Basics: Create a Page Template

Create Your Web Site Folders	When you begin to create a new web site, first create the folders that will house the web page files and the web page images. On the Windows Desktop, double click on My Computer. Double click on the drive (probably a:\) on which you want to locate your web site. When the drive window opens, choose File, New Folder from the pulldown menu.

	When the new folder appears, right click on the folder and choose Rename from the pop-up menu. Windows will highlight the folder name. Type over the highlighted name to rename the folder; call the folder homepage Double click on the homepage folder to open it. When the folder window opens, again choose File, New Folder from the pulldown menu. When the new folder appears, follow the directions above to rename the folder images.
	You now have a folder called homepage on your diskette and a folder called images within your homepage folder.
	All of the document files for the pages in your web site should be saved to your homepage folder. All of the graphic images that will appear on your pages should be saved to the images folder inside your homepage folder.
Create your Web Page Template	A template is a model page that you can use as a starting point for your work.
	Every web page contains some very basic HTML code that tells the browser some essential information.
	To save yourself the trouble of constantly recreating this basic code, create a template file that you can use over and over again as the starting point for all of the pages in your web site. To create a basic web page template: Open Notepad Type the basic web page code Save the file to your homepage folder on your a:\ drive as template.htm Remember to save the file as a .txt file.	Review: Start: Tour Notepad Basics: Create a New Page Basics: Save and Preview a Page
Use the Template to Create a Web Page	To create a web page with the template file: In Notepad open the file template.htm Next to the opening <TITLE> tag but after the second angle bracket, type My First Web Page	NOTE: Set the File of Type dropdown box to show All Files.
Ex: <TITLE>My First Web Page</TITLE>
Save a File	Now save the file. Go to File Save As and the Save As dialog box will appear. Be sure the homepage folder is open in the Save in dropdown box at the top of the dialog box. Name your file first.htm. In the Save as type dropdown box, choose Text Documents. Click on Save.	NOTE: When you are ready to create your first real home page, name the file default.htm
	You should now have two files in your homepage: your HTML template and the file in which you will create your first web page. To check, do the following: In Notepad go to File, Open. Be sure that the homepage folder is open in the Look in dropdown menu. In the Files of type dropdown box, scroll to All Files. You should see a file named template and a file named first.
	As you develop the navigation bar, address footer, and colors for your page background, text, and links add these elements to your template.htm file. Continue to save the file as template.htm. When you want to create a web page that contains the navigation bar, address footer, and other elements that are in your template file: Open template.htm Add contents to your document Select File, Save As from the main menu and rename the file. Continue to work on your new page. Because you used the File, Save As command, your original template.htm file still exists to be reused whenever you want to create another new page with the same basic elements.