Computer And Hot Topics of the World.............: September 2013

Web-page design

When using the Internet’s World Wide Web, don’t be just a looker; be a creator! Create your own Web pages and let everybody else in the world see them!

Angelfire

The easiest way to create your own Web pages is to use a Web site called Angelfire. It’s free!

Angelfire is at www.angelfire.com. It used to be an independent company, but now it’s owned by Lycos. (which also owns a similar site, Tripod, at ww w.tripod.com).

Restrictions

Angelfire lets you create any Web pages you wish, as long as you keep them “clean”, so they don’t contain content or links to anything that’s:

unlawful, harmful, hateful, harassing, stalking, or containing viruses

defamatory, libelous, ethnically objectionable, or pirated (copied without permission)

privacy-invading (or vulgar or pornographic), especially if involving minors or viewable by minors

required to stay private (by copyright laws or an employer’s nondisclosure agreement)

selling explosives, weapons, securities, or non-existent goods

selling alcohol, tobacco, controlled drugs (or pharmaceuticals), or unpackaged food

advertising gambling (or raffles requiring a fee) or pyramid schemes

Unfortunately, Angelfire will automatically put an ad on your Web page and restrict you (to 20 megabytes of Angelfire’s disk space, with a limit of 1 gigabyte of transfers per month between Angelfire’s disk and people viewing your Web page), unless you pay extra (to get a fancier plan):

Get your own .com,

Plan’s name Cost Disk space Bandwidth Forced ad? such as joe.com?x

Free free 20M 1G/month yes no

Entry $1/month 40M 2G/month yes no

Basic $3/month 100M 5G/month no no

THE Plan $10/month 5G 1T/month no yes

Create an account

Using your Web browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer), go to www.angelfire.com. Click “Try It Now for Free!” then “Sign up for one of these plans today!” (which you see when you scroll down).

Click in the “Your New Website” box. Your Website will be named “http://______.angelfire.com”. Invent a name to put in the blank. The name cannot contain capital letters or spaces: it must be made of just lower-case letters, digits, dashes, and periods. Type the name you invented (such as “secretguide”) then click in the Password box. If the name you invented is okay, the computer says “User name Available”; otherwise the computer says “User name Unavailable” (probably because somebody else picked that name) and you must try again to pick a name.

Next, invent a password (which must be at least 6 characters long, with no spaces). Type the password in the Password box, press the Tab key, type the password again, click “Next”, and click “Next” again.

The computer will say “Welcome”. Answer the questions about your birthday, security, usage, gender, and newsletters, then click “Confirm”.

Angelfire Customer Service will send you an e-mail whose subject is “Welcome to Angelfire”. Find it in your e-mail’s Inbox. Click the first link in the e-mail.

The computer will say “Your account has been activated”. Click “Start Building Now” then “Create a New Website”.

Change the text

You’re using a Website-creation program called Webon (pronounced “web on”). It shows a Web page containing 5 blocks of text. In each block of text, switch those words to your words. Here’s how to do that:

Drag across the first block of text, which says “MY WEBSITE”. Type whatever heading you want instead, such as “JOAN’S HOME PAGE”. Your typing will be automatically capitalized.

Drag across the second block of text, which says “My website’s subheading”. Type whatever subheading you want instead, such as “Made with love”.

Drag across the third block of text, which begins “This is your main content section. You should delete…” Type the main message you want instead, such as “I was born yesterday. I want to die.”

Drag across the fourth block of text, which begins “This is your sidebar. This sidebar is…” Type the sidebar message you want instead, such as “We won’t reply to e-mails addressed to my goldfish.”

Scroll down to see the fifth block of text, which begins “This is your footer. You can delete…” Drag across that block of text, then type the footer you want instead, such as “Copyright by a wronged woman.”

Format the text

You can easily format the text in blocks 3, 4, and 5. To do that, drag across the phrase you want to change (so the phrase temporarily appears in white letters on a blue background), then do one of these things:

Click one of the formatting buttons: Bold, Italic, Underline, Align Left, Align Center, Align Justify, Align Right, Ordered List (which means a numbered list), or Unordered List (which means a bulleted list).

For the Font Size box (which normally says “12px”, which means 12 pixels high), click its down-arrow then click a different number of pixels instead. Your choices are 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 28, 32, 36, 48, and 72.

For the Font box (which normally says “Arial”), click its down-arrow then click a different font instead. Your choices are Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Georgia, Trebuchet, Courier New, Tahoma, Palatino Linotype, Impact, and Comic Sans.

For the Color box (which is normally black), click its down-arrow then click a different font color instead. The phrase will appear in the new color when you finish highlighting the phrase: click elsewhere.

For the Background Color Box (which says “BG” and is normally white), click its down-arrow then click a different background color instead. The phrase will have the new background color when you finish highlighting the phrase: click elsewhere.

Notice that to format a phrase, you must drag across the phrase beforehand. For example, if you want a phrase to be bold, you must drag across the phrase before you click the Bold button.

Undo

If you make a typing mistake, here’s how to undo it: while holding down the Ctrl key, tap the Z key.

That method undoes your last typing mistake, but it can’t undo your last two typing mistakes, and it can’t undo formatting. If you format a phrase wrong, format it again correctly.

Change the style

You’ve been using a style called Working Comp. To use a different style instead, click “Styles” (which is at the screen’s top). You start seeing a list of 152 styles, in alphabetical order. To see the rest of the list, click “Next” several times. To go back toward the list’s beginning, click “Previous” several times. If a style interests you, put the mouse pointer on it without clicking; then you see a slightly larger picture of the style.

Click whichever style you like. Then you see the words you wrote, reformatted to fit in that style.

If you don’t like that style, try clicking “Revert”, which takes you back to a style you used before (such as Working Comp).

When you’ve finished picking a style, click “Text” (which is near the screen’s top-left corner).

Add links

Here’s how to make the phrase “house hunting” be underlined and link to www.realtor.com:

Type “house hunting”. Drag across that phrase (so it’s highlighted). Click “Link”. Click after the “http://”. Type “www.realtor.com”. Click the green “Create” button.

This book was written by Russ Walter, whose e-mail address is Russ@SecretFun.com. Here’s how to make your Web page let people send an e-mail to Russ Walter, by clicking “write to Russ”:

Type “write to Russ”. Drag across that phrase (so it’s highlighted). Click “Link” then the down-arrow then “an e-mail address”. Press the Tab key. Type the e-mail address “Russ@SecretFun.com”. Click the green “Create” button.

Then when a person accesses your Web page, “write to Russ” will be underlined. If the person clicks “write to Russ”, the computer will automatically run the person’s e-mail client program (such as Outlook Express), automatically click “Create Mail”, automatically type “Russ@SecretFun.com” in the “To” box, and wait for the person to type an e-mail message to Russ.

