WebMasters
The First Web Page
A Web page is a text file that is served over the network. It contains special mark-up characters and sequences that control the formatting and other attributes that are interpreted by the viewer (browser) on the receiving computer. The Web page must be in ASCII format (text only), and it must have a .html extension (or .htm).

Required Elements
Very little is actually required of a Web page, beyond being an ascii file with the .html extension. By convention, however, the text is enclosed within a header section and a footer section that is setup like the following example:

<html>
<head>
<title>Page Name</title>
</head>
<body>

The body of the page is inserted here. Special formatting characters associated with text display, image display, and hypertext linking will be covered later.

</body>
</html>

Example Page

Previewing the File on Your Local Computer
Web browsers can view files that are fetched from the network or from the local hard disk or floppy drive. You must quickly learn to write a file, save it as a text file with the .html extension, and view the file by using the Open File command on the Netscape menu bar. You can identify simple errors in page construction quickly, and correct them before you send your file to the server.

Transferring the File to the Serving Computer
The previewed and edited file is then transferred to the server. This is done using a file transfer application (ftp) such as WS_FTP or Fetch. The file is placed in your designated directory or folder on the server. If the file is your homepage, you will need to name it index.html to be served over the Web. You will then be able to call up your file over the Web at the following address:
http://webtutor.tamu.edu/student#/
If the file is not your homepage, and is not named index.html, you may call it up at the following address:
http://webtutor.tamu.edu/student#/filename.html

WebMasters was created and is taught by Dr. Dan Lineberger, WebMaster of Aggie Horticulture, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843.
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