To create a home page you need at least:
Internet Assistant is an HTML editor, a tool you can use to compose documents in Web format. You don't need to have an HTML editor to create Web documents, but it helps. HTML files are standard text files which may be created with any text editor, including the Windows Notepad. All common word processing programs, such as Word Perfect and Windows Write may also be used to create text files, but you must save using the Text file type. HTML can become tedious to write, however, and HTML editors greatly simplify this task.
Internet Assistant is only one of many free HTML editors which will turn your Word window into an HTML editor and provide a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. You can create a web document with Word while viewing it as it will look from a Web browser. You then save it as an HTML document letting Word do all the HTML markup for you.
To compose Web documents using Internet Assistant, you'll need to have and know how to use both Microsoft Word 6.0a and the Internet Assistant.
To make your Internet Assistant documents public and viewable from any Web browser on the Internet, they need to reside on a Web server. You get an account on the SIUE Web server when you apply for an SIUE Internet Account. If you want to use the SIUE Web server, you'll also need a file transfer program to move your document files to the server. Alternatively, you can run your own Web server program on your own Internet connected computer. Free, public domain web servers are available for Windows 3.1, 95, NT, and OS/2. See the OIT Tech Training software page.
You will also want a common Web browser, such as Netscape, for testing your documents.
See the following online documentation about HTML at: http://www.siue.edu/TRAINING/wordia/html.htm
Web pages are created using a language called Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. HTML documents are standard ASCII text files which contain the content of your document embedded with tags which mark the beginning and ending of special format options including bold, enlarged font, and underlining. Tags also define the addresses of other linked documents. Any browser may be used to view the HTML source of any currently displayed Web document. To view the source for this document using Netscape, select Document Source from the View menu.
HTML files may be created with any text editor including the Windows Notepad or DOS Edit utility. To learn more about HTML, see A Beginners Guide to HTML at http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html. Once you learn HTML, you'll want to refer to a style guide, such as one at http://www.sun.com/styleguide/, to make your documents easy to use and attractive.
Although HTML is not difficult to learn and use, it can be tedious. HTML editors, such as Internet Assistant, greatly simply HTML composition by allowing you to compose documents using Word and save them in HTML format. Simply put, Internet Assistant will write the HTML for you. As you become more proficient with Web documents, you'll find that HTML editors won't do everything you'd like them to. Until HTML editors become more functional, learning HTML is still worth the effort for those interested in Web page development.