Making a simple webpage with Microsoft Word

Choose a subject or scroll down the page.

• Starting a webpage
• The Toolbar
• Making a Hyperlink to an Internet site
• Making a Hyperlink to another page in your website
• Adding a background
• Adding a picture

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Microsoft Word 97 has excellent facilities for making effective and attractive webpages. Since it is regularly used in schools, it is often available when other Internet software is not installed. Children can also use it to quickly master the word processing skills that are at the foundation of Webpage editing.

Using MS Word 97 to make web pages means that only the skills of hyperlinking and choosing appropriate graphics need to be taught before children can publish to the Web as easily as making a printed poem or story in school.

Teachers can use the same program to create attractive school websites that link to children's work produced using the same software.

Starting a webpage

To enter the Web Page making mode of Word 97, Click on File and then New. You will be given the option of Web Pages in the list of folders. Choose Blank Web Page from the options.

When the blank page appears simply start typing.(Avoid going wild with fonts - viewers of your page on the Internet will not see any fonts that they do not have on their computer.)

After you have created a few lines it is a good idea to save your page. If you are making a new website create a new folder and place all the pages you create in it so that they can be linked together.

The Toolbar

The MS Word toolbar has several icons specifically related to the internet and making webpages. This is only a brief guide - just click on Help for fully interactive assistance from the in built help.

These are the icons from left to right:

The Hyperlink icon | The web toolbar icon | The preview icon | The form design icon | Picture icon | Tables | Tables & Borders

• Hyperlink - makes clickable links between pages or to the internet.
• Web Toolbar - makes the favourites and navigation icons appear so that you can browse the web (limited value.)
• Preview - this allows you to see the page you are making as it would appear on the Internet - MS Word promts you to save your page first. (Always check your page regularly.)
• Form design - creates interactive reply forms (too complicated - avoid.)
• Picture - allows you to add a picture or graphic to your page. (Graphics bring webpages to life.)
• Tables & Borders - tables help to organise word or pictures into neatly aligned boxes - useful.

Making a Hyperlink to another website.

Hyperlinks are what makes the Internet work - text or pictures that you click on to take you somewhere else. Sometimes Hyperlinks are referred to as hotlinks or if they are words, Hypertext.

To make a link to a page on the Internet, simply highlight some text that will become the link and click the Hyperlink Icon.

In the box that says Link to file or URL: - type in the full Internet address of the webpage. This will begin with http:// - E.g. BBC = http://www.bbc.co.uk

Making a link to another of your webpages

Making local links to pages in the same folder is the key to constructing a website. Before making a local link make sure the page you are working on and the one you want to link to are saved inside the same folder.

To make a link, simply highlight the text that you wish to make into a link and click on the Hyperlink Icon. Use the Browse button to allow you to search through the files on your computer to find the page that you want to link to (It should be in the same folder as the one you are working on.) Click on the file to make the link.

Once you have made your link, save your page and use the Preview icon to test if it works.

Adding a background graphic

Adding a background graphic or colour can make a page look very professional and helps to provide a theme for your website if it occurs on many pages.

To add a background click on the icon that looks like a paint tin. This is the Fill icon.

Clicking the Fill icon allows you to choose a colour for the page background. If you want a picture background you can click the Fill effects button to see a selection of effective backgrounds.

The Other Texture icon allows you to add a background from elsewhere on your computer, or perhaps one made by the children.

Adding a picture

By clicking the Picture icon you will be given the option to choose a picture to insert into your webpage.

Points to note about pictures for webpages.

• Use JPEG or GIF format pictures.
• Do not add too many pictures, especially if they are big or have large filesizes.
• Use an art program to make big pictures smaller.
• Some pictures, called Animated GIFS, move - they often take a long time to download.

Now all you need to do is send your finished folder to your Internet Service Provider using the instructions they provided.

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