Customizing Your Site

Customizing your site

If you have been using a WYSIWYG application to build your page you will now be entering the realm of entering HTML code into your site, don't be afraid, it is a good thing that makes great things happen. Seeing your page in souce view may seem like a jumble of words and symbols at first but soon it will begin to make sense.

HTML code is very particular, everything has to be entered exactly as shown, otherwise it just doesn't work, I find that it is usually safer to copy the lines of code from here and paste them into your page, then highlight words such as "mydomain" and type in your actual information.

Adding a Favicon

Most browsers now support having a small icon to the left of the site name in the favorites and the url in the location bar. Adding a favicon will add a professional touch to your site and make it stand out in your visitors bookmarks.

To make a favicon create an image 16 X 16 pixels in size, this is a very small image so you can't get too fancy. The image must be saved as an ICO file named: "favicon.ico", you can not just rename a graphic file, it must be converted.

Several free or shareware demo applications will do this, PC users can download PixelToolBox it is free , Mac users can download Graphic Converter, it is shareware but will work in demo mode.

Open your web page application in source view and add this code to the <head> section of your "index.html" page:

Replacing "mydomain" with the domain name of your site.

Upload the "favicon.ico" file to the root folder of your server along with the revised "index.html" file.

Adding a subject to email message

Sometimes it is convenient to have the subject already added to the blank message that opens up when a visitor clicks on an email link on your site.

To do this go into source view and find the link, it will look like this:

Add "?subject=_YourSubject" to make the link look like this:

Replacing "AddSubjectHere" with the subject you desire for the message.

Adding Javascript

JavaScript provides a quick and simple language for enhancing web pages and servers. It is embedded as a small program in a web page to control certain functions of most browsers. Some examples are calculators, calendars, forms, and effects.

The JavaScript Source offers an extensive collection of free Javascript additions for your web page. Simply follow the instructions, copying and pasting the code to your site in source view.

Opening A Page In A New Window

In order to get visitors to remain on your page it is best to have links to other sites open in a new window so that your site remains open. When the visitor closes the window to the other site he will return to your site.

Highlight the link and switch to source view, the link will look like this:

<a href="http://www.doit101.com">Do-It-101

Add "target=_blank" between the " and the >

Your new link will look like this

<a href="http://www.doit101.com" target=_blank>Do-It-101

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