2. CONTENTS OF A SIMPLE WEBSITE
At the most basic level a website is nothing more than a set of files written in a specific way
that can be interpreted (or parsed, in web lingo) by a web browser. In order for all browsers to
interpret the files the web pages must be written in a consistent manner. T his consistency of
form is HT ML, or HyperT ext Mark-up Language. Because HT ML is nothing more than a text file
written in a specific format, all that is needed to write web pages is a text editor. Creating
pages this way requires knowledge of the HT ML format, and while HT ML is not all that hard to
learn, most people prefer a more visual way of designing pages. Applications such as
BlueGriffon allow people to make functional websites by creating the mark-up language for
you, based on the information you provide as you create the content.
T he design of BlueGriffon makes the experience of web page design very similar to using a
word processor. While this makes learning the software easier for most, there are a few traps
that lurk in the shadows of this kind of approach. T he Hypertext part of HT ML is what makes
linking possible in web pages, and understanding how links work is crucial before successfully
creating a website. I'll give you a brief introduction here, but I recommend further reading for
more detail of how all this works.
T he tutorial is about to lead you through the steps of creating one small and simple web page
using BlueGriffon. If you have not already done so:
visit the BlueGriffon website to download and install this application, or
find the BlueGriffon application in the repository of your Linux distribution and install it
using your favorite package manager.
When you first open BlueGriffon, whether by e.g.:
Activities, Applications, BlueGriffon [via Gnome 3 on Linux],
Launcher [on OS X], or
Start, Programs, All Programs [on Windows]
you will be presented with a screen that resembles:
