Alaska Pacific University

Help!

Web Design Help

You will need a couple of things to get started:

Web Browser

You already have one of these. It's what you're using to see this site. For best results, you should get the latest versions of Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, Opera or Internet Explorer.

FTP Program

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and it is the way you transfer files over the internet for setting up web sites. You can get free or shareware versions of the program from many sources, like Download.com.
We recommend FileZilla, available from our site here.

Zip/Unzip Program

There are several programs for "unzipping" files that have been compressed. Most of the programs and files you download over the internet are "zipped" so they take up less space and download faster. WindowsXP can unzip most files without any additional programs, however, if you are interested in more functionality you can check out the listing at Download.com

HTML Editor

You will need a way to create and edit your web pages. Web pages are written in a type of code called HyperText Markup Language. You don't absolutely have to know the code to produce a web page, but it does help to know the basics.

Your options for an HTML editor are:

Text Editor - A program like Notepad or Wordpad can be used to write html code from scratch. Not for the beginner but a good way to edit code that you may have copied from a site you like.

HTML Editor - These are more advanced text editors that make working with the code easier but are still a bit much for the beginner. HomeSite from Macromedia is an excellent commercial editor. Free editors such as HTML-Kit are also available via a quick search.

WYSIWYG Editor - What You See Is What You Get (pronounced wizzywig) This type of editor allows you to work with text and images much like a word processor. In fact, in Microsoft Word and OpenOffice are acceptable tools for creating web pages. Just create a document using pictures, colors, etc. then choose Save As and select HTML - that's it you've created a web page! Other good choices for this type of editor are Dreamweaver and Front Page. Amaya is a free HTML editor that you can get from the W3C (WorldWideWeb Consortium - the international oversight body responible for web standards). Commercial software programs can be purchased at the UAA bookstore for a substantial savings over retail.

Image Editor

Programs for editing images for web sites. Most web browser see three types of images; those that end with 'gif', 'png' or 'jpg'. If you use images on your site, you must use one of these formats. Image editors allow you to crop, resize, lighten/darken, etc and save images in these formats. You can get free or low cost image editors from shareware sites such as www.download.com or www.shareware.com.
For free editors GIMP is at the top of the class while for commercial software Adobe Photoshop is top of the line in this category.