Unless you have an editor, such as Netscape Composer, FrontPage or Dreamweaver, you should be writing your HTML in a normal word processor such as MS Word, Word Perfect, WordPad or Notepad. I use Notepad, so it will be used in this discussion.

Open a new empty document, and fill in with the HTML code that you have learned from Easy HTML. When you are satisfied, or are ready to view what you have created, you need to do two things.

• Save the document as a text document (*.txt) Remember the directory you save the file in. It may be helpful to save it right to your desktop for quick and convenient retrieval.
  • File, Save As..., mydoc.txt
• Then save the document as an HTML Document (*.html). Save this in the same place as the text version.
  • File, Save As..., mydoc.html

Now when you update the HTML document, you can open it by doing the following:

• open your browser, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, and then drag the HTML document icon into the browser.
• In the browser, choose File, Open..., and then select the HTML document from the directory that you saved it in.
• Or simply double-click on the document icon.

The HTML code that has been done correctly will appear in the browser. Everytime you make a change, choose "save" in your word processor. Be sure you are always updating the HTML version, not the text (*.txt) version, because then after every save, a click of the "Reload" button in your browser will present the changes and editions you have made in your code. If you have been working in the text version you saved, choose "save as" again, and save it as an *.html document.
You may be warned that this document already exists and will be asked if you want to replace it. You can answer yes to update the new changes, or you can rename the document so the old version still exists in case your new code doesn't work properly.

If for some reason you can not find your text document, but can see your page on a browser, open the "Edit" file in the browser, then choose "View Source" or "document source." Select all the text with your mouse, hold ctrl + C to copy the text, then paste it into a word processor and save it. This is your HTML and can be retrieved at any time.

Another option to creating a web page is to use free web space set aside by various organizations. In fact, this page is hosted by Angelfire, and other organizations that will help you set up a web page are those such as GeoCities, and ivillage, Lycos, Tripod, Fortune City, One Stop Network, and User World among others.

These pages allow you to create or upload files, choose from their graphics, backgrounds and icons, and even offer support. Check them out!

If this has been confusing for you, please email me.