I put this page together in the hope of making it a little easier for webtv users to sign up and use Tripod ® to make their own web pages. With the following information I will take you step by step through the process of signing up, logging in and creating your own web page. You don't need to know any HTML to be able to create a basic page but a little basic knowledge of HTML will help to make it easier to customize your pages once you have become familiar with how to use Tripod ®. Here are two sites that you can use to accomplish that. You can practice and play with it in your signature on your e-mail. The first is a how-to on basic HTML and the second is a treatise on why you shouldn't link to other web sites.

We'll start by going to Tripod's® front page. There you will go to the top right corner where you will see a small "Sign Up" (see image) that you will click on. This will take you to the "Sign Up" (see image) page.

Fill out the form. When it asks you to choose a member name, select something you will be happy with. It is case sensitive, that is, that if you use capitals in the member name now you will always have to use the capitals. It will be in the address (URL) of all your web pages. Plus it will be used to log in when you want to work on your pages. Then click the "I agree to terms" button.

The next page will be the "Sign Up" page (see image). Here you can sign up for a variety of things like a newsletter. Make your choices by checking or unchecking the boxes. Click on the "Submit" button.

The next page you will be taken to is the "Welcome" page (see image). Here it will show you your "member name" and tell you that your password will show up in your e-mail. It normally shows up within a couple of minutes after you get to this page. Down the page a little it asks if you would like to join a "Pod". You can but it is not required. Now you want to stop here and get your password from your e-mail, though you shouldn't need it for the rest of this process. After you retrieve your password use the "Recent" key to return to the "Welcome" page.

Each time you switch users or turn on your terminal for the first time of the day you will need your member (user) name and password to log in when you want access to your web page. For now you would do that on Tripod's® front page right next to where you clicked on the "Sign Up". As of 12/99 you no longer need to log in. Tripod will recognise you when you go to your housekeeper. It says "Log In". Go here to see how that would work.

Now at the top of this same page (the Welcome Page),on the right side, click on the "Build".

That will take you to the "Build/homepage studio" page (see image). This is a new page and is not WebTV compatible. You will need to go to http://homepager.tripod.com/service/homepager/housekeeper/ for the WebTV compatible page. You can also scroll about 3/4s of the way down this new "Build" page and click on "WebTV". The WebTV compatible page will look a little different but it is basically the same. If you want to look at the features and add ons on this Webtv compatible page now then do so to familiarize yourself with them. Now click on the "Quick Page". It's right underneath the "homepage studio" title. Now on to building your first page.

The page you come to next will say "Choose a Filename" (see image). This is where you will name your page. The first one should be called "index.html". Any other pages you make can be named anything you want but needs to end in .html or .htm. When you come back here later to name another page there will be something already written in the box. Erase it and put what you want in the box. Now click on the "Use This Filename" button.

On the next page you will choose a layout for your page. For your first one I would suggest "Layout 1" (see image). You can always erase the page later and use the other layout if you want. Now you can click on "Layout 1", the graphic or "Select This Layout". This will take you to the "Quick Page Editor®" (see image).

This is where you will put what you want on your page. The first thing to do is create the title for it. This isn't necessarily the title you will have on the page itself though it usually is. Search engines use the title to index your page correctly. If your page is about books, put books in the title. Now click on "Create the title".

This will take you to the "Title Editor" (see image). There will be somethng like "gsmith's page" in the box, just erase it, write in your title and click on the "Use This Title" button.

This will take you to The "Section Stored" page (see image). Here it will show you the HTML used for the title. For now just click on the "OK" button at the bottom of the page.

That will take you back to the "Quick Page Editor®" (see image). Now you get to pick the color for the background, text and links. Click on "Pick a color scheme".

That will take you to the "Color Scheme Picker" (see image). Choose one of the colors and click on it. You can always change it later.

The next page is the "Section Stored" page that shows you the HTML used to produce those colors. Scroll down and click on the "OK" button whch takes you back to the "Quick Page Editor®".

Let's take a short detour to see your web site directory. On the "Quick Page Editor®" page (see image) you were just on scroll to the top of the page where you will see a small menu off to the left. Click on the "Homepage Housekeeper®".

This is what Tripod® calls your parent (main) directory (see image). When you get there you will see