Web Maker
A short course in designing and bulding a web site.
Step 5: Test your page.
Testing, testing...
Now you are ready to see if your Home Page works. The way to test your page is to look at it just as your audience will look at it: with Netscape or Internet Explorer. These are the World Wide Web browser that most people use. (If you use a different Web browser, these instructions should work just about the same.)
Quit the Claris Home Page program. Open Netscape. From the File menu, choose Open File. Click on the Desktop button, then choose your Home Page folder, then choose your first home page. Your Home Page will open in Netscape. Now you are seeing it just as your audience will see it. Does it look the way you want? Make a note of the things that need to be changed. (You can't change your Home Page while looking at it with Netscape.) Test the links to the other pages. Don't forget to check the picture links as well as the text links.
While your page is running in Netscape, it's a good idea to have some other people look at it. Bring your colleagues, or your teacher, over to the computer and ask them to view your Home Page. Ask them to give you ideas on how the page could be made better. Make a note of these ideas also.
At this point it's a good idea to double check the content of your web pages. Is everything that you write and show there okay to publish? Are there some pictures or paragraphs that belong to others? Should you seek their permission before publishing them? And is there any word or picture or sound that will offend someone else? If so, it doesn't belong on your Home Page. When you publish a Home Page, where many other people will see it, you have a special responsibility to make sure that it's fair, accurate, and supportive of other people.
When your page has been tested thoroughly by you and others, and you have taken notes on the changes to be made, you may quit Netscape. Then open your home page with Claris Home Page, and make the necessary changes. Don't forget to fix the second and third pages as well as the first. And make sure you save your pages when you have finished making the changes.
Copyright © by James G. Lengel 1997.