Things Start Rolling
Back to my story—The first step was securing a domain name. David informed me that he had never liked my ‘Old Helicopter Pilot’ title and suggested I think of something else, as he did not think it accurately reflected what the book was all about.
After some hesitation, I agreed, and began the search for a suitable replacement. Naturally, many of the names I initially thought of were already taken. Finally, I hit on a name that I liked and was available—Vietnam Air Rescues.
Next, I needed a host server. I was able to find one that was recommended by a friend of Kaye's that has served me well. Then, with a little searching on the internet, I located a company that would encrypt the book. I was on my way!
Returning to my host server, I looked at the ready-made web pages they provided. I knew what I wanted my page to look like, and none of these fit the bill. Alas, when I talked to their technical support, I found them to be less than eager to help or even talk to me once they realized I wanted a blank page on which to put my design, rather than the ‘cookie cutter’ variety they offered .
After going round and round with them, they suggested that I learn ftp; that was the end of any support I was going to get from them. Mark was agitating for me to get a commercial web producing program like Front Page or Dreamweaver. My problem was that I wanted to get this thing going fast and I knew that I would require a two to three week period just to learn one of those programs before I could even begin.
David came to my rescue by showing me how to convert Word and Excel programs to html and load them using ftp. In spite of his suggestion that I use Word, I chose Excel because I had, in the past, experienced problems with keeping pictures where I wanted them with Word, whereas Excel allows you to ‘nail’ them in place. A disastrous decision, as it turned out.
I began slaving on the main web page and soon had it lined up to my satisfaction. The first problem I encountered was that, when displayed on the web, it looked just like a single sheet of paper with wide, white margins. Obviously, this had to change.
I tried changing from portrait to landscape, hoping to widen the page. That didn’t do any good. Then it occurred to me, duh, that all I had to do was widen my columns in Excel. It worked! The problem was that it looked good on my computer, but the boys all found truncated and missing words in the text. Back to square one.
BREAKING NEWS—Both my dear friend, Clarence Garten, and my Pastor, Charles Norman, contributed to the comments page on the website today. Praise the Lord! Now that page won’t have to be so lonely, with just a single comment. ALSO, yesterday I was interviewed by the local paper as a result of the efforts of Kenny Fields. They are planning to have some sort of story run this weekend in conjunction with Veterans’ Day. Loaned the paper reporter a copy of Kenny’s book, as well as my own.
Until next time
Dave
After some hesitation, I agreed, and began the search for a suitable replacement. Naturally, many of the names I initially thought of were already taken. Finally, I hit on a name that I liked and was available—Vietnam Air Rescues.
Next, I needed a host server. I was able to find one that was recommended by a friend of Kaye's that has served me well. Then, with a little searching on the internet, I located a company that would encrypt the book. I was on my way!
Returning to my host server, I looked at the ready-made web pages they provided. I knew what I wanted my page to look like, and none of these fit the bill. Alas, when I talked to their technical support, I found them to be less than eager to help or even talk to me once they realized I wanted a blank page on which to put my design, rather than the ‘cookie cutter’ variety they offered .
After going round and round with them, they suggested that I learn ftp; that was the end of any support I was going to get from them. Mark was agitating for me to get a commercial web producing program like Front Page or Dreamweaver. My problem was that I wanted to get this thing going fast and I knew that I would require a two to three week period just to learn one of those programs before I could even begin.
David came to my rescue by showing me how to convert Word and Excel programs to html and load them using ftp. In spite of his suggestion that I use Word, I chose Excel because I had, in the past, experienced problems with keeping pictures where I wanted them with Word, whereas Excel allows you to ‘nail’ them in place. A disastrous decision, as it turned out.
I began slaving on the main web page and soon had it lined up to my satisfaction. The first problem I encountered was that, when displayed on the web, it looked just like a single sheet of paper with wide, white margins. Obviously, this had to change.
I tried changing from portrait to landscape, hoping to widen the page. That didn’t do any good. Then it occurred to me, duh, that all I had to do was widen my columns in Excel. It worked! The problem was that it looked good on my computer, but the boys all found truncated and missing words in the text. Back to square one.
BREAKING NEWS—Both my dear friend, Clarence Garten, and my Pastor, Charles Norman, contributed to the comments page on the website today. Praise the Lord! Now that page won’t have to be so lonely, with just a single comment. ALSO, yesterday I was interviewed by the local paper as a result of the efforts of Kenny Fields. They are planning to have some sort of story run this weekend in conjunction with Veterans’ Day. Loaned the paper reporter a copy of Kenny’s book, as well as my own.
Until next time
Dave
posted by Dave | 2:38 PM
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