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HTML Tutorial
Web Design - Good and Bad Practice
Part Seventeen

How To Get Started - A 12-Step Program
1. Buy a WYSIWYG web page editor like Dreamweaver. Most have tutorials and sample pages.

2. Study the web. Look at lots of pages. Learn to tell the wheat from the chaff.

3. Read articles in this tutorials.

4. Find pages that you like and load them into your web page editor for study.

5. Use the web - there are thousands of sites that have tutorials and explanations of every aspect of web site design and implementation. And most have pointers to lots of other sites. Start with Yahoo or Excite or Infoseek.

6. Visit your local bookstore. Look for books on web page and web site design.

7. Work on your site. Set the goals for your site. Develop a style for your site. Play and experiment. Start small and simple - you can always make it wondrous and complex later on.

8. Publish your site.

9. Announce your site - use email, Usenet, search engines.

10. Continuously refine your site. Meditate on your goals.

11. Go back to step 2

12. Turn away from the web and look inside yourself

A Final Thought
Before putting something on a web page, think about its real-world equivalent and use that as a guide. If there is no real-world equivalent, it's a bad sign. 

A Final Word 
Don't take this as being against graphics and creative page design. The intelligent use of graphic elements and design can add greatly to the attractiveness of a web page. But it's like putting on makeup - you have to know when to stop.

A Final Hint 

Don't give people special instructions on how to view your site, like: 

Change these browser settings

Open the browser window |--- this wide ---|

Stop right now and download this other browser

Best viewed with ...

Only viewable with ...

Click here if your browser supports frames

If you're using a browser that does not auto-refresh Click Here.

Download this plug-in

Set up this helper application

Turn off the underlining on links

Download this special font

How to print this page (Don't I just say "Print"?)

Click here for a tutorial on how to view this site

You don't have Java? Go away!

If you lived here, you'd be home now. 

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