Advanced 3 - Putting It All Together   Back | Next

Before you upload your page(s) to the web, it is time for a local test. That means, put all the pages, all the images, everything you intend to upload to the web server, in a single file folder on your hard drive. If you have more than one page, name the first one index.html

You should be able to double-click on the index.html and see your first page. You should then click on each of the internal links on your pages and have them take you that page of your web site. Next, you should test all your off-site links to see if they go where you think they do. If they don't, either correct them or eliminate them.

A few final checks - when you click from page to page on your own site, is the "look and feel" consistent, or does it look like you are jumping to different web sites? Consistency from page to page on a single web site is very important. Inconsistency confuses viewers.

How do your pages look in other browsers? If you only have Internet Explorer on your computer, copy your web site folder onto a disk and take it to a computer where you can test it on different browsers such as Netscape and Opera. It should look the same or very nearly the same on each of them. If it does not, you may have more work to do.

Once you think you have it finished, upload it to the web. Very important: Go to the web and view it there - repeat - Go to the web and view it there! You should not be surprised if you forgot to upload an image file or if something else just isn't right. Bookmark your index page so you can check it often. You may be the first one to know if your hosting server goes down.

Send an e-mail to one or two close friends who will be honest with you. In your e-mail, cut and paste the URL of your site from the location bar when you are viewing your index page. Ask for critical comments. Eventually, you will be glad you did. Congratulations. You are now a Webmaster!

The next page will give you some links, and a few comments.

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