" to link-up?"

• Answer: You need to go into the "My Works" editor, by typing: cd public_html at the prompt. This puts you in your public_html directory. Then you need to type: pico WHATEVER YOU CALLED THE FILE.html. This will allow you to edit the page. Then you need to escape from here, making sure you save the work you have done. When you get back to the prompt, type: chmod o+r WHATEVER YOU CALLED THE FILE.html. This will allow the file to be linked.

Question: I was working on my homepage and I would like to know how to link something from my e-mail to my homepage. Can you tell me how to do this? Thanks.

• Answer: To link something from your e-mail, you must move this to your public_html subdirectory. To do this, switch to that directory (using: cd public_html). Then get into your e-mail. Choose the e-mail message you wish to link. Type s (for save). When it asks you what directory, type "/usr/users/user9/YOUR LOG IN NAME HERE/public_html/YOUR EMAIL FILE NAME HERE.html". The quotes here are NOT used. This moves the message into your public_html subdirectory. Then follow the steps you used to link your resume.

Question: "I was just wondering if it was possible to copy photographed backgrounds from other pages and write them into html so they appear on my page. I viewed the source document of a particular site and copied it directly onto my html skeleton and it didn't work."

• Answer: Unlike most photographs, background graphics cannot be copied and downloaded.

Question: "My problem is, I found several interesting sites on Magellan, but once I find out the URL I can't get back to them. Do you know what the problem is?"

• Answer: I have no idea why you would not be able to get back to them. I need more information. What browser are you using? How are you attempting to get back to these URL's? I really am unclear on the nature of your problem."

Editors note: Good answer.  Be specific when asking questions of a 
consultant.  It will save everyone time and trouble.

Question: "Is there an easier way to format a wordprocessing document besides going in and formatting each paragraph?

• Answer: All you have to do is use a simple formatting command. Start the paragraph with the command: < pre > and at the end of the paragraph type: < /pre >. This command is known as "preformatted" and it allows you to set up the spacing in your paragraph in anyway you want to. So, if you ever want to do something strange and put five spaces between words, or whatever, you would use this command to allow that kind of spacing to show up on the page. This technique is especially useful when including poetry on your homepage, since poetry is usually formatted strangely. I got this information from both the handout on the html workshop by Merry Cushing and the "Bare Bones Guide to HTML" by Kevin Werbach. These are great references. Anyway, I hope this helps, if you have any more questions, or anything let me know.

Editors note:  However ... a problem with < pre > occurs when 
inserting links -- it throws off the spacing.  Another way to format 
within a paragraph is to use the paired < ul > formatting we use most 
commonly for making bullets (see below).  To indent with a tab at the 
beginning of paragraph, for instance insert the single < dd  > at 
the beginning of each paragraph.  End with < /ul > 

Question: The data on my home page looks fine in Netscape but looks really bad when viewed with Lynx. How can I make it look good in lynx?

• Answer: The table formatting in a browser throws off lynx, a non-graphic browser. Either remove the tables from your home page or create a separate "text only" file and reformat it for lynx.

Question: 1. I open my Web page and press the = to edit it, but it doesn't change.
2. When I copied a graphic for the libel story, I attempted to put in on the home page. (It is supposed to be on the Internet Journalist Home Page, right?) Afterwards, I couldn't find it there. I'm wondering if these two problems are actually the same problem. Do I have to be in my e-mail account and in Netscape at the same time to make changes? And do I have any authority to change the Internet Journalist Home Page?

• Answer: In answer to your first question, I don't recall being able to use the = to edit a homepage. I'm sure you already know this but just in case, to edit you have to type pico index.html, or whatever file name your homepage is under. Once you do that you can edit to your heart's desire. In my notes I have written that the = key can be used in lynx to find the url of an internet site, but I don't have any other references to it in the rest of my notes. However, I do remember Merry Cushing telling us that one can simply hit one key and that will repeat the last command he/she performed. But I guess I have this a little mixed up. I wanted to test my theory so I got into my homepage to edit it and then exited. At the titan prompt I then typed = and it said there was an error then I typed + and the same thing happened. So, I will find out the answer for in class Thursday. In response to your second question, the graphic for the libel story is supposed to be on our personal homepages. You won't be able to put it on the UMass Internet Journalist homepage because the file the homepage is kept in is not on your account. When you find a graphic to use save it to your public_html file. Then format it so it will appear on your homepage.

Editor's note:  The correspondence here is a good demonstration of the 
trial and error that goes into mastering the medium ...  The key in 
question refers to this:  At the titan prompt, you can hit the up arrow 
key to get back to files previously opened (rather than typing in the 
file name again.)

Question: How do you shrink an image (or enlarge) an image you have copied?

• Answer: Netscape lets you solve the problem of enlarging or shrinking with the HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes. You specify the image's size in pixels, as follows; < IMG SRC="image.gif" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=200 > - To determine an image's size, load it up using LView. Select Edit, Resize or press CTRL R. The Resize dialog box appears, with the image's size-width times height-printed in the Current Size or Current Dimensions box.

Question: How do you add background texture to a web page?

• Answer: You need to have a gif file (say, image.gif) in your public_html directory. In the file use this formating: Type this in where you want a background < BODY BACKGROUND="image.gif" >

Question: How do you put bullets on a page?

• Answer: < ul >, then
  < li > (Puts a bullet before each list item)
  End with < /ul >

  You have other choices, too:
  - circle
  - disc
  - square
  So, to make a list preceded by squares type (with brackets):

  < UL TYPE=square >
  < LI Item 1 >
  < LI Item 2 >
  < /UL >

Question: "When I go to this link from my homepage, it shows the < head > < html > and so on. It's not supposed to show this only on the link, only on the file where I produced my work."

Editor's note:  No ready answer to this question.  We later 
discovered the file the student created in her public_html file did not end 
in ".html" which is required.  The file was renamed to solve the problem.