Final steps

When you finish editing your Website, click “Save” (which is near the screen’s top-right corner) then “Publish” (which is next to “Save”) then “Publish to the main page of the site” then the green “Publish” button. The computer says, “Congratulations! Your site was published…”

If you want to edit further, click “Keep Working”; otherwise, exit by doing this:

Click “Back to Angelfire” then “logout” (which is near the screen’s top-right corner).

Edit your site

To edit a Website you created before, do this:

Go to www.angelfire.com. Click “Login” (which is at the top). Type your user name (such as “secretguide”), press the Tab key, type your password, then click the green “Log In” button. Click “Edit” (which is below “Create a New Website”).

You see your Website. Edit it, then do the “Final steps” procedure again.

Extra pages

Here’s how to put extra pages onto your Website.

While you’re editing the first page you created, click “Pages” (which is at the top) then the “Create a new page” icon. (That icon is near the screen’s top-left corner, under “Text”, and shows a single sheet of paper with a green plus sign.)

Invent a title for the page (such as “My Family”); type it and press Enter.

Now the screen’s left edge shows you have 2 pages. The first page (which you created before) was automatically called “Home”. If the new page you’re creating is called “My Family”, the screen’s left edge shows this list of pages:

1. Home

2. My Family

If you want to create a 3^rd page, click the “Create a new page” icon again, type the new page’s title (such as “Our Friends”) and press Enter again, so the screen’s left edge looks like this:

1. Home

2. My Family

3. Our Friends

The screen’s bottom is still devoted to showing what you typed on page 1. To switch your view to page 2 or page 3, click the page’s name in that list of pages, then click the “Jump to a page” icon (which is a sheet of paper with a green arrow). That makes the screen’s bottom show the page you requested. The heading you requested is at the screen’s top and has the page name you invented. There’s no subheading. The sidebar is at the left instead of the right. The main content section, sidebar, and footer are all blank, waiting for you to type your words there. Below the heading you also see this navigation bar —

HOME MY FAMILY OUR FRIENDS

which your readers can click on to jump from page to page, after you’ve finished creating your Website.

To see normal editing tools again (such as the Bold button), click “Text” (which is near the screen’s top-left corner).

HTML

Every page on the Internet’s Web is written in a computer language called the HyperText Markup Language (HTML).

Warning: if someone claims to know “HTML”, it could mean “HyperText Markup Language” or “How To Make Love”. Ask which!

HTML uses these commands:

HTML command Ending Page

<a href=…> </a> 288

<a name=joys> </a> 289

<b> </b> 286

<big> </big> 286

<body> </body> 287

<body bgcolor=red> </body> 289

<br> 287

<font color=red> </font> 289

<font face=Arial> </font> 287

<font size=5> </font> 286

<form method=…> </form> 291

<h1> </h1> 286

<head> </head> 287

<html> </html> 287

<i> </i> 285

<input name=city> 291

<input type=button> 603

<input type=submit> 291

<li> 287

<link rel=…> 290

<ol> </ol> 288

<p> 286

<pre> </pre> 288

<small> </small> 286

<sub> </sub> 286

<sup> </sup> 286

<table border=1> </table> 288

<td> 288

<th> 288

<title> </title> 286

<tr> 288

<tt> </tt> 286

<ul> </ul> 288

<!DOCTYPE HTML …> 287

291

HTML uses these styles:

Style command Page

body {background:yellow} 289

body {color:red} 289

body {font-size:13pt} 289

h1 {color:blue} 290

h1 {font-size:40pt} 290

h1 {text-align:center} 290

p {margin-bottom:0} 290

p {margin-top:0} 290

p {text-indent:2em} 290

:hover {color:navy} 290

:link {color:green} 290

:visited {color:fuchsia} 290

Simple example

Suppose you want to create a Web page that says:

We love you

Notice that the word “love” is italicized (slanted).

To create that Web page, write this HTML program:

We <i>love</i> you

Here’s what that program means:

The <i> is an HTML tag that means “italics”. Each HTML tag is enclosed in the symbols <>, which are called angle brackets.

The </i> is an HTML tag that means “end the italics”, because the symbol / means “end the”. The <i> shows where to begin the italics; the </i> shows where to end the italics.

To type that program, you can use two free methods: Notepad or Angelfire. I’ll explain both.

Typing in Notepad

If your computer contains Windows, the easiest way to type that HTML program is to use Notepad, as follows.…

Launch Notepad. Here’s how:

Click Start then All Programs then Accessories then Notepad. You see the Notepad window.

Make the Notepad window consume the screen’s bottom right quarter. Here’s how:

If the Notepad window is maximized (consumes the whole screen), make the window smaller by clicking the restore button (which is next to the X button).

Drag the window’s bottom right corner to the screen’s bottom right corner. Drag the window’s top right corner to the screen’s center. Then the window consumes the screen’s bottom right quarter.

Make Notepad do word wrapping. Here’s how:

Click “Format”. You see “Word Wrap”. If there’s no check mark in front of “Word Wrap”, put a check mark there (by clicking “Word Wrap”).

Click in the middle of the Notepad window. Type the HTML program, like this:

We <i>love</i> you

Save the program Save the program onto your desktop, and give it a name that ends in “.html”. Here’s how:

Click “File” then “Save”.

Click the word “Desktop” at the screen’s left edge. For Windows 7, click in the “File name” box.

Type any name ending in “.html” (such as “joan.html”); to be safe, use just small letters (no capitals, no spaces). Press Enter.

Your program’s icon arrives on the desktop but might be covered by the Notepad window. Move the Notepad window (by dragging its blue title bar) until you see your program’s icon.

The icon has an “e” on it. The “e” means the program works with Microsoft Internet Explorer. It works with Microsoft Internet Explorer because the program is written in HTML and ends in .html.

Run the program Double-click your program’s icon. That makes the computer run your program. (If a “Connect To” window appears, click “Cancel” once or twice, to make the “Connect To” window go away.)

If your computer’s been set up properly (to use Microsoft Internet Explorer as the main Web browser), you’ll see a Microsoft Internet Explorer window that shows the result of running your program; it shows a Web page that says:

We love you

Edit the program If you typed and ran the program recently, here’s how to edit it.

At the screen’s bottom, to the right of the Start button, you see a wide button for Notebook. Click it. That makes the Notebook window appear and be the active window. Then make any changes you wish to your HTML program. For example, if you want the Web page to say “We tickle you”, change “love” to “tickle” (by dragging across “love” and then typing “tickle”).

Go ahead: make that change and any other changes you wish! Experiment! Go wild!

