Creating Your First World Wide Web Home Page at Pitt

Based on the Word Document created by Paulo R. Flor.

There are a couple of ways you could go about creating your home page. Since the HTML home page file you will be creating is a simple text file, no elaborate or complex software is required. This set of instructions explains how to create your World Wide Web page using Notepad and transferring it to your Pitt UNIX account using an FTP program that is available on the Windows95 PCs in the Labs.. See A Guide to Creating Your Home Page if you would prefer to approach the problem by working more on your UNIX account.

Step One: Create a Text File Using Notepad

• Open the Notepad editor. On Windows95, it is located in the Accessories Group. You can also start it by clicking the Start menu, choosing Run, and entering "Notepad."
• Enter the text you see below into Notepad. Feel free to replace the "stock" text with text about you, such as your name, biographical information, and courses taken.

• Save the file on a diskette on the A: drive under the name index.htm, which is the required name for your home page.

Transferring Your File to your Pitt Account

Your HTML document is now ready. You can even see how it looks by opening the file from Netscape (try double-clicking on it). However, your document still needs to be placed on the World Wide Web, so that it can be accessed by the network of networked computers.

Web documents at Pitt are stored in the UNIX environment. Since you created your document in the DOS/Windows environment, you must now transfer it to your UNIX account. This can be easily done using the WS_FTP95 (available on the Windows95 PCs). You can download this software from: http://tucows.epix.net/ftp95.html .

 Open the WS_FTP95 program

1. The Session Properties dialog box will appear. Click the New command button.
2. Fill these spaces with the following information (everything should be in lower case) and click the OK button:

• Profile Name: leave it blank
• Host Name/Address: unixs1.cis.pitt.edu
• Host Type: UNIX (standard)
• User ID: YOUR USERNAME
• Password: YOUR PASSWORD
• Account: leave it blank

1. If the connection is successful, the WS_FTP main screen will appear. In the left window you will have the file contents of a directory in the Windows 95 environment you are working on. You need to access the A:\ drive, where your file is located. Do that by clicking on the ChgDir button. When an �Input� dialog box appears, type A:\ and press Enter or click on the OK button. The contents of your diskette drive, including your index.htm file, will now be displayed on the left window.
2. Now you have to locate the proper directory in the UNIX environment to which your HTML file will be transferred. All WWW documents should be placed in the "html" subdirectory under the "public" directory. That is the location Netscape will look for when trying to access your document. If you currently do not have this subdirectory, we will have to create it now. After you go through this step, you don�t have to repeat it again. The "html" subdirectory will be available permanently to you under the "public" directory.

• Move to the "public" directory by double-clicking on the public folder located on the right window. The present directory location line on the top of the right window should now include the public directory on it;
• Click the MkDir button on the right window. When the dialog window pops up, type html (it must be in lower case) and press Enter or click the OK button. You have now created your html subdirectory and a folder with its name should appear on the right window.

• Now that you have created the "html" subdirectory, you need to move to it before you can transfer your file from A:\ to the html subdirectory. You should be in the "public" directory now. Check if the "public" directory is included in the location of remote host line (the first line of the right window). If not, double-click the "public" folder. Once in the public directory, the html folder that you just created should be displayed on the right window. Double-click on the "html" folder. The html subdirectory should now be displayed in the location line of the right window. You are now ready to transfer to your file.

• To transfer your file to the html subdirectory, click on the index.htm file and click on the arrow button pointing to the right window. A copy of your file should now be displayed on the right window. Now you have all the files you need to display your first Web page. You can close the WS_FTP utility now, by clicking Exit button.

 Congratulations! You are now a new member of the WWW. You can now check your first page on the Web by going to Netscape and opening the following location:

http://www.pitt.edu/~YOUR_USERNAME/

 Should you wish to make changes to your page, you can repeat the above process, or follow the approach described in A Guide to Creating Your Home Page.