Posting Web Pages in the Geometry Center

1. First, you need a text file whose name ends in ".html" to contain your web page. You can either create a new HTML file from scratch or edit an existing one, either one from your home pages or someone else's. (This is in fact a great way to find out how some of the great pages on the web were created.)

   Existing Pages
   To edit an existing page from a Mac or PC, start up Netscape, and view the page you wish to edit. From the File menu at the top of the screen, select "Save As...". Now you want to make sure you change the format from Text to Source, so that you get the HTML code, instead of just the text from the page. You might also choose a different name (perhaps something.html) to save it under. On the Macs or the PC's with Windows95 in the lab, you can save files either to a floppy disk, or to the special "Temp Save Folder" on the Hard Drive. On the NT machines save it in your home directory "u:\username". To get to this directory in NT, double click on the "My Computer" icon (or open the WindowsNT explorer) and select the "U" drive. Then double click on the folder that bears your user-name.

   New Pages
   To create a new file, open a text editor. On the PC you can use "Notepad", and on the Mac you can use "Simple text" or "BBEdit". Then start typing in the HTML for your new file. Once you are done creating the file save it as described above.

2. When you have made the changes you want, save the file again. (If you're using an editor like Word, make sure you save the file as Ascii Text, not some formatted version; the formatting in your web page comes from the commands embedded in it, not from any formatting added by a word processor.)
3. To get the new version onto the Geometry Center's web server, use an ftp program like "Fetch". When you ask Fetch to open a "new connection", you will be prompted for four items; the hostname is "geom.umn.edu", the UserId is your account at the geometry center, your password is known only to you, and you might fill in "public_html" for the directory, although you can always go to this directory once you have connected to the machine. So, start up your ftp program and connect to one of the geometry center's machines. Your Home Page's files are inside of the public_html directory which sits in your home directory. Change to this directory.

4. If you click the Put File button, you'll get new windows asking which file on your computer should be moved to the Geometry Center, and then if the same name should be used for the file there. Your homepage is the one called "welcome.html", and the other HTML files in that directory can be linked to by name from your home page. (Like the sample "notdone.html" which you already have.)

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   The Geometry Center Home Page

   Author: Evelyn Sander, edited by Heidi Burgiel and John McDonald
   Comments to: webmaster@geom.umn.edu
   Created: Jun 09 1996 --- Last modified: Jun 11 1996