After you’ve edited the program, save the edited version (by clicking “File” then “Save”).

To run that program, click in the Microsoft Internet Explorer window (which hides behind the Notepad window), so the Microsoft Internet Explorer window becomes the active window. Then click the Refresh button, which makes Microsoft Internet Explorer re-examine your program and run your program’s new version.

Edit old programs Here’s how to edit an old program that you haven’t typed or run recently.

Find the program’s icon on the desktop. Right-click that icon. Click “Open with” then do this:

Windows XP & Vista: click “Notepad”.

Windows 7: if you see “Notepad”, click it; otherwise, do the following.… Click “Choose default program”. Remove the check mark from “Always use the selected program” (by clicking). Click the down-arrow to the right of “Other Programs”. Scroll down until you see “Notepad” then double-click “Notepad”.

Make the Notepad window consume the screen’s bottom right quarter. Make Notepad do word wrapping.

Then you see your HTML program. Edit it. When you finish editing, click “File” then “Save”.

Typing in Angelfire

Here’s how to type an HTML program by using Angelfire instead of Notepad.…

Go to www.angelfire.com. Start creating a Web page, using the methods I described on pages 283-284.

While you’re typing & editing the main content section, click “Add-ons” (which is at the top). You see 27 add-ons. Drag “Custom HTML” (which is the last add-on) until it’s below the typing in the main content section and is in the middle of a big black box that suddenly appears.

After several seconds, the computer says this sentence:

Click the “Edit” Link to add HTML to this space.

Move the mouse pointer to that sentence, without clicking. Then above that sentence, you see “Edit”. Click that “Edit”.

The computer says this sentence:

Paste or write your custom HTML in the box below.

In the box below that sentence, drag across the sentence that’s already there (which begins with “<p>”) then type your HTML program instead. For example, type:

We <i>love</i> you

When you finish typing your program in the box, click the green “Save” button (which you must scroll down to see).

Then you see a box showing the result of your programming:

We love you

If you want to edit your program further, move the mouse pointer to that box (without clicking), then click the “Edit” above that box, then edit your program further, then click the green “Save” button again (after scrolling down to see it).

Simple HTML commands

Here are simple HTML commands you can give.

Italicize To make a phrase be italicized (like this), type <i> before the phrase; type </i> after the phrase.

Bold To make a phrase be bold (like this), type <b> before the phrase; type </b> after the phrase. To make a phrase be bold italic (like this), type <b><i> before the phrase; type </i></b> after the phrase.

Paragraph If your document contains more than one paragraph, put <p> at the beginning of each paragraph. For example, if you want a paragraph to begin by saying “Motherhood is maddening!”, begin the paragraph by typing this:

<p>Motherhood is maddening!

At the end of each paragraph, press the Enter key twice. Then when you run the program, the computer will put a blank line below each paragraph.

Title To create a title, type <title> before it and </title> after it. For example, to make your title say “Joan’s Home Page”, type this:

When you run the program, the computer will put the title in the blue title bar at the Web page’s top.

Fonts

You learned to italicize by saying <i> and </i>, and to create bold by saying <b> and </b>. Here are other ways to change the text’s font….

Size You can make the computer can produce text in 7 sizes. Font size 1 is the smallest; Font size 7 is the biggest. Here’s how big they are:

This is font size 1. It is 8 points tall.

This is font size 2. It is 10 points tall.

This is font size 3. It is 12 points tall.

This is font size 4. It is 14 points tall.

This is font size 5. It is 18 points tall.

This is font size 6, 24 points tall.

Font size 7, 36 points.

That’s how big the font sizes and point size look on paper and a 14-inch monitor. (On a slightly bigger monitor, the font sizes and point sizes look slightly bigger.)

Normally, the computer makes your Web page have font size 3. To make a phrase be font size 5, say <font size=5> before the phrase; say </font> after the phrase.

You can make part of a phrase be one size bigger, by saying <big> before that part and saying </big> after that part. For example, if the computer is making a phrase be font size 5 because you said <font size=5>, you can make part of that phrase be slightly bigger (font size 6) by saying <big> before that part and saying </big> after that part. To make part of a phrase be one size smaller, say <small> before that part and say </small> after that part.

If you said <font size=7> and then try to say <big>, the computer will ignore the <big>, since the computer can’t go bigger than font size 7. If you said <font size=1> and then try to say <small>, the computer will ignore the <small>, since the computer can’t go smaller than font size 1.

To make a phrase be subscript (_{like this}), say <sub> before the phrase, </sub> afterwards. To make a phrase be superscript (^{like this}), say <sup> before the phrase, </sup> afterwards.

Heading To create a heading (such as a chapter title or a newspaper headline), say <h1> at the heading’s beginning and </h1> at the heading’s end, like this —

<h1>Chapter 2: Laura giggles at death</h1>

or like this:

<h1>USA declares war on hangnails</h1>

To do that, make sure you type the symbol “<”, then the letter “h”, then the number one, then the symbol “>”, then the rest.

The <h1> makes the computer automatically create a new paragraph in font size 6 and bold. Saying <h1> is similar to saying <p><font size=6><b>.

If you want the heading to be centered (instead of at the screen’s left edge), say <h1 align=center> instead of just <h1>.

If you say <h2> instead of <h1>, the computer will make the font size slightly smaller (5 instead of 6), so you’ll be creating a “less dramatic heading”, a subheading. If you say <h2> at the heading’s beginning, say </h2> at the heading’s end.

You can create headings in 6 sizes:

<h1> produces font size 6

<h2> produces font size 5

<h3> produces font size 4

<h4> produces font size 3

<h5> produces font size 2

<h6> produces font size 1

To create a heading in font size 7, say <h1><big> at the heading’s beginning, and say </big></h1> at the heading’s end.

Tt Normally, the computer makes the text’s typeface be Times New Roman (which looks like this). If you want a phrase’s typeface to be Courier New (which looks like this and imitates a typewriter and a Teletype), say <tt> before the phrase, </tt> afterwards.

Arial If you want a phrase’s typeface to be Arial (which looks like this), say <font face=Arial> before the phrase, </font> afterwards.

If you want a phrase to be font size 7 and Arial, say <font size=7 face=Arial> before the phrase; </font> afterwards.

Compliance

If you want to create a Web page whose title is “Joan’s Home Page” and whose body says “We love you”, you can write this HTML program:

We <i>love</i> you

Although that program works with most versions of most Web browsers, you’re supposed to add some extra lines, for 3 reasons:

to help other programmers understand your program

to make sure the program works with all browsers

to prevent getting fired from your programming job

Head & body You’re supposed to divide the program into two parts. The first part, called the head, begins with <head> and ends with </head> and includes the title. The second part, called the body, begins with <body> and ends with </body> and includes the paragraphs. So your program should look like this:

<head>

</head>

<body>

We <i>love</i> you

</body>

(If you’re typing into the middle of an Angelfire page, do not type a head, since Angelfire gave the page a head already.)

