An Introduction to Web Sites for Beginners

In this short introduction into the world of websites I shall be outlining the 5 key components beginners require in order to tackle an understanding of the World Wide Web. Most of us use websites daily, but how many of us actually know how they are made and how you would go about creating one for yourself? Just read and remember the 5 following sections of this article to begin your journey into web site immortality.

Education, Understanding and Implementation

An aspect required when first learning about web sites and how they are made is Accountability, but what is Accountability? Accountability is the state of being accountable, liable or answerable. In order to fully understand and get your head around web sites you MUST have the correct mind set, to do this try and remember the term E.U.I.

Education- Realizing that you have to learn new skills.
Understanding- Making sure you understand what you are doing.
Implementation- Taking action and implementing your new skills.

Your Key to Success = Taking Consistent Action.

Image and File Sizes Explained

Typically, there are two types of file sizes, JPG’s and GIF’s. JPG’s are all photographs, whereas GIF’s are anything other than a photograph i.e. clips, videos etc. Just remember everything online is of a certain file size, for example, eBooks, videos, Web Pages and images. File size is measured in either of the following…..

Kilobytes (KB)
Megabytes (MB)
Gigabytes (GB)

1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte

1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte

Images would very rarely reach up to a whole Gigabyte, the idea when creating a web site is to keep the image as small as possible.

How to Re size Images Correctly

Most beginners think you can make an image smaller by just clicking and dragging on it, whilst this reduces the dimensions of the image, it fails to reduce the file size. You can reduce the file size of images on most image software downloadable applications, you then simply have to open the image you wish to reduce the size of and select the re-size/re-sample option in order to apply your required dimensions.

How Web Sites Work

The 2 things anyone must have when creating a website is 1) Domain name. 2) Hosting Account.

HTML Files – All web pages are HTML files, a HTML editor is required in order to create your web page i.e. Dreamweaver, Kompozer, Excite Pro.

Whilst creating a web page, if you want the page you are creating to appear when someone types in your domain name, you will need to save that file in your HTML editor- as index.html.

URL’s – An address of absolutely anything online is a URL.

Downloading Files for your Web Sites

Zipped Folders- Zipped folders allow us to download large files/ or a lot of files- with ease. The files inside a Zipped folder are COMPRESSED, meaning the download is quicker. Everything you want to use for your website MUST be saved in the same folder, this is called your PROJECT FOLDER.