5. CREATING INFORMATION

  5. CREATING INFORMATION

 The most popular tools for creating and distribution information on the internet are web pages, blogs and wikis.

5.1 Web pages

The first step is to plan the desing and content of everything that will appear on you web page, such as text, photos and illustrations.

The content must be interesting and visually appealing in order to attract the maximun number of visits.

The steps that you must follow are:

1. Register a domain
2. Sing up with a host server
3. Desing and create your web page.  
4. Upload you page to the server
5. Update your page regularly. 

Domain names

 To register a domain for your web page,you must choose a name that is not already being used.

Host servers

 Companies such as Arsys and Nominalia  host web pages by offering space on their servers.Domain registration services may also provide hosting,and web page desing companies often include both registration and hosting.

Design and creating a web pages

 A website is a set of web pages under the same domain name.

Designing a web page

  

Title: The title that you choose is very important. If you register your web page with a search engine, such as Google, the title will be used to match your page with other people's search criteria.

Colour combinations: Many web pages are quite difficult to read because they use a poor combination of colours.

A balance layout 

The most attractive web pages have a balanced layout or distribution of elements.

To achieve this effect, we can use tables to structure the information in neat colums and rows. In addition, tables allow for other functions:

• Inserting and eliminating rows and columns.
• Combining and dividing cells.
• Drawing borders on cells and tables.
• Changing the background and text format of each cell.

 Hyperlinks 
 There are two types of hyperlinks:

• External links take us to other websites related to the topic.
• Internal links take us to a different part of the same website.

Visual impact

• Another fundamental aspect of web page design is the effective combination of text formats and images.
• If we want our web page to look more dynamic, we can add animated gifs, which are images that move. We can also use dynamic thext formats, which change their colour or appearance.

 Comments from users 
Although you shouldn't give any personal information on the Internet, it may be interesting to receive feedback from users who visit your page.

Page order
Here are two ways that you can order the pages.

• Linear order: One page follows another, like the pages of a magazine.
• Hierarchical order: From the first page, we can link to any other page that we like.

Creating your web page 

1. Direct programming is the most difficult option, since it requires knowledge of progamming languages and tools.

• HTML ( HyprText Markup Language) is used for static web page design.
• CSS ( Cascade Style Sheets) is used to create the structure of a document.
• PHP ( HyperText Preprocessor) is a language used to create dynamic web pages.
• MySQL is a database management system used for dynamic web pages.

     2. Using a Content Management System (CMS): We can use a CMS to create dynamic web pages.
These systems have several advantages:
A) They are fast because they don't require direct programming.
B) Some are free.
C) Some CMS services offer a package that includes hosting and CMS installation.

There ar also some disadvantages:
A) You cannot do anything you want. You are limited to the functions that the rpogram allows.
B) CMS programs are complex and it takes a long time to learn how to use them.
C) You must have a server with enough storage space for the program.

The most popular CMS services are Joomla!, Drupal and Wordpress. You can also use Prestashop to create a web page for online shopping.

   3. Using a web development program: These programs 'translate' your web page design into HTML language, so you do not need to know how to program.

Some programs are more powerful because they have more functions. Some are free, such as Kompozer. Others cost money, such as Web Creator and Adobe Dreamweaver Professional, which is the best-known.

 4. Using the online hosting services that some pages offer: This is the easiest way to create a web page. You select the elements of your web page from a menu of options and add them to one of the many templates that are offered.
The free versions have certain limitations:
A) They include advertising, which some people may find unattractive.
B) The web address may be rather long and difficult to remember.

Although there are many services like this, the most popular ones include Wix, Jimdo, Hostinger and 1&1.

Another popular web creation service is Google Sites. If you have a Gmail account, you can easily create pages with web addresses such as the following:

https://sites.google.com/site/NAME_OF_YOUR_PAGE

Uploading a web page to a server
 If you are not using an online hosting service, you will need to upload your CMS program or your web page to the server.

 You can use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programs to upload your web page to the server.
These programs manage the transfer of web page files from your computer's hard drive to a server. We call this uploading.

Completing and updating a web page
Remenber that if the content is always up to date, people will continue visiting your web page.

5.2 Blogs

Weblogs or blogs are a special type of web page. They were originally used as online diaries for people to share their personal experiences.
Bloggers publish entries or posts in chronological order, with newer posts appearing at the top of the list.
Blogs have other characteristic which made them interesting:

• The same blog can be shared by various bloggers working together as a team.
• Blogs can include hyperlinks to photos, audio recordings or videos.
• We can use blogs to make daily reports about a rpoject and receive helpful feedback from other people.
• Businesses can use blogs to improve their customer service, by quickly responding to questions or complaints about their products.

Some of the most popular blogging services are Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr.

 

 5.3 Wikis

 A wiki is a collection of web pages that visitors can edit, modify or expand. Like other web pages, wiki content must be stored on a server. The most popular examples are Wikispaces and PBWorks.

 Adding new content to a wiki page is quite easy:

1. Look for an Edit button and click on it.
2. Make changes to the existing content or write a new contribution.
3. Look for a Save button and click on it to save the changes.

Wikipedia, is a universal encyclopaedia with no restrictions on use, modification or redistribution. Since it was created, Wikipedia has grown in popularity and become one of the world's most visited websites.

www.wikipedia.org