I started my Web site for the most pedestrian of reasons: I got tired of losing my bookmarks anytime I switched to a different computer. I might switch simply because I use several different computers, or because I might upgrade my computer. Also, I would lose my bookmarks if I needed to format my hard disk to install a new version of Windows. Therefore, my original intent was to create a Web site that had links to Web pages that I found useful, and I wouldn't lose my links if I reformatted my hard drive or moved to another computer. I used Netscape Composer to create my Web site because it was free and it was easy to use. However, I quickly discovered that there were occasions where I couldn't quite get a page to look the way I wanted using Composer. Netscape Composer is not a Microsoft product (quite the contrary!). But problems with Composer remind me of problems with Microsoft Word. Sometimes, you just can't get things to look right with Word, whereas it is easy to do so with WordPerfect. And if you have trouble with WordPerfect, you can always use Reveal Codes to see what is going on. However, Word does not have Reveal Codes, and Microsoft seems rather arrogantly proud of this limitation of Word. The Help file says that Word doesn't have Reveal Codes because it doesn't need Reveal Codes (hubris in the extreme). Update to my comments about Microsoft Word. It long since has added a Reveal Codes feature and has removed the hubris filled comments about not needing Reveal Codes. And Microsoft Word has long since become easier to deal with when it comes to difficult formatting problems. But the Microsoft Word version of Reveal Codes is nowhere near as good was the WordPerfect Version. And Microsoft Word still is not and never will be as easy to use overall as was WordPerfect. Nevertheless, Microsoft Word has long since become the industry standard and my standard Word Processor. It's still very irritating to use sometimes and it still contains a good deal of hubris where it tries to do my thinking for me rather than giving me tools to make my thinking easier. But it meets my needs and WordPerfect is no longer really on my radar. |
Netscape Composer doesn't have Reveal Codes, either. But in the case of Web pages, you can see and edit the HTML source. I think of HTML source as the moral equivalent of WordPerfect's Reveal Codes facility. Therefore, I learned HTML. However, the HTML created by Netscape Composer is horrible. I couldn't stand to use a text editor go into a Web page created with Composer, even just to make a minor tweak or two. Therefore, I quit using Composer, and Notepad became my HTML editor of choice. In the midst of trying to come up with a good tool for creating my Web pages, I also tried Word and WordPerfect. Both of them have the capability of doing a Save As... to save a document as a Web page. But the Web pages that both of them create are pretty terrible, so I stuck with Notepad. Once I started creating a Web site, I quickly became hooked and went well beyond just using my Web site to store my bookmarks. My Web site now contains information from a number of my interests: math, Rubik's Cube, family history, quotes and pithy sayings, etc. These days, most of the content has to do with genealogy and family history. My web pages are really just for me, but I put them on the Internet as a way of sharing with anyone who has similar interests. |
|
|
This page last edited on 09 Nov 2022.