CSUN ITR

Technology Training Guides

Beginner's Guide to HTML
   
PART 3

Saving and Viewing Your HTML Document

While you're working on your document it's a good idea to save and view it locally using Netscape (or some other browser). That way you can see how your masterpiece looks but go back to your word processor or text editor to make any corrections necessary before publishing your document for the whole world to see.

Saving Your Document

As with any document you create, save frequently. You may want to create a directory (or folder) especially for your HTML documents. Name the main (or only) document index.html. Name other documents appropriately for their content. A document about skydiving might be called skydive, for example. 
  • Notepad (Windows). Choose Save from the File Menu. The first time you save your HTML document you'll get a "Save As" dialog box. From the "File type:" men, choose All Files (*.*)  In the "File name:" text box, type the name of your file, complete with .html extension (such as index.html). Make sure the folder where you want to save the file is selected in the "Save in:" text box, and click the Save button.
  • SimpleText (Macintosh). Choose Save from the File Menu. The first time you save your HTML document you'll get a "Save As" dialog box. In the "Save this document as:" text box, type the name of your file, complete with .html extension (such as index.html). Make sure the folder where you want to save the file is selected, and click the Save button.

Notes:

  • It is recommended that you use only lowercase characters to name your text files. Otherwise, you'll have to remember whether or not you used upper or lowercase characters whenever you create a link. 
  • If you create several documents — an index document and others which are linked to it, save them all as text files in the same directory so that you can preview your index complete with links.

Viewing Your Document

To see how your document will look to those who view it using a graphic browser: 
  1. Minimize your text editor (so you can get back to it later without having to restart it).
  2. Start up Netscape.
  3. From the File Menu, choose Open Page.
  4. In the "Open Page" dialog box, click the Choose File button.
  5. In the "Open" dialog box, locate and highlight the name of the HTML file you want to view (you may have to change directories or folders to find it), then click the Open button.
  6. In the "Open Page" dialog box, make sure the Navigator radio button is selected, then click the Open button to open the selected file.

Check to see that everything looks the way you intended it to look. Check your links as well. 

If you find you made coding errors or just want to make some changes to your file(s): 

  1. Minimize Netscape and maximize your text editor window.
  2. If it isn't already open, open the file to be modified.
  3. Make changes and/or corrections to the file.
  4. Save the document.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 for any other files you wish to modify.
  6. Minimize your text editor and maximize Netscape.
  7. View the document(s) again by choosing Open File from the File Menu.

Repeat the process (if necessary) until your Web page(s) look just the way you like.

When you're ready to publish your pages to the Web so others can view them, follow "General Instructions" at:

http://www.csun.edu/itr/guides/webpublishing

 
 

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Next: Updating a Web Page

August 14, 2003

Prepared by Gail Said Johnson, User Support Services

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