Tell Your Story: HTML Help, from A Year to Remember... with My Mother and Alzheimer's Disease, by Brenda S. Parris

HTML is so much easier to learn than most people think. The hardest part for most people, it seems, is having something to say. If you are or have been an Alzheimer's caregiver, you don't have to worry about that--you've got a story. You can get started telling it right away with just basic HTML and learn as you go. If you click on your browser's "View" and "Source", you should be able to see the HTML code for most any page, and that's a good way to learn. The following links will give you some instructions that will help, too. There's many more if you want to search the net, but these will help get you started.

2024 Update: So much has changed since I started this Web site in 1996, but a lot about basic HTML coding is still the same. Yes, you can view the source of a simple site like mine, but the coding on most professional Web sites out there will probably leave you scratching your head these days. Look at the source code of mine, and use the tutorials. Of course, there are free sites that do all or most of the work for you. And there are HTML editors, and WORD of course, but I have found those destroyed what I was trying to do most of the time, added extra coding that messed up my pages and took hours of extra work to try to correct. So I still, in 2024, open up Note Pad and do my own coding.

The Barebones Guide to HTML

HTML Color Codes

HTML Design Guide

W3 Schools HTML Tutorial

Books:

Lemay, Laura. Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week. Indianapolis: Sams.net, 1995.
LeMay, Laura. Teach Yourself More Web Publishing with HTML in A Week. Indianapolis: Sams.net, 1995.

Where to Find Backgrounds and Graphics:

2024 Update: There used to be so many more graphics offered for personal Web sites, but most have disappeared, just as have so many personal Home Page (as we called them back in 1996) creators. I will try to create and add a section of them on my site as time allows, but for now, if you find a background or graphics here that I have created (look for my copyright at the bottom of the pages), you may use them, I only ask that you give me credit and include a link back to my Web site. Please don't use any that I have not created--see the bottom of the page for the creator and ask them for permission if they can still be found.

Home Page Dos and Don'ts:

1. Do use backgrounds, graphics, and music from pages that offer them free. All you do is right-click with your mouse and save them to your computer. Then put them in as BODY BACKGROUND=" " for a background, IMG SRC=" ", for a graphic, either A HREF=" " (clickable) or EMBED BG SOUND=" " /EMBED for midi music.

2. Do not use anything from another site without asking for permisson and giving credit. Each site should tell you just what is required, and some are very specific about how credit is to be given.

3. Never link to a graphic at someone else's site instead of saving it to your computer.

Where to Get a Free Home Page:

Your Internet Service Provider may give you free space for a personal home page. If not, there are other places you can go to sign up for one:

HTML and Graphics Tools:

Clickable Color Palette Map
JPEG Wizard
Paint Shop Pro This has been my preferred graphics editor all along. I still prefer some of the earlier versions, like 7 or 8

Guestbooks, Message Boards, Site search engines and directories:

When you get your page about Alzheimer's uploaded, let me know the URL so I can link it on my page of
Other Personal Homepages.

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