How to Build a Website With Notepad

Notepad makes a great HTML editor.

Notepad is a no-frills text editor that Microsoft includes with every operating system. It is an excellent utility to provide manual entry of HTML code because it adds no additional formatting that might interfere with your original code. If you have solid HTML skills, Notepad provides you with a free and reliable platform for building websites from scratch, which you can then copy and paste to your Web server.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Notepad
• Web server

Instructions

1. Open Notepad by clicking "File" and then "New" and type an outline for your website. Begin your homepage by typing "index.html." Press "Enter" and then type all the sub-pages that you will add to your website on the following lines. For example, type "page_01.html" and then "page_02.html" on the next line---continuing with as many pages as you plan to have on your site.

2. Save your Notepad outline. Click "File," then "Save As" and type "outline" for the file name. Select the folder where you will save all your website files and click the "Save" button to save the file as outline.txt.

   Keep the outline.txt file open and use it as a reference to guide you in naming additional HTML pages for your site.

3. Create your homepage. Open a new Notepad window and enter the all the HTML code for your homepage. Click "File," "Save As" and then select "All Files" from the drop-down menu. Enter "index.html" as the file name and click the "Save" button.

4. Add additional Web pages using Notepad. Enter your HTML code and save your next file as "page_01.html" or whatever file name you used in the outline.txt document. Repeat until all pages are complete, as these will be the HTML documents for all your other Web pages.

5. Preview your website by opening the folder containing all your HTML files and double-clicking the "index.html" file.

6. Edit your HTML code to correct any mistakes by clicking "File" then "Open" in Notepad. Be sure to select "All Files" from the drop-down menu to display the HTML documents you created.

7. Connect to your Web server by adding a network location in Windows to upload your files. Click "My Computer" from the Start Menu, then click "File" and "Add a Network Location." Use the network connection wizard to enter the FTP site for your Web server. Supply a user name and password to log in to your server. Windows will then open the FTP site window. Simply copy the HTML files you created with Notepad from the folder on your hard drive by right-clicking and selecting "Copy" and then paste these files to the FTP site window to upload your HTML files.

References

• Notepad.com: Web crafting the old fasioned way - with Notepad!
• Notepad.org: The Best HTML Editor

Resources

• Notepad.com: Learn HTML