Some terms you might want to know:
The programming language for creating web pages (placing text and picures on a page) is called HTML (or HyperText Markup Language). The method you use to send files is called a "protocol." There are several protocols used on the Internet. One is called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). There are other ways to place completed web pages on a server. Another protocol used with Web pages is called HTTP (HyperText Transmission Protocol). "Secure" web pages may use the "HTTPS" protocol.
There are several ways to present pictures or images. One way is called GIF (Graphic Interchange Format). Another is called JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). The "standard" best way to send a "normal" image is to use GIF, which is faster and has several other benefits. If you need color "exactness" (as in a photograph), you can use JPEG but since more color information is being sent, it takes longer for someone to receive it. Another format is PNG (Portable Network Graphics). At this point, you will be "safe" to stay with GIF and JPEG formats.
To display a Web page in its "production form," you use a software program called a "browser." Two of the major browsers are "Netscape Navigator (or Communicator)" and "Microsoft's Internet Explorer." America OnLine offers a third option and Opera, Safari and others are available. If you are connected to the Internet, you can tell your browser to open a file from anywhere on the Internet you specify and the browser displays that file.
Other Basic Concepts:
Since the Web is text and file based, many of the old processes you may know from ClarisWorks or Word do not directly apply. Essentially, there are no fonts, no margins, no font sizes, no tabs, no "absolute positions" in a document (and really, no pictures) on web pages. However, there are ways to get around these apparent limitations.
Using basic HTML (the language) is very limited, again, because in reality, you are sending text. If you want to show a picture in a certain place, you will be telling the system to "insert a picture file" at that certain place in the text "stream." The picture really isn’t there, but the browser is being told to find the picture file and place the contents of the file at that location. When one page is linked to another page, you are telling the system, "If you click here, display this other file (page) now."
Because of the process of placing image files in certain locations, as an author, you must be very careful to not rename or move files once the are placed in a document. The files are located by where they are saved in relation to the web page and by the exact name you give when the file is placed. One of the most common problems with web pages occurs when a file is moved or renamed but other files are not moved in the same relationship as the original file.
Web pages are written in HTML, and almost always end in .html or .htm. Pictures on the Internet web pages always end in .gif or .jpeg or .jpg and this standard naming tells the computer and your browser how to present them to you.