Build Your Place in Cyberspace

Step 5: Prepare to move in.

Mindspring offered most of the options I needed, so I signed up for its hosting service. I filled out a few forms online, and an hour later, MindSpring had prepared a Web space for me to move into. Many other Web-hosting services, I discovered, take up to two weeks to make the same arrangements.

Step 6: Assemble your toolkit.

Constructing an attractive yet usable Web site requires the panache of a graphic designer, the diligence of a programmer, and the organizational sense of a Webmaster. I'm a writer, and I have none of these skills. Fortunately, there are software programs that will help me fake them. I had three criteria for choosing a Web-authoring tool:

No HTML required. I tested several packages that would let me create pages without having to mess with HTML, the "hypertext markup language" that controls the look of Web content. So-called "WYSIWYG" ("what you see is what you get") editors let you cut and paste text, photos, and graphics into pages while keeping the underlying HTML code hidden. But I also wanted the flexibility to do some HTML hacking when absolutely necessary.

Easy-does-it site management. I also looked for an "automated site-management" feature, which would allow me to upload changes to my Web site with the push of a button. Furthermore, I wanted the program to look for broken links to other pages and to alert me whenever I linked to a page that no longer existed.

Prefab pages. Finally, I needed a Web-authoring package that had enough prefabricated templates to let me create a less-than-repugnant site in less than two hours. I have better things to do than labor over navigation bars and cutesy animated cartoons.

Step 7: Frame up the site.

After testing nearly a dozen packages, I found that Microsoft's FrontPage 98 best met my requirements for building a Web site. The software walks you through the construction process by asking you to specify a type of site (for example, personal or corporate) and the kinds of pages you wish to include (such as one with a photo or animation, or one with a form for customers to fill out). Using your answers, FrontPage builds the pages for you.

Then, using a canned list of about 30 "themes," you can select a design scheme for graphic elements and background colors. FrontPage applies the scheme to each of the pages, giving the site a consistent look and feel. Every time you make a change, the software automatically corrects the corresponding menus and links, from the first page to the last.

It was almost too easy. I copied in articles that I'd saved as word-processor files, and in just a few seconds, FrontPage converted them into the HTML format. The software even made it easy to drop in a short video clip. That said, I still hit some speed bumps.

Using the preview mode, I soon discovered that many of my subheadings were too long for the template's menu bars. Instead of "Fast Company Articles," I had to settle for "Fast Co. Articles." And when I correctly changed some HTML code, FrontPage would sometimes change it back - despite my best attempts to prevent it from doing so.

Nevertheless, after just two hours of work, I had cobbled together a site that wouldn't embarrass me, and I raised the curtain on j-q.com. Was my work complete? Not exactly. I soon found glitches I needed to fix and colors I just had to change.

Coordinates: $150 for Windows and Macintosh. Microsoft Corp., www.microsoft.com/frontpage

Step 8: Do the finish carpentry.

To fine-tune my site, I turned to a more mature Web-authoring pack-age - Macromedia's Dreamweaver, which would let me make precise adjustments. While Dreamweaver has the WYSIWYG convenience offered by FrontPage, it requires you to do some HTML coding.

Unlike FrontPage, Dream-weaver quickly solved the problems that I had with changing HTML code. It also gave me complete control over the latest DHTML (Dynamic HTML) features. DHTML lets you create headlines, for example, that dance around a Web page - without requiring a visitor to download some special plug-in to view them. As of this writing, DHTML doesn't work exactly the same way in Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Fortunately, Dreamweaver lets you preview your pages in several different versions of each browser, so you can check compatibility before you post your pages to the Web.

Coordinates: $299 for Windows and Macintosh. Macromedia Inc., www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver