# About Web Sites

In today’s busy world, businesses and individuals are constantly looking for better, faster, and more convenient ways to share information. Web sites are a way to share information with others in your office or around the world. This section introduces tools and techniques you can use to construct an interactive Web site. The following topics are covered:

- What Is a Web Site?
- Web Page Authoring
- Interactive Web Site Content

## What Is a Web Site?

A Web site is a location on a computer network that makes information in the form of pages or documents available to visitors who connect to the site by using a Web browser. The computer network can be the Internet, or an intranet, a local network linking all the computers in your office. The information can be published in the form of HTML pages, or in other document formats. To view the information available on a Web site, visitors use Web browser software programs, such as Microsoft® Internet Explorer, which translate HTML pages on Web sites to text and graphics on their monitors.

A home page is an entry page for a set of Web pages and other files in a Web site. It is a document written in HTML format that might describe the content available on the site, news about the department or company that the author works for, links to other related documents, or personal information about the site's author. In IIS, a home page is referred to as the default document. The primary function of a home page is to introduce visitors to your Web site and help them navigate through its pages. An effective home page must be visually appealing, logically organized, and must provide useful information. In the world of home pages, less is more.

## Web Page Authoring

Web pages can be made in many different ways and can contain a wide variety of content types. This section discusses some of the options for Web page authoring that are currently available. The following sections are included:

- HTML Web Page Formatting
- Which Authoring Tool Is Right for You?
- Multimedia Content and Other File Formats

### HTML Web Page Formatting

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It is a world-wide standard for using embedded code, or “tags,” to indicate the formatting that should be applied to text. For instance, to make the word hello appear in boldface type as it is shown here, the text file the browser reads must include the following tags: <strong>hello</strong>. The Web page author can create a plain text file and insert tags to create a page viewable by a browser, regardless of which operating system the browser the runs on. This cross-platform ability makes HTML an ideal way to exchange information between otherwise incompatible computer systems. For more information about HTML tags, visit the Web site of the World Wide Web Consortium, the international organization responsible for HTML standards. If you do not want to write HTML tags yourself, you can create and edit your content by using an HTML authoring tool that automatically inserts the tags for you.

### Which Authoring Tool Is Right for You?

When choosing an HTML authoring tool you should consider your level of experience and the type of content you want to publish on your Web pages. If you are new to Web page authoring, you may want to use an authoring tool that does not require you to know HTML. Some tools feature a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") user interface similar to those used in word processors, such as Microsoft® Word. This means that if you know how to use a word processor, you can create Web pages. Microsoft® FrontPage® is a good example of an easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor that has convenient wizards and templates for formatting your documents automatically. As you create and edit your Web page, FrontPage displays the page as it would appear in a Web browser.

You can also publish Web pages by converting an existing document into an HTML document. You can import your word processor and spreadsheet files into a converter and quickly turn them into Web pages. However, most converters only add HTML formatting tags to your text and sometimes do not preserve the original appearance of your document. You may find converters especially useful if you need to publish several existing documents that do not need frequent updating. Many word processing programs, such as Microsoft Word, have HTML conversion features.

You can use scripting methods, which you can learn more about in the Active Server Pages section, and a combination of different tools, to build dynamic Web sites for intranets and the Internet. Microsoft® Visual InterDev™ is a powerful Web application development tool that you can use to rapidly develop interactive Web sites.

If you choose, you can also create Web pages with a standard text editor such as Notepad. You can type in the HTML tags and preview your page by saving it, and then opening it in a Web browser. Some experienced users prefer this method. If you choose to create Web pages this way, you need to be familiar with HTML and be prepared to spend time troubleshooting your HTML files. For more information about HTML tags, visit the Web site of the World Wide Web Consortium, the international organization responsible for HTML standards.

### Multimedia Content and Other File Formats

Your Web page content is not limited to text, tables, and graphics; you can also add items such as sound and video. However, you will need appropriate software to create and edit those multimedia files. With programs such as Microsoft® Windows Media Services, you can easily add real-time sound and video to your Web page.

Using HTML, you can also create links to almost any other file format, including Microsoft® Office files. However, remote users must have the correct Web browsers and programs to view the non-HTML files. For example, if you know that all remote users will have Microsoft® Excel and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or later, you can include links to a Microsoft Excel worksheet. When the user clicks the link, the document appears in Microsoft Excel on the user’s computer.

## Interactive Web Site Content

Today, most commercial Internet sites use sophisticated, interactive Web pages to provide users with more informative and engaging types of content. These Web pages, often described as Web applications, incorporate processing programs, called scripts, that can retrieve information in response to user requests. For example, a typical Web application uses an entry form to collect a user’s request, retrieves relevant information from a database, and returns the information to the user.

You can create your own interactive form that inserts and deletes information in a data source. IIS includes a sample Microsoft Access database and a sample script with customization instructions so you can produce Web pages that interact with the database. You do not need to know HTML or a scripting language. Customizing the script is done by using cut-and-paste techniques. You do not need to have Microsoft Access installed on your computer to use the sample database. For more information, see Constructing an Interactive Form. To learn more about creating a larger database, using Microsoft SQL Server, or accessing stored data source procedures, see Accessing a Data Source.

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