Tutorial Title: Creating Your Own Website Using Homepage
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Topic Title: Introduction
Have you ever wished you had your own website, but assumed that building one was either too difficult or too expensive?
With an Internet connection and a .Mac subscription, you can quickly and easily create web pages to display your photos, movies, and text — all without having to purchase or learn complicated software.
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Topic Title: Understanding .Mac Web Pages
Web pages are a fast and easy way to share your information, movies, and pictures with others. Instead of giving away expensive photo prints, waiting until you have the whole family together to share home movies, or mailing letters to friends around the world, you can reach everyone in just moments by creating a web page.
With HomePage, your web pages are automatically saved to your iDisk, your personal hard disk space on Apple’s servers. This way, anyone with an Internet connection can access them anytime.
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Step-by-Step Section: Understanding .Mac Web Pages
Access HomePage by following these steps:
| 1: Open a web browser and go to http://www.mac.com. |
| 2: Click the HomePage icon. |
| 3: Enter your .Mac Member Name and Password when prompted. |
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Tips Section: Understanding .Mac Web Pages
Edit your web pages from any computer
The HomePage application is a part of .Mac, which means you can use any computer connected to the Internet to log in and modify your web pages or even create new ones. Since HomePage accesses the files stored on your iDisk, you simply save files to your iDisk and display them on your web pages. Just use any computer (even a PC) to connect to your iDisk, save your files to the correct folder, and then display them on your web page. For example, if you are on a road trip and want to share your photos with your family at home, just save your photos to your iDisk Pictures folder, and then create web pages to display them.
Who can view your website?
Anyone with a connection to the Internet can view your website. Every file, photo, and movie that you display on a web page is safely stored on Apple’s servers, so your friends and family can view your website even if your computer is turned off. And since any computer can display a web page, even PC users will be able to see your site.
Save web pages to the Sites folder
When you create web pages in HomePage, they are saved to the Sites folder on your iDisk. You can also use the Sites folder to save web pages that were created using other applications, and even add links to them from your HomePage web pages.
Determine how many files you can share
Each iDisk comes with enough capacity to store plenty of photos, movies, and other files. To determine how much storage space you have left, select your iDisk in the Finder and look at the remaining capacity displayed at the bottom of the window.
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Topic Title: Create a Web Page with HomePage
HomePage is an easy and quick way to create web pages. Most web designers have to learn complex computer languages and buy special software just to create web pages, but .Mac HomePage makes it easy to create and share a single web page, a complete website, or even several websites.
When you create a web page in HomePage, you’ll use professionally designed templates to display your text, pictures, and movies. Because HomePage uses the files you already have stored on your iDisk, you can share your files no matter where you are. Just choose from a variety of themes; add your own text, photos, and movies; publish your web page; and then send the web address to your friends and family.
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Step-by-Step Section: Create a Web Page with HomePage
Create a web page newsletter by following these steps:
| 1: In HomePage, select Writing and then select a template. |
| 2: Type your own text in the fields provided. |
| 3: If you’d like to preview your page, click Preview in the upper-right corner. To continue editing your page, click Edit in the upper-right corner. |
| 4: Click Choose to add a picture. Select your picture, and then click Choose. |
| 5: Click Edit Link to add a link to another web page. |
| 6: Enter the web address, click Apply, and then enter the name of your link in the text box to the left of the Edit Link button. |
| 7: When you’re ready to publish your web page, click the Publish button. You’ll see a message with your new web page’s address, which you can give to others so that they can access your web page. |
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Tips Section: Create a Web Page with HomePage
Display a link to your email address
If you want to receive emails from your visitors, you can display a link to your email address on any web page. While editing a web page, just click the Show checkbox to the right of the Send Me a Message icon, and click Publish when you are done.
Display a viewer counter on your page
Do you want to know how many people are viewing your web pages? You can figure out which pages are more popular by displaying a viewer counter on each one. When you are editing a page, just click the Show checkbox to the right of the counter icon. When you are done, click Publish.
Delete your web page
As you update your sites or create new web pages, you’ll want to delete old web pages. To delete a web page, just select the page in the Pages list, and then click Delete.
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Topic Title: Organize Your Web Pages into Sites
You probably have a lot of different interests and favorite pastimes. So, when you create several web pages, you’ll want to keep them organized. Grouping your web pages into sites helps you do that. For example, by creating sites, you can keep your business web pages separate from your personal web pages.
Sites are essentially groups of web pages. To make it easy for your viewers to move from page to page, HomePage displays navigation links at the top of each page to every other page in that site. You’ll never have to worry about updating these links, because when you add a new page or move a page to a different site, the links are automatically updated.