The <html> warning To make your program even better, you’re supposed to begin the whole program by saying <html> and end the whole program by saying </html>, to emphasize that the whole program is written in HTML rather than a different computer language. So your program should look like this:

<html>

<head>

</head>

<body>

We <i>love</i> you

</body>

</html>

Is code compliant? You should include all those extra lines — <head>, </head>, <body>, </body>, <html>, and </html> — to make your program comply with the standards that people expect. Those lines help make your program be compliant.

I usually don’t bother including those lines, since I’m my own boss; but if you’re employed, you should include those lines to keep your job.

Title To be compliant, your program must include a <title> line.

DOCTYPE To be compliant, you’re supposed to also put this line at your program’s top, above the <html> line:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

That line brags that your program document is of this type: it obeys the HTML standard, which is publicly available from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), using the document type definition (DTD) for HTML version 4.01 — except that you’re letting yourself include some older HTML commands also, to be transitional and help older Web browsers understand your Web page; and you’re doing all this in English (EN).

Actually, you’re supposed to include another line below that, saying what Web site reveals the HTML 4 and 4.01 specifications; so your program is supposed to begin like this:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"

"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

Hardly anybody bothers to include those two lines about DOCTYPE. For example, Yahoo’s Web site (www.yahoo.com) and Microsoft’s Web site (www.microsoft.com) omit both lines.

Even the inventors of HTML 4.01 don’t bother including the second line in their own Web pages.

XHTML HTML 4.01 was invented in 1999. Now committees are working to develop fancier programming language, called the eXtensible HTML (XHTML), which is influenced by the eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

If you want to be compliant with XHTML, adopt these habits:

In commands, use small letters (such as <p>) instead of capitals (such as <P>).

At the end of each paragraph, say </p>.

After each equal sign, put quotation marks; so instead of saying <font size=5>, say <font size="5">.

In XHTML, the top lines say:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

"DTD/xhtml/1-transitional.dtd">

Lists

If you want your Web page to contain a simple list, say <br> at the beginning of each list item.

For example, suppose you want your Web page to say:

Here are the favorite flavors:

chocolate

vanilla

strawberry

To do that, say <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, <br> at the beginning of each list item, like this:

<p>Here are the favorite flavors:

<br>chocolate

<br>vanilla

<br>strawberry

The <br> stands for “break out a new line”.

In XHTML, instead of saying <br> you must say <br /> and make sure to put a blank space before the slash.

Bullets Suppose you want your list to show bullets, like this:

Here are the favorite flavors:

• chocolate

• vanilla

• strawberry

To do that, say <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, <li> at the beginning of each list item, like this:

<p>Here are the favorite flavors:

<li>chocolate

<li>vanilla

<li>strawberry

Suppose you want the bullets to be indented, with a space above the list, like this:

Here are the favorite flavors:

• chocolate

• vanilla

• strawberry

To do that, say <ul> above the list, </ul> below the list, like this:

<p>Here are the favorite flavors:

<ul>

<li>chocolate

<li>vanilla

<li>strawberry

</ul>

The <ul> stands for “unordered list”. When you type <ul>, make sure you press the U and L keys on your keyboard (not the number one).

The <ul> accomplishes two goals:

It makes the list be indented.

It makes your program be compliant.

(A list without <ul> is not compliant.)

In XHTML, the end of each list item must say </li>.

Numbers Suppose you want your list to be numbered, like this:

Here are the favorite flavors:

1. chocolate

2. vanilla

3. strawberry

To do that, say <ol> above the list, </ol> below the list, like this:

<p>Here are the favorite flavors:

<ol>

<li>chocolate

<li>vanilla

<li>strawberry

</ol>

The <ol> stands for “ordered list”. When you type <ol>, make sure you press the O and L keys on your keyboard.

Tables

You can create a simple table or a fancy table.

Simple table Here’s how to create a simple table:

Tell the computer the text is preformatted, by saying <pre>. Then type the table, by using the Space bar and Enter key to line up the columns. Below the table, say </pre>.

For example, suppose you want your Web page to say:

Here are the bowling scores:

NAME SCORE

Jacqueline 200

Ann 137

Ed 75

To do that, say <pre> above the table and </pre> below the table, like this:

<p>Here are the bowling scores:

<pre>

NAME SCORE

Jacqueline 200

Ann 137

Ed 75

</pre>

The <pre> makes the computer use Courier New, as if you had typed <tt>. Courier New is a convenient font for tables, because it makes every character and space have the same width, so you can easily align the table’s columns by pressing the Space bar several times.

The <pre> also makes the computer copy each Enter and Space onto the Web page, unedited. (If you don’t say <pre>, the computer turns each Enter into a Space and turns each pair of Spaces into a single Space.)

Fancy table Let’s create a fancy table, so the Web page says:

Here are the bowling scores:

NAME	SCORE
Jacqueline	200
Ann	137
Ed	75

To do that, say <table border=1> above the table, <tr> at the beginning of each table row, <th> at the beginning of each column heading, <td> at the beginning of each data item, and </table> below the table, like this:

<p>Here are the bowling scores:

<tr><th>NAME<th>SCORE

<tr><td>Jacqueline<td>200

<tr><td>Ann<td>137

<tr><td>Ed<td>75

</table>

The computer automatically makes the columns wide enough to hold their headings and data. The computer automatically makes the column headings be bold and centered.

The border=1 makes the table have a normal border. If you say border=12 instead, the table’s outer border will be much thicker and shaded, forming a beautiful 3-D picture frame that makes the table seem to pop out from the screen and into the human’s face. Try it! You’ll impress your friends!

Links

You learned:

To make a phrase be italicized, say <i> before the phrase, </i> afterwards.

To make a phrase be bold, say <b> before the phrase, </b> afterwards.

Link to other Web sites To make the phrase “house hunting” be underlined and link to www.realtor.com, say this:

<a href=http://www.realtor.com>house hunting</a>

Notice that before “house hunting”, you say what
“house hunting” is linked to, by saying
<a href=http://www.realtor.com>, which means “anchor (link) with a hypertext reference to http://www.realtor.com”. After “house hunting”, say </a>.

Make sure you include the “http://”. If you omit that, the link doesn’t work.

Don’t insert extra spaces. For example, don’t insert a space after “http:”; don’t insert a space after “//”.

Most text on your Web page is black (on a white background). Links are underlined and typically blue; but that if the link refers to a Web page that was visited recently, the link turns purple (instead of blue).

