General questions

What is the WebUnicorn?
Why should I use the WebUnicorn?

Creating your web pages

How do I create multi-page websites in the WebUnicorn?
How should I organize my website into multiple pages? Do I need multiple pages?
What kind of names should I give my web pages?
How do I add links?
How do I add pictures to my web page?
How do I add bold or italicized text?
What kind of formatting can I use?
Why is there an extra box at the bottom of my preview page? (coming soon)

Saving and uploading your web pages

Now that I've created a web page, how do I save it?
I've saved my first web page. Now what?
The links in the navigation sections don't work! What's going on? (coming soon)
How do I upload my web pages once I've saved them?

Updating your web pages

How do I update my web pages?

General questions

What is the WebUnicorn?

The WebUnicorn (Template Wizard) is a set of online tools that allow you to create a multi-page website in your browser. The WebUnicorn is located on our server, but you can save the web pages you create on your own computer and then upload them into your hosting account.

Why should I use the WebUnicorn?

The WebUnicorn is very easy to use. You don't need coding experience, design skills, or special software other than your browser.

The WebUnicorn is also much cheaper than hiring a professional designer or buying other software. If you decided to use other web page creation software, you would need to pay for an expensive program with a steep learning curve that still requires you to do the design yourself. The WebUnicorn uses template designs that have already been made. All you need to do is to choose the designs you like.

Creating your web pages

How do I create multi-page websites in the WebUnicorn?

The WebUnicorn is designed to create multi-page websites in one session. When you start creating a website, the first step will ask you for the number of pages to create. Next, you will be asked to provide a file name for each of the pages. Using these file names, the WebUnicorn will automatically generate a navigation section on each web page that links to the other pages you create.

What kind of names should I give my web pages?

After you choose the number of web pages you want to create, you will be asked to give each page a file name. This is the name that you should use when you save a completed web page onto your computer and when you upload the web page onto your hosting service. The WebUnicorn uses the file names to construct links to each page.

File names for web pages should be concise but descriptive. If you need to use more than one word, it's better to separate the words with an underscore (_) instead of a space. Spaces in file names can be confusing for some operating systems. Some operating systems are also case-sensitive, which means that "file.html" is considered different from "File.html". However, other operating systems are not case-sensitive. Since your hosting service may use a different operating system than your own computer, keeping the file names all lower case instead of mixed case is safer.

How do I add links?

You can add links to the text by typing in the HTML code for creating links. The standard format is:

<a href="url">Link text</a>

where you replace "url" with a URL and "link text" with the text you want visitors to click on to take them to the URL. The URL is usually the address of a web page, but it can also be the address of a picture or any other type of file that can be stored on a website. Instead of using text, you can also create a link with a clickable picture by replacing "link text" with the HTML code for a picture. For example, the code for a link pointing to this website's main page is:

<a href="http://www.smilingunicorn.com/index.html">link text</a>

but the visitor sees only link text. Another example is:

<a href="http://www.smilingunicorn.com/index.html"><img src="mypic.jpg"></a>.

In this example, visitors will see a picture, mypic.jpg, and clicking on it will take them to the Web Page Emporium website.

Both examples above are absolute links. This means that the URL for each link is complete -- it includes the protocol (http://), the server name (webpageemporium.com), and the path to the web page. Links can also be relative. To make a relative link, you only include the path to the web page relative to the location of the current page (the one containing the link). For example, to link to the page blank.html in the subdirectory "pages," use the following code:

<a href="../pages/blank.html"></a>.

When you link to web pages on your own website, relative links are faster because visitors' browsers will not need to look for the server. However, when you link to web pages on a different website, you will have to use absolute links.

How do I add pictures to my web page?

You can add pictures using the following HTML code:

<img src="filename">

where you replace "filename" with the actual file name of the picture you are using.

How do I add bold or italicized text?

You can add bold-faced text by enclosing the text within the <b> and </b> tags. For example, typing

<b>bold</b>

in the text box labeled "Main body" on the page creation form will result in the following text on your web page:

bold.

Adding italicized text works the same way, except that you use the <i> and </i> tags.

How do I add formatting to my text?

In a normal word processor you would add formatting by adding line breaks and skipping lines. Adding line breaks to the text you type into the WebUnicorn looks like it will work, but when your browser displays the preview or final version of your web page, the line breaks won't be where you want them. This is because web browsers by default don't recognize line breaks formed by hitting the ENTER key. When you make a web page, you need to use the <br> tag to signify a line break. You can skip lines by using multiple <br> tags or the <p> tag. The <p> tag starts a new paragraph. Browsers display paragraphs as blocks of text separated from other paragraphs by approximately one blank line.

