1. Activate your "public_html" subdirectory

• From your E-mail account, go to "main menu", and type "0" for "other".
• To create/activate your public_html directory (and thereby automatically become the owner of an already prepared "home page", find the line "W - webdev: Work on Your Web Site" and type type "W".
• You will read: "The option you have selected requires a separate web development directory. Do you want to enable this directory right now?

  Please answer Y (for yes) or N (for no)." Answer: "Y"

• A public_html subdirectory will be magically and automatically created which will contain, in the future, all of your Web site directories, files and images. Right now, it contains only a "starter page" provided free by C&C. This directory is linked to the University-sponsored "students" server; therefore,
  • your URL-address (Universal Resource Locator) is: http://students/washington.edu/yourlogin/

    [yourlogin is your Email login name]

2. View your pre-made "Homepage" in a "Browser"

• You are likely to use either NETSCAPE or Microsoft Explorer. These are graphics-enabled browsers (as different from "Lynx" which is a text browser only, and still accessible via UWIN (under "Internet Resources"). Enter your URL..... You will see the standard figure (which you may or may not like or want to get rid of....) and your name and address.

  Should you be sufficiently curious at this stage and want to see how your page has been programmed (i.e. what kind of HTML-code has been used), click the "View" button at the top of the screen (in Netscape and Explorer) and select "source". This capability to get not just into your own page code, but into the code of any page, is, of course, a wonderful opportunity to learn how to write HTML code. Mind you, you will not be able to make any changes...

  Anyway, congratulations! Your account is set up, and you can start putting pages into your initial (public_html) directory. You may also create further subdirectories and thereby the organizational scheme needed to keep your future webb system, your prolific writing plans and your different classes and interest areas organized and under control.

3. Getting into your public_html directory

4. Creating your class-specific subdirectory within your public_html directory

Let's assume that you are still in your public_html directory or folder.

• We want to keep our Geography business separate from any other uses we may have for our home page. Thus we establish a "subdirectory 207":
• Type "mkdir 207" [no quotation marks, please; mkdir is simply a UNIX command to make a new sub-directory within an already existing directory]

  (Note: Please remember for future HTML sessions that, every time you want to work on your Web page, you need to proceed right away into the public_html subdirectory. At your main Dante Menu, either type "S" for shell (or first "O" for Other and then "W" for Web Work). Then type "cd public_html". You can always find out whether you in the right directory by typing "ls" (list) which will bring up the content of that directory. You get out of your Web directory by first closing the present file: Ctrl "x", than "Y" for "Yes", then "enter". After the dante prompt appears, you simply type "exit" and you are a free person again... Enjoy!)

5. Let's take a Conceptual Time-Out....

Before we go any further, I'll suggest that, at this point in the class, we distinguish between "open" and "closed" parts of our home page system. Open files can be connected ("linked") to your geog-subdirectory or any other page in your system or the system of other members of the class. Other files you may want keep closed, i.e. hidden at least for the time-being until you are ready to open them, maybe initially only to your group or your instructor. These are files which are in preparation (drafts) which you want to keep for yourself or disclose only selectively. Thus, you may want to open some files, or a new subdirectory with some files, which you give names which can not easily be guessed (like your password).

6. Let's Post some Content on our geog Page!

• Now lets go back to our E-mail (Dante) account and assume that you have written a statement to your instructor in which you introduce yourself, your background, interests and plans for the class. If you have not done so yet, maybe now is the time to do so! This message is supposed to introduce you not merely to the instructor, but also to the whole class. Write something about yourself, your academic background and interests, what you like to get out of this class, and, as importantly, what you might be able to contribute to the class. However, write down only whatever you feel comfortable with, and what you think your peers and your instructor should know about (so that they can help you to make this class a valuable experience for you). you.

• After you have sent this message to econgeog@u.washington.edu, go into your Dante "sent-mail" folder and export (CTRL "E") this message to the UNIX shell. You have to give it a name; call it "intro" if you like.

  If you have not done this before, you may want to send your introduction through the speller while you are still in dante by typing CTRL t .. just like you would do it in UNIX/Pine. You may also edit or expand it, i.e. add your first words of wisdom directly to your Web page!

  You might already be able to guess that the URL of this page or file is: http://students.washington.edu/jdoe/geog/intro
  

  What we have done here is to prove that we DO NOT NEED HTML (the Hypertext Markup Language) to write into our Web site or to submit assignments for this class. This initial take-home assignment will be accepted as a text file. Just send the address of your assignment file to your instructor! [for this "Introduction, you do not have to notify your instructor if your address is: ..../yourlogin/207/intro

7. Now: HTML! (Have the Time of My Life)
Well, maybe, just maybe, you want to take the next step and begin to make use of the many visual and organizational improvements which HTML opens up.

1. Now use the initial index.html home page as a template for your 207 page. Thus we copy the initial index page into our 207 subdirectory:
2. At the dante-prompt type "cd .." (to get back up to your main directory; [the UNIX command "cd" stands for "change directory"]
3. Type cp index.html 207 ["cp" means "copy"]
4. Now we go into the geog subdirectory to see whether our index page has arrived:
5. Type: cd geog
6. Type: ls (there should be the index.html in addition to at least the earlier text file(s))
7. Now you want to copy the index.html file again in order to retain it as a "clean" template
8. Type: cp index.html template.html [index.html becomes the coverpage for your Geography Site, template.html can be used in the future to start new HTML pages.
9. Now lets work with your first genuine file. By-the-way, the URL for this initial file will be:
   http://students.washington.edu/~yourlogin/geog/index.html. You actually can omit the index.html in the URL since index.html is always the default file in any folder/directory. However, this is a real file and can be used.
10. Type: pico index.html [This opens the index.html file so that you can edit and expand it.]
11. Insert our temporary geog logo into the space where this awful figure used to be:
    Type (or "copy & paste"): <IMG SRC = "http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/graphs/globem.gif">
12. Expand this file now into a simple Directory for your present class
    1. by writing a heading: <H1> Directory for Geography XYZ </H1>
    2. by making an ordered <OL> or unordered list <UL> for your assignments e.g.
       <LI> My Introduction
       <LI> My First Assignment (Definition of Economic Geography)
       <LI> My Concentration Proposal and Initial Literature (Week 3 Assignment)
       <LI> My Next Assignment
       <LI> etc.
       and end this list by typing either </UL> or </OL>

If you wish, you can insert now a clickable tag in this table-of-content file by writing, in front of My Introduction one of the following tags:

• <A HREF = "http://students.washington.edu/loginname/geog/intro"> or, since we are already in the student Web server:
• <A HREF = "/loginname/geog/intro"> or, since we actually remain in the same subdirectory, just:
• <A HREF = "intro">