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Step-by-Step Section: Organize Your Web Pages into Sites
Create a new site in HomePage by following these steps:
| 1: Click Add below the Sites list. |
| 2: Type a name for the new site. Make sure the name doesn’t contain any spaces. |
| 3: Click the Create Site button. |
| 4: Organize your site by dragging web pages from the Pages list to the new site in the Sites list. |
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Tips Section: Organize Your Web Pages into Sites
Move a web page to a different site
You can easily move a web page to a different site any time you want. Just select the web page in the Pages list, and then drag it to the correct site in the Sites list.
How to name your site
When naming your site, don’t include spaces. If you want the site’s name to include more than one word, use underscores. For example, you would type “My Site” as “My_Site.”
Use a password to protect your website
You can set up a password to prevent unwanted visitors from viewing your website. If you have only one site, click the arrow icon to the right of “Protect this site.” If you have more than one site, select it in the Sites list, and then click Edit below the list. Select the On option, type a password, and then click the Apply Changes button.
Publish iPhoto albums to multiple sites
You can publish a HomePage web page directly from iPhoto simply by selecting the photos or album and clicking the HomePage icon. iPhoto saves your photos to your iDisk, and then displays a preview of your new page. If you have more than one HomePage site, choose the site you want to add the photo album to from the site pop-up menu, and then click Publish.
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Topic Title: Choosing a Home Page for Your Website
With HomePage, your friends and family don’t have to know the specific Internet addresses of your web pages. They just have to know the address of the site. This address will take them to the first page of your website.
You can choose any of your web pages to be the first page of your site. This page is known as your home page.
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Step-by-Step Section: Choosing a Home Page for Your Website
Choose a home page for a site by following these steps:
| 1: Select the site in the Sites list. |
| 2: Select which page you want to be the site’s home page, and then drag it to the top of the list. Notice that the page name appears bold. |
| 3: Click the site’s address at the top of the page. Notice that the new home page appears. |
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Tips Section: Choosing a Home Page for Your Website
Announce your site
You can announce your website by creating an iCard displaying one of the pictures from the site and sending the iCard to your family and friends. Just click the HomePage icon in the .Mac menu bar, and then click the Announce Site button. Choose an iCard design, type your message, add the addresses, and then click Send iCard.
Determine the address of your web page
If you want to determine the address of your web page, select it in the Pages list. The address is displayed above the Pages column. To send someone the address, just copy and paste it into the body of an email message.
Determine the address of your site
If you want to determine the address of an entire site, select it in the Sites list. Make sure that no web pages are selected. The address is displayed above the Sites column. To send someone the address, just copy and paste it into the body of an email message, or click Announce Site.
Send viewers to a page other than the site’s home page
To send viewers to a page other than your site’s home page, add the page’s filename to the web address. Click the page you want the viewer to go directly to, and at the end of the Internet address, notice the filename ending in “.html.” Add this filename to the Internet address you send your friends and family.
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Topic Title: Creating a Site Menu
Before you start a road trip, you look at a map so that you’ll know where you are going. With HomePage, you can create special web pages that act just like a map. These pages are called site menus; they let visitors know what’s on your site and how to get there. For example, your site menu could include a picture of your coworkers that links to a page displaying photos of the company picnic, or a picture of a baseball that links to a web page devoted to your favorite team.
Site menus organize the pages in your site. Although each page in a site automatically includes links to the other pages in that site, site menus display graphical icons that link to other pages or even other sites.
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Step-by-Step Section: Creating a Site Menu
Create a site menu by following these steps:
| 1: Select the site in the Sites list. |
| 2: Click the Site Menu button and then select a theme. Notice that a placeholder site menu icon is automatically created for each page in the site. |
| 3: Type a title for the site and descriptions for each site menu icon. |
| 4: To replace the image in the site menu icon, click Choose, select a new picture, and then click Choose. |
| 5: Drag the crosshair icon in the upper-right corner of the site menu icons to reorder them on the page. |
| 6: When you’re finished, click the Publish button in the upper-right corner. |
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Tips Section: Creating a Site Menu
Create another link
You can create a link from your site menu to any of your other web pages, one of your other sites, an email address, or even to someone else’s site. While editing your Site Menu page, click the Add (+) button on any site menu item to create a new menu icon. Click Edit Link, select the link, and then click Apply.
Remove a site menu item
If you delete any of your web pages, you will need to update your site menu. Select the site menu in the Pages list, click Edit, and then click the Subtract (–) button on the icon you want to delete.
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