How to create Home Pages
What You Will Need | How It Will Look | Preparing The Text & Images | Registration Form
Preparing the text and images
There are several things you can do to make the text you send us more fun. All these are optional but if you add them in, we will make sure to use them on your page.
When you read text on a web site like this one, you see text and images but what you don't see is the special code used by web designers to format the text. This code is called HTML.
In this section, we will show you how to use some simple HTML to make your pages look more fun by making some words bold or italic and changing the colour of certain words. The chart below shows the different bits of HTML you can use. Each of these is called a "tag" and is enclosed (surrounded) by triangular brackets (<like this>). You can add these tags right in the word processing software that you will use to type up your Home Page text. To see how the text will look on the web, look for the instructions on the Tips & Help page.
HTML Tag |
What It Does |
How To Use It |
|
Makes text bold |
Type a <strong> in front of the word (or group of words) you want bolded and a </strong> after the word(s). |
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Makes text italic |
Type a <em> in front of the word (or group of words) you want italicized and a </em> after the word. |
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Creates a paragraph break |
Type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph and </p> at the end. |
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Creates a link to another web site. |
Type <a href="http://www.websitename.com"> before the word you want to link from and </a> after the word. Replace http://www.websitename.com with the URL of the web site you want to link to. |
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Changes the colour of text. |
Put <font color="blue"> in front of the word you want to change the colour of, and </font> after the word(s). You can replace the word blue with the words red, green, grey, or orange. For more colours, check out the colour chart on this site. |
Example: If you type this:
<strong>This is bolded text</strong>
It will look like this on the web: This is bolded
text
Example: If you type this:
<em>This is italicized text</em>
It will look like this on the web: This is italicized
text
Example: If you type this:
This is a <a href="http://www.ecokids.ca">link</a>
It will look like this on the web: This is a link
Remember, you won't be able to
see the bold text or links as you are typing but if
you want test the page to see how your text will look
in a browser see the Tips
and Help page for instructions and more information
on HTML.
Preparing the Images
We can only accept images saved as a ".gif", ".jpg" or ".bmp". Most graphics software or scanning software is designed to do this easily.
If You Are Scanning
If you are scanning the images, your scanning software can help you save them in the proper format. With some types of scanning software you will find this command in the "File" menu under "Save As." Others call this "Export" or "Export Image" and this is also located in the "File" menu. If your image is a photograph, please save it as a ".jpg". Graphics such as clip-art or scanned children's artwork often look better when saved as a ".gif" or ".bmp".
Scanning Tip
Be sure to check the size of the image. Some scanners will digitize your original to three or four times the original size. Trying to upload a huge image like this may cause problems if you have a slow connection. To avoid very large images, try looking for a "scan resolution" or "image resolution" menu and set it to 100 or 75dpi. (Some scanners may not offer this option but may instead ask you how you will be using the image. In this case choose the "Web" or "Web Graphics" option.)
If You Are Using a Digital Camera
Most digital cameras will output photos in ".jpg" format and at an appropriate size for use on the web. Those that do not, usually allow you to choose "Export" or "Save As" to save the photograph as a ".jpg".
Image Editing Tips For Experts
If you are familiar with graphics software and want to ensure that the images you send us appear exactly the way you want, please crop and save them as follows: 225 x 140 pixels and 70 dpi.
For links to downloadable trial versions of graphics software, see the Tips & Help page.
Are you an HTML expert?
If you or someone in your club already knows HTML you can add more tags to your text than those shown on the left.
Some tags however, may not work on our Home Pages. Tags you are allowed to add are:
- list tags (bullets)
- header tags
- table tags (tables must be less than 300 pixels wide)
Tags that won't work with our Home Pages:
- font size tags
- font type tags (like Arial, or Times)
- page colour tags
- background image tags
If you want to add tags that are not listed here but you are not sure if they will work, please contact us, our webbot, for advice.
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