There are a number of WYSIWYG web authoring applications, though, that do a much better job than Word and WordPerfect. They also allow an author to create web pages without having to know any HTML codes in a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" environment. These programs range in price from free to over $300.

We will be using a free WYSIWYG program named Netscape Composer, which is part of the Netscape Communicator version 4 suite. It is free to download from the Netscape web site! However, you can know download Netscape Communicator version 6.2, which includes a newer version of Netscape Composer.

It is quite intuitive to learn how to use Netscape Composer since it uses standard toolbar symbols like many word processor programs.

If you are using AOL or you surf the Web with Internet Explorer, you will need to download the latest version of Netscape onto your computer. You can still surf the Web with your "other" browser (AOL browser, Internet Explorer, etc.) but you will need to use Netscape Composer to actually write web pages.

You can use these templates by choosing "File/Open/Page From Template" from the Netscape menu bar and then clicking the Netscape Templates button. Or, you can simply visit http://home.netscape.com/browsers/templates/index.html

Then, you select "File/Edit Page" or "File/Edit Document" from the menu bar to launch Netscape Composer.

Modify one of the Netscape templates by highlighting pieces of text with your mouse and simply typing your own phrases over top of them.

Experiment with the other toolbar tools such as centering, bold (the dark "A"), text size (the number) and text color. You often have to highlight pieces of text before selecting these tools in order to apply the change.

Don't forget to save the document when you are finished modifying it.

Now that you have the image saved on your hard drive, you can "insert" it into any of the web pages that you have created using Netscape Composer. Simply choose "Insert/Image..." from the menu bar and then click "Choose File..." You will have to navigate through your hard drive's folders to find and select the image that you have just downloaded. While it is technically possible to follow this process and download any image from any web page on the Internet, you may not have the legal right to use it on your web page for copyright reasons. You may have to learn how to create your own images and graphics using a program like Microsoft Image Composer, Adobe Photoshop, or Paint Shop Pro. Microsoft Word could even be used to create simple graphics.

Probably, the easiest way to learn HTML is to look at the underlying HTML of web pages that others have created. To do this, you can visit any web page with Netscape Navigator (or any web browser) and choose "View/Page Source", or something similar, from the menu bar. You will see the complicated HTML code that was really used to create that web page. By comparing features of the web page to sections of the HTML, you can pick up features of the code.

Visit Mr. Minich's Example Web Page and view its corresponding HTML source for an introductory example.

You can also choose "View/Page Source" with Netscape Composer or the "View/Source" menu command in Internet Explorer to see the HTML behind any Web page on the Internet.

If it does not, you will probably have to choose "Edit/Preferences" from the menu bar and then choose "Composer" on the left of the screen. Click the "Choose" button next to External Editors, HTML Source and find a word processor or text processor program on your computer. I would recommend choosing the application, NotePad, which is in the Windows folder or simply type "C:/WINDOWS/Notepad.exe" into the entry area under External Editors, HTML Source. Now, repeat the steps above to edit the HTML source of your template web page.

Once you are able to view the HTML source in a word processor program, you can highlight and change any text that you recognize from your web page. For example, look between the <TITLE> and the </TITLE> tags. You can overwrite that text to change the official title of your web page (which appears at the VERY top of the browser window).

You can change any HTML code that you would like in this editing mode but be careful because one slight mistake could make your web page unreadable by a browser.

Once you upload your web page to your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) web server, the page can be viewed by anyone with an Internet connection. While they cannot change or modify your web page, neither can you without downloading it again, making the necessary change(s), and then uploading it again. Actually, you do not have to download it, if you still have a copy of the original on your computer's hard drive.

To do this simply find a cool web page with Netscape Navigator (or any web browser) and choose "File/Save As..." from the menu bar. Be careful to then select the "Save As" type "HTML Files" or "Source" (depending on what browser you are using.) This will allow you to copy the web page to your hard drive. You can then open it with Netscape Composer or any word processor and eventually upload it to your own ISP's web server.

They will need to tell you the exact process to use in order to upload your web pages. Many times they will give you an File Transfer Protocol (FTP) address to which you can upload your web pages by using your Internet account's user name and password. You may need to use an FTP program in order to do this. FTP programs can usually be obtained as freeware or shareware downloads (do a search at Yahoo for "FTP programs"). A popular FTP program for Windows computers is "WS_FTP" and a popular one for Macintosh computers is "Fetch".

Unfortunately, the uploading process indicated here can be the most difficult part of successfully authoring a Web page.

• Microsoft FrontPage
• Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Adobe GoLive
• NetObjects Fusion
• many others can be found by searching download.com for "web page authoring programs"

You can also learn a lot of free web authoring tips by searching for such with all of the major search engines. There are many tutorials available on the Web.