Link to your own Web pages To make the phrase “funny jokes” be underlined and link to Web page you created and called “jokes.html”, say this:

<a href=jokes.html>funny jokes</a>

That works just if you earlier invented a Web page named jokes.html and put it on the same disk and in the same folder as the new Web page you’re inventing. For example, if you’re inventing a new Web page on your hard disk’s Desktop, jokes.html must also be a Web page on your hard disk’s Desktop.

Suppose you create a Web page that’s too long to fit on the screen, so when a human tries to read the page the human must scroll down. To let the human avoid scrolling, do this: near the page’s beginning, put a table of contents that links to later parts of the page. Here’s how. To make the phrase “my joys” be underlined and link to a part of the page that discusses your joys, say this:

Tell the computer which part of your page discusses your joys, by beginning that part like this:

Link to e-mail This book was written by Russ Walter, whose e-mail address is Russ@SecretFun.com. On your Web page, you can let people write to Russ Walter. Here’s how.…

To make the phrase “write to Russ” be underlined and link to creating an e-mail to “Russ@SecretFun.com”, say this:

<a href=mailto:Russ@SecretFun.com>write to Russ</a>

Then when a person accesses your Web page, “write to Russ” will be underlined. If the person clicks “write to Russ”, the computer will automatically run the person’s e-mail client program (such as Outlook Express), automatically click “Create Mail”, automatically type “Russ@SecretFun.com” in the “To” box, and then wait for the person to type an e-mail message to Russ.

Try it! Go put that in your Web page, run your Web page, and write an e-mail to Russ! If you don’t know what to say in the e-mail, just say, “Hi, Russ, I’m testing my Web page’s e-mail link to you.”

Be brave! Let people accessing your Web page write an e-mail to you. For example, if your name is Joan Smith and your e-mail address is “jSmith@SecretFun.com”, say this:

<a href=mailto:jSmith@SecretFun.com>write to Joan Smith</a>

Custom colors

You can change colors.

Change a phrase Normally, the computer makes your text be black. To make a phrase be red, say <font color=red> before the phrase; say </font> after the phrase.

The computer knows the names of 16 colors:

Light color Dark color

red maroon (dark red)

blue navy (dark blue)

aqua (greenish blue) teal (dark aqua)

lime (bright green) green (darker than lime)

fuchsia (bright purple) purple (darker than fuchsia)

silver (light gray) gray (darker than silver)

yellow olive (dark yellow, looks greenish brown)

white black

If you want a phrase to be font size 7 and red, say
<font size=7 color=red> before the phrase; say </font> after the phrase.

Change the whole Web page On a normal Web page, the background is white, the text is black, each typical link is blue, and each viewed link is purple.

Your program is supposed to be divided into two parts, called <head> and <body>. Instead of saying just <body>, you can say:

That makes the background be yellow, the text be red, each typical link be green, and each viewed link be fuchsia. Choose any colors you wish, from the list of 16 colors.

Usually, the background should be a light color (such as white or yellow) and the text should be a dark color (such as black). If you want to be shockingly different, do the reverse: make the background be a dark color (such as black or navy) and make the text be a light color (such as white or yellow). For example, try this:

Warning: the human eye gets dizzy when it sees red next to blue, so don’t choose “red text on a blue background” or “blue text on a red background”. If you make the mistake of choosing those combinations, the people viewing your Web site will get dizzy and fall asleep without reading your words. Your Web site will put them into a hypnotic trance. The human eye also has difficulty reading red (or maroon) next to black.

Style sheets

To change the appearance of your whole Web page, create a style sheet.

For example, suppose you want red characters on a yellow background. You learned you can do that by changing <body> to this:

Here’s a better way: in your <head> section, below the <title>, say this:

<style>

body {color:red; background:yellow}

</style>

That creates this style: throughout the body, make the text color be red, the background yellow. That makes most of the text be red (though normal links will still be blue underlined and the viewed links will still be purple underlined). When you type the second line, make sure you type braces, which look like this: {}. Don’t type parentheses, which look like this: ().

Normally, the text is font size 3, which is 12 points. If you want the text to be slightly bigger (so people can read it more easily), request a bigger point size, such as 13 points, by saying font-size=13pt, like this:

<style>

body {color:red; background:yellow; font-size:13pt}

</style>

That makes most text get bigger, but headings will be unchanged. For example, <h1> headings will still be font size 6 (which is 24 points).

Should you use style sheets? Style sheets were invented recently. They’re new, hip, cool, and recommended.

For example, to get a yellow background, you ought to say background:yellow in the style sheet, rather than bgcolor=yellow in the <body>.

Using style sheets is recommended. Giving older types of commands, such as bgcolor=yellow, is deprecated (which means “pooh-poohed”).

But many people still use older types of commands, such as bgcolor=yellow, since they work even on old computers whose browsers were invented before style sheets.

Links You can change the color of links:

<style>

body {color:red; background:yellow}

:link {color:green} x

:visited {color:fuchsia}

:hover {color:navy} x

</style>

That makes most links be green, recently visited links be fuchsia, and each link temporarily turn navy while the mouse hovers over it.

Headers You learned that you can create big headers by saying <h1>, smaller headers by saying <h2>, and even smaller headers by saying <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>. Normally, headers are the same color as the body text. For example, if you made the body text be red, the headers are automatically red also.

To make <h1> headers be blue and all other headers be maroon, say so in the style sheet, like this:

<style>

body {color:red; background:yellow}

:link {color:green}

:visited {color:fuchsia}

:hover {color:navy}

h1 {color:blue}

h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {color:maroon}

</style>

To make <h1> headers be blue and also centered (instead of at the screen’s left edge), make the style sheet’s h1 line be this:

h1 {color:blue; text-align:center}

Frankly, I hope you don’t choose those colors! Your Web page will be too wild if you actually make the body text red, the background yellow, the links green, the visited links fuchsia, the hovered links navy, the big headings blue, and the smaller headings maroon. Choose more reasonable colors.

Normally, <h1> headers are font size 6, which is 24 points. To make <h1> headers be even bigger, give a bigger point size, such as by saying:

h1 {color:blue; text-align:center; font-size:40pt}

Paragraphs You learned to put <p> at the beginning of each paragraph. Normally, the <p> makes the computer put a blank line above the paragraph. If you want the computer to omit the blank line and indent the paragraph’s first word, put this line in your style sheet:

p {text-indent:2em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0}

Sharing Several Web pages can share a style sheet. Here’s how.

Using Notepad, create the style sheet, but omit the <style> and </style> lines. For example, create this style sheet:

body {color:red; background:yellow}

Save it on your Desktop, but give it a name that ends in .css (which stands for Cascading Style Sheet) instead of .html. For example, name it mystyle.css.

