Why not make your own webpage?

If you have a business and wish to add it to the business website for Minonk, just send me your website link and name and it will be added to the list. Some have asked me how much I charge for a link. The answer is no charge. It will be a free service to help the local businesses in the area. My goal is to make the MinonkTalk website a portal for all other websites pertaining to this area. A portal in internet jargon means an entry point to begin your web surfing and if you want to surf Minonk you come to MinonkTalk.

You probably have noticed that there are no banners or flashing signs on this website trying to grab your attention. I prefer to keep advertisement to a very basic level and want to avoid clutter that is so prevalent in most websites that are profit making enterprises.

The other new feature that was added was a link for family genealogies. Glenn Barth of Minonk put on his "My family" genealogy webpage last week. He has done exhaustive reasearch on his four great grandparents and put it together in the form of a web page complete with pictures. I thought it made for fascinating reading. His great grandfather Michael Barth had 12 children and probably has over 450 people who are direct descendents of him.

I encourage other amateur (or professional for that matter) genealogists to submit their family history or tree in the form of a webpage to this website. Being a small community where everybody wants to know everyone else's business, I feel that putting your family history on the website would be a worthy addition. Knowing local family histories gives us all more of a connection with the past and also imparts a feeling of solidarity with our fellow citizen that binds us all together. The more we all know about each other, the more we all have in common. I feel closer to the Barth family just by reading about their history.

In order to create your own webpage you must be able to create a file that has imbedded characters called HTML code. HTML code stands for Hypertext Markup Language. An HTML file consists of regular text interspersed with special characters that indicate how the text is to be handled. You can put in codes that tell the word to be displayed in bold or in blue or in a larger font. If you want to see an example of HTML code that created this webpage just click on the "View" menu item at the top and then select "Source". It probably looks weird to a first time viewer.

Since I am a programmer by trade, I create my own HTML files using native HTML code. That means that I manually write out the code. However, most people use an HTML editor to create their web pages so that they don't have to learn all the dirty little syntaxes that are required to create a webpage.

I recommend those who want to create their own webpages to get on the internet and do a search on "HTML editor". You will find that their are a lot of free HTML editors out there that are easy to use. A lot of people use FrontPage put out by Microsoft but it costs over $150. 1st Page 2000 is a free HTML editor that you can download from http://www.evrsoft.com.

I think it can be a lot of fun to create your own style of webpage. Even if you don't submit a webpage to this website, you can still have a webpage to show to your family and friends. You don't have to necessarily just create a family tree or history page. Ideas for a webpage could include a current lifestyle page that shows family pictures, your pets, your home, your cars, and even photos of major events in your life. In effect, you can create an online album which will gradually replace those dusty old photo albums that are seldomed looked at.

In future editorials, I will discuss in a little more detail how to create a webpage. For now, start thinking about what you would like to do for a webpage.

A final note on emails. I have received a lot of mail with attachments but no message. I do not open these emails. I delete them instead because of potential viruses. So if you have sent me email with no message it will not be read or opened.