Saving and uploading your web pages

Now that I've created a web page, how do I save it?

Right-click on the web page. Then select the "Save as" option from the pull-down menu that appears. A dialog box will appear. Select the directory where you want to save your web page. Then type in the file name in the text box. Be sure to use the file name you specified earlier. In case you don't remember which file name you used, check in the menu window where the file names are all displayed.

Only the final version of a web page should be saved, not the preview version.

I've saved my first web page. Now what?

Once you've saved your first web page, you can go on to create you other pages. First, close the window containing the completed web page. The menu window should still be open. Click on the button next to the name of one of the other pages you intend to create. A new window will open where you can repeat the same page creation process you used for your first page. The same process applies to all web pages.

How do I upload my web pages once I've saved them?

Now that you've created and saved all you web pages, you may be wondering what to do next. Although your work with Web Page Emporium is done, you still need to upload your web pages and pictures onto the Internet for other people to access. You can post your web pages on your own domain hosted by a web hosting service or in the webspace provided by your ISP. You will need to upload your files using what is called a FTP program. Some ISPs and hosting servies provide their own FTP programs or web-based FTP interfaces, but most require you to find your own FTP program.

Windows, Mac, and Unix-based computers come with a FTP program that runs on the command line. However, you may find it easier to use a third-party program. Third-party programs usually have graphical interfaces that allow you to upload files by dragging and dropping their icons. Some third-party programs, such as Filezilla and FTP Explorer, are free and provide their own documentation. If you prefer to use your computer's built-in FTP program, follow these directions to get started:

1. Make sure you know where you need to upload your webpages and any other files that will be stored on your website. If you have your own domain name, such as www.mywebsite.com, then mywebsite.com is probably the server where you will upload your files. Your hosting service should provide you with the server name and assign you a user name and passord. If you use the space provided by your Internet service provider, ask them where you should FTP your webpages and what user name and password you need.

2. Open a command prompt screen. In Windows, click on the Start button. Highlight and click on "Run." Type "command" without the quotation marks in the text box that appears and hit the ENTER key.

3. Go to the directory where you stored the files you want to upload. Do this by typing cd \ at the prompt, followed the path to your files from the root directory (C:\). Don't put a space between the '\' and the the path. For example, if your files are stored C:\webpages, then type
   cd \webpages .

4. Type
   ftp mywebsite.com ,
   replacing mywebsite.com with the name of the real server of your hosting service or ISP. The next screen will prompt you to enter your user name. Type your user name and push the ENTER key. The screen will prompt you to type in your password; do so and push ENTER again. For security reasons your password might not appear on the screen as you type, but don't worry about it because this is normal.

5. After you log in, you may need to change directories on the FTP server to the directory used to host web pages. Your hosting service should have included this information in their documentation. This path will usually be named something like htdocs. You can try to find it yourself by typing ls and hitting ENTER. The screen will display all the subdirectories and files in your current directory on the server.

6. Switch to the directory you want by typing cd <path>. For example, if you want to change to /www/htdocs, which means that htdocs is a subdirectory of the directory www, type
   cd /www/htdocs .

7. Once you are in the correct directory, you can start uploading your files. If you already switched to the directory on your computer where your web pages are stored, you don't need to change directories again. However, if you are in the wrong directory, you can change directories on your own computer using the lcd command. For example, type
   lcd C:\webpages
   if you need to reach the webpages directory on your computer.

8. Type ascii to switch into ASCII text mode. Upload each file by typing put followed by the file name. You can also upload many files at the same time using mput. Examples:
   put index.html
   uploads index.html.
   mput *.html
   uploads all files ending in the .html extension. If you need to upload picture or sound files, type binary before you upload them because these files are handled differently from regular HTML and text files.

9. To exit, type quit.

To learn about additional FTP commands, see our tutorial about command-line FTP or type help when you are using FTP.

Updating your web pages

How do I update my web pages?

The WebUnicorn will soon have a feature that allows you to save your forms. When you need to update your web pages, upload the forms, modify their contents, and create new pages. The WPwizard already implements this feature.

You can also update your pages by directly modifying them. To do this, you will need either a text or HTML editor. Don't worry, plain old Notepad works fine, too. To get started, open your editor software. Then open your web page in the editor. If you just want to change some of the text, you don't need to know much HTML. Just find the text you want to change and make the changes. See the questions on bold and italicized text for tips on basic formatting and on links and pictures for tips on how to modify links and pictures.

Our tutorials cover some of the basics of updating HTML. HTML tutorials are also available in abundance on the Internet and in bookstores.