Then create your Web pages; but on each Web page, tell the computer to use the style sheet you created (mystyle.css), by putting this line in the <head> part of the Web page:

That tells the computer to create a link, related to your style sheet, which is located at the HTTP reference “mystyle.css”.

Upload

To let the public use your Web page, make sure your Web page is on the Internet. Here’s how.

If you created the Web page by using Angelfire’s Webon, make sure you published your page (by clicking the blue “Save” and “Publish” buttons at Webon’s top-right corner).

If you created the Web page by using Notepad, you must upload your page (copy it from your computer’s hard disk to an Internet-connected hard disk). To upload your page, you need permission from a Web host, which will usually charge you a monthly fee. For example, you can upload to Angelfire if you pay Angelfire $1 per month to get Angelfire’s Entry service (which is better than Angelfire’s Free service). If you’ve upgraded to Angelfire’s Entry service, here’s how to copy your Web page to Angelfire’s hard disk:

Using your Web browser, go to “www.angelfire.com”. Click “Login” (which is at the top). Type your user name (such as “secretguide”), press the Tab key, type your password, then click the green “Log In” button. Click “Upload Files” (which is at the screen’s center and isn’t included in the Free version). Click the first “Browse” button.

You see a list of files that are on your computer’s hard disk. Double-click the file you want to upload, such as “joan”. (If you don’t see that file in the list, try making it appear by clicking the word “Desktop” and using the scroll arrows.)

Click the green “Upload” button (which you see when you scroll down).

That file will now be on Angelfire’s disk. For example, if your user name is “secretguide” and the file was joan.html, it’s now available on the Internet as “http://secretguide.angelfire.com/joan.html”. If the file was index.html, it’s now available on the Internet as “http://secretguide.angelfire.com/index.html” or more simply as “http://secretguide.angelfire.com” (since “index.html” is your main page).

If your Web page includes links to other files (such as other Web pages you created and style sheets), make sure you upload those files also.

If you’re too cheap to pay Angelfire $1 per month, try this crude trick:

Create a free Web page by using Angelfire’s Webon. On that page, start the processing of typing your own HTML, as I explained in the section called “Typing in Angelfire”. But instead of typing lots of HTML there, copy your typing from Notepad to there (by dragging across the HTML you typed in Notepad, then pressing Ctrl with C, then clicking in Angelfire’s HTML editing box, then pressing Ctrl with V).

FTP The typical ISP lets you also copy your Web page to your ISP’s hard disk by using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). For example, if your ISP is Galaxy Internet Services (GIS), here’s how to copy your Web page to GIS’s hard disk:

Click “Start” then “Programs”.

Click “MS-DOS Prompt”. The computer will say:

C:\WINDOWS>

That should be in a black window that does not consume the whole screen. (If the window consumes the whole screen, so you see no colors, make the window smaller by tapping the Enter key while holding down the Alt key.)

Type “ftp” and then the name of your ISP’s FTP site. For example, GIS’s FPT site is called “ftp.gis.net”, so you’d type “ftp ftp.gis.net”, to make your screen looks like this:

C:\WINDOWS>ftp ftp.gis.net

At the end of that line, press Enter.

If you’re not connected to the Internet at the moment, the computer might ask you to type your password. Do so and press Enter.

The ISP’s computer will say “FTP server” and then “User”. Type the user name that the ISP assigned you (such as “poo”) and press Enter.

The ISP’s computer will say “Password”. Type the password that the ISP assigned you and press Enter.

The ISP’s computer will say “logged in” and then say:

ftp>

Now you’re using the ISP’s operating system, which is Unix. You can type Unix commands. At the end of each Unix command, press the Enter key. (For example, just for fun, type the Unix command “dir” and press Enter: you’ll see a list of files about you on the ISP’s hard disk; each file’s name is in the rightmost column. If you’d like to see a list of other Unix commands, type “help” or a question mark and press Enter. To see a command’s purpose, type “help” then a space then the command’s name, then press Enter.)

If you haven’t done so already, make a directory (folder) called “public_html” on the ISP’s hard disk by typing “mkdir public_html” (and press Enter).

Next, tell the computer to send (copy) the Desktop’s joan.html file to the ISP’s public_html folder. To accomplish that, type so your screen looks like this:

ftp> send Desktop/joan.html public_html/joan.html

The computer typed the “ftp> ”, but you must type the rest. Type it very carefully! Type forward slashes (/) not backslashes (\), since Unix understands just forward slashes. Type a space after “send” and a space before “public”; those are the only spaces you type. After “public”, type an underline (by holding down the Shift key while you tap the key that’s right of the zero key).

The computer will copy the file and say “Transfer complete”.

When you finish using FTP, type “quit” or “bye” and press Enter. The computer will quit using FTP and quit using Unix and say “C:\WINDOWS>”. Then close the black window by clicking its X box.

That file will now be on the ISP’s disk. For example, if the file was joan.html, it’s now available on the Internet as “www.gis.net/~poo/joan.html. If the file was index.html, it’s now available on the Internet as www.gis.net/~poo/index.html or simply as “www.gis.net/~poo” or even more simply as “gis.net/~poo”. (The symbol “~” is at your keyboard’s top left corner, above the Tab key, and requires you to hold down the Shift key.)

If your Web page includes links to other files (such as other Web pages you created and style sheets), make sure you upload those files also.

Special symbols

To put special symbols onto your Web page, type these codes:

Symbol Symbol’s name Code you type

® registered ®

™ trademark ™

¢ cent ¢

£ British pound £

¥ Japanese yen ¥

¼ fraction 1/4 ¼

½ fraction 1/2 ½

¾ fraction 3/4 ¾

¿ inverted question ¿

¡ inverted exclamation ¡

¹ superscript 1 ¹

² superscript 2 ²

³ superscript 3 ³

< less than <

> greater than >

& ampersand &

é e acute é

É E acute É

(similar for á, Á, í, Í, ó, Ó, ú, Ú, ý, Ý)

Comments

In the middle of your program, you can write a comment such as:

The computer will ignore the comment. The comment won’t affect what appears on the Web page.

To write a comment, begin with this symbol —

<!--

and end with this symbol:

-->

The computer ignores whatever appears between those symbols. Whatever appears between those symbols is a comment. The comment can be short (part of a line) or long (many lines), but make sure you begin it with “”.

Write comments to help other programmers deal with your program! For example, give your name, the date you wrote the program, and your address or phone number. Also include any technical comments you wish to make about how your program works and what further improvements you hope to make.

Forms

You can make your Web page display a form and let the human fill it in. For example, you can make your Web page say this:

I’m doing a survey of people who view this Web page.

Tell me about yourself.

┌─────────────────────┐

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? │ │

└─────────────────────┘

┌─────────────────────┐

What's your favorite animal? │ │

└─────────────────────┘

This program makes it happen (if your e-mail address is jSmith@SecretFun.com):

<p>I'm doing a survey of people who view this Web page.

<p>Tell me about yourself.

<pre>

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? <input name=flavor>

What's your favorite animal? <input name=animal>

</pre>

</form>

If you examine that program, you’ll notice these rules:

Above the form, say <form method=post> and give your e-mail address. Below the form, say </form>.

To create each box, say <input> and give a one-word name for the box.

To make the boxes line up, say <pre> above them and </pre> below them.

At form’s bottom, say <input type=submit>.

When a person runs your Web page, here’s what happens. The computer shows the form and waits for the person to fill in the form. Each box is wide enough to show 20 typical characters. If the person types more that the box can show, the writing in the box automatically scrolls to the left, to let the person type more.

Below the form, the computer puts a button labeled “Submit Query”. The person is supposed to click that button after filling in the form. When the person clicks that button, the computer e-mails the box’s contents to the e-mail address mentioned in the <form> command. Here’s how:

First, the computer gives the person this warning: “This form is being submitted using e-mail. Submitting this form will reveal your e-mail address to the recipient, and will send the form data without encrypting it for privacy. You may continue or cancel this submission.”

The computer waits for the person to click “OK”. (If the person clicks “Cancel” instead, the process is stopped.)

The computer automatically runs the person’s e-mail program (such as Outlook Express) and automatically creates a new e-mail.

The e-mail’s “To” is the e-mail address mentioned in the <form> command.

The e-mail’s “Subject” is “Form posted from Microsoft Internet Explorer” (if the person used Microsoft Internet Explorer) or “Form posted from Mozilla” if the person used Netscape Navigator).

The e-mail’s “Message” is blank, but the e-mail includes an Attachment, which is a Notepad document. That document is called “POSTDATA.ATT” (if the person used Microsoft Internet Explorer) or “Form posted from Mozilla.dat” (if the person used Netscape Navigator). For example, if the person said the favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry and the favorite animal is guinea pig, the document says this:

flavor=strawberry&animal=guinea+pig

The computer tries to send the e-mail. If the computer is not attached to the Internet at the moment, the computer either asks the person to connect or else just puts the e-mail in the Outbox (which is a holding area for e-mail that will be sent automatically when Internet connection is reestablished).

Then the computer stops running the e-mail program and returns to showing the Web page that contained the form.

When you receive the e-mail, try to open the attachment. The computer will ask whether you want to open it or save it.

For example, if you’re using Windows Me, do this:

Click “Open it” then “OK”.

If the attachment is called “POSTDATA.ATT”, it opens immediately.

If the attachment is called “Form posted from Mozilla.dat”, the computer warns “You are attempting to open a file of type .dat”. To respond to the warning, press Enter then click “Notepad” (from the scrolling list of programs) then press Enter again.

Customize Here’s how to customize the form.

If you want a box to be 30 characters wide instead of 20, say “size=30” like this:

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? <input name=flavor size=30>

If you want the “Submit Query” button to say instead “Click here to transmit”, say so in the type=submit line, like this:

You can put a Reset button to the right of the “Submit Query” button:

You can make the Reset button say “Click here to erase and start over”:

Check boxes Your form can include check boxes, so your Web page says:

Check all that apply:

q You have a pet dog.

q You have a pet cat.

q You can bark like a dog.

q You got arrested for being sneaky as a cat.

To do that, say this below the </pre>:

<p>Check all that apply:

<br><input type=checkbox name=dog>You have a pet dog.

<br><input type=checkbox name=cat>You have a pet cat.

<br><input type=checkbox name=bark>You can bark like a dog.

<br><input type=checkbox name=purr>You can purr like a cat.

<p>

If the person clicks the “You have a pet dog” and “You can bark like a dog” boxes, check marks appear on those boxes and the e-mail will say:

dog=on&bark=on

Radio buttons Your form can include radio buttons, so your Web page says:

Choose just one:

m You are male.

m You are female.

Each radio button acts like a check box, except that the button is round (instead of square), clicking it makes the middle get a dot (instead of a check mark), and just one button can be selected (since clicking a button makes all other buttons get unselected).

To create those radio buttons, say this below the </pre>:

<p>Choose just one:

<br><input type=radio name=sex value=male>You are male.

<br><input type=radio name=sex value=female>You are female.

<p>

If the person clicks the “You are male” button, a dot appears in that button and the e-mail will say:

sex=male

Create your own .com

I invented my own .com and called it “SecretFun.com”, so you can access my Web page by typing just “www.SecretFun.com”.

You can invent your own .com! Here are two cheap ways to do it.…

Method 1: pay Angelfire

Create a Web site on Angelfire, but pay Angelfire extra to get a .com name or switch to Angelfire’s fanciest plan (called “THE Plan”) which includes a domain name at no extra charge.

(Page 283 explained how Argon, Xenon, and Krypton differ from each other.)

Method 2: pay Go Daddy

Create a Web site cheaply anywhere (such as a free Angelfire site or a cheap Neon Angelfire site or a free site anywhere else), then buy a domain name (such as a .com name) from a domain registrar such as Go Daddy, which charges:

$15 per year for .co or .ws

$12 per year for .com

$10 per year for .org or .net

$6 per year for .biz

$5 per year for .us

$2 per year for .info

Go Daddy was started by a famous nice guy (Bob Parsons, whose previous venture was called Parsons Technology). You can reach Go Daddy at www.GoDaddy.com.

Tell Go Daddy to charge you for the domain name (at $15/year or less) and set up a parked site (which is free because it just says “under construction — coming soon”). Then tell Go Daddy to do domain forwarding (which is free) from the parked site to the site you created at Angelfire. You can also tell Go Daddy to do e-mail forwarding (which is free) to your current e-mail address.

For example, I told Go Daddy to do this:

create www.SecretFun.com (now $12/year)

forward www.SecretFun.com to www.angelfire.com/nh/secret (free)

forward Russ@SecretFun.com to SecretGuide@comcast.net (free)

So now you can see my Web site (www.angelfire.com/nh/secret) by typing just “www.SecretFun.com” (which is easier to remember), and you can send me e-mail by typing “Russ@SecretFun.com” (which you might remember easier than “SecretGuide@comcast.net”).

If you wish, Go Daddy can also host your site (so you don’t need to involve Angelfire), but Go Daddy charges more for hosting than Angelfire does. Go Daddy will try to sell you many extra services (for surcharges), but you can decline them all: pay just $15 per year or less for a domain name (with free domain forwarding and e-mail forwarding to your current addresses elsewhere).

Blogs

On a traditional ship, the captain’s supposed to write a daily log, which is a diary of what happened each day and how the ship progressed on its voyage.

You can create your own log — a daily diary of your experiences and thoughts — showing how you progress on your voyage from birth to death. You can put your log onto a Website, so others can read it. Then it’s called a Web log, or, more briefly, a blog. In your blog, you can write about your loves & hates, desires & despairs, successes & failures, pleasures & pains, laughs & tears.

The typical blog has a theme, such as:

you won’t believe what happened to me today!

come peek at the latest adventures of me and my lover

here are my latest beliefs about politics

I’ll share with you my deepest thoughts about the meaning of life today

my newest ideas for the book I’m trying to write — do you like them?

A person who writes a blog is called a blogger and is said to be blogging.

The Internet includes thousands of blogs, written by people all over the globe, forming our blogosphere (the globe full of blogs, the ideas they express, and the intellectual atmosphere they create). The typical blog begins by showing the author’s newest thoughts, then shows older thoughts below, in case you’d like to read them also. The thoughts are listed in reverse chronological order (the newest thoughts first) and lets readers add their own comments about the author’s thoughts. The author’s writings are just the tinder to start a fiery group discussion that all readers can participate in.

Create a blog

The easiest way to create your own blog is to use a Website called Blogger.com. It used to be independent but was bought by Google. Here’s how to use it.

Go to www.blogger.com.

If you have a Google account already (because you used Blogger.com before or you used another Google service, such as gmail), do this:

Type your Google username. Press the Tab key. Type your Google password. Click the “Sign in” button.

Click “CREATE YOUR BLOG NOW”.

If you don’t have a Google account yet, the computer will say “Create a Google Account” and wait for you to do this:

Type your e-mail address (such as “SecretGuide@comcast.net”). Press the Tab key. Invent a password that’s at least 6 characters long and type it; you’ll see black circles instead of what you’re typing. Press Tab twice. Type the password again. Press Tab. Type your name or nickname or however you want to sign what you write, such as “Russ Walter”; type it. Press Tab. Type the nonsense word you see. Click the Acceptance of Term box (which you might have to scroll down to see), so a checkmark appears in that box. Click “CONTINUE” (which you might have to scroll down to see).

Invent your blog’s title (such as “Computer Culture”) and type it. Press Tab.

Invent your blog’s address. It must end in “.blogspot.com” (such as “ComputerCulture.blogspot.com”). Type the part that comes before the .blogspot.com (such as “ComputerCulture”). It must not contain any blank spaces. Click “Check availability”; if the computer says “Sorry, this blog address is not available”, invent and type a different address instead, click “Check availability” again, and hope for better luck! When the computer finally says “This blog address is available”, click “CONTINUE”.

The computer will say “Choose a template”. Don’t bother choosing a fancy template yet; just click “CONTINUE” (which gets you the simplest template, which is minimal and called Minima). The computer will say “Your blog has been created”.

Click “START POSTING”.

Publish a thought

Type whatever thought you want to express for the world to see.

You can type several paragraphs. At the end of each typical paragraph, press Enter twice.

At the end of the final paragraph, instead of pressing Enter twice, press Tab.

Type a list of keywords about your paragraphs. For example, if your paragraphs are about ketchup and blood, type “ketchup,blood”. Put commas between the keyboards.

Click in the Title box. Type a title for those thoughts (such as “Experiment with ketchup”).

Click “PUBLISH”. The thoughts you typed and published are called your post; you have posted your thoughts. The computer says “Your blog post published successfully!”

Click “View Blog”. You see how your blog looks:

You see the blog’s title (such as “COMPUTER CULTURE”).

You see the paragraphs you wrote this time. Above them, you see the date you wrote them and the title you gave them. Below them, you see your name (or nickname), the exact time you published them, how many comments about those paragraphs were contributed by your readers (probably 0 so far), and an alphabetized list of keyboards about those paragraphs (“BLOOD, KETCHUP”).

Below all that, you see similar info about any paragraphs you wrote on previous days (probably none so far).

Sign out

When you finish looking at your blog today, click “Sign Out” (which is at the screen’s top-right corner). Then you see the main Blogger.com screen again (which is called www.blogger.com and also called www2.blogger.com/start).

View your blog again

To view your blog again, go to the Website that’s your blog, such as “ComputerCulture.blogspot.com”. (The computer doesn’t care whether you put “www.” or “http://” before that.)

You see what you wrote.

If you want change what you wrote (by writing more or deleting), you must be signed in. If you’re not signed in now, sign in by doing this:

Click “Sign In” (which is at the screen’s top-right corner). Type your username (which is your e-mail address, such as “SecretGuide@comcast.net”). Press the Tab key. Type your Blogger.com password. Click “SIGN IN” then “View Blog”.

Then do whatever editing you wish.

If you want to publish an extra thought, click “New Post” (which is near the screen’s top-right corner) then do the “Publish a thought” procedure I explained previously.

If you want to edit a thought you published previously, find that thought (by scrolling down until you see it). Below that thought, you see a pencil (to the right of “POSTED BY” and “COMMENTS”). Click that pencil. Edit that thought, then click “PUBLISH” then “View Blog”.

Handle comments

While you’re viewing a thought written by a blog’s owner, trying clicking the word “COMMENTS” that’s immediately below that thought. You see any comments that people have written about that thought.

If you want to type your own comment about that thought, do this:

Type your comment. Your typing will appear in the box at the screen’s top-right corner. You can type several paragraphs. At the end of each paragraph, press Enter twice (except you don’t have to bother after the final paragraph).

If you see a box called “USERNAME”, type your username (such as “SecretGuide@comcast.net”) then press Tab then type your Google password.

Click “PUBLISH YOUR COMMENT”. The computer will say “Your comment has been saved.”

When you finish viewing and creating comments, click the blog’s title (such as “Computer Culture”).

If you published your own comment, the blog mentions 1 more comment about the blog owner’s thought; the extra comment is the one you wrote.

If you wish, repeat the process by doing this:

To see all the comments about the blog owner’s thought, click the “COMMENTS” below that thought. Then, if you wish, write another comment then click “PUBLISH YOUR COMMENT”.

Use the archive

While you’re looking at a blog, the screen’s right-hand side says “BLOG ARCHIVE”. Below that, you see the titles of the thoughts that were published this month.

If one of those titles interests you, click it: that makes the computer show just that thought and the comments about it. When you finish admiring that detail, return to the blog’s normal view by clicking the blog’s title (such as “COMPUTER CULTURE”).

Computer And Hot Topics of the World.............

Monday, September 9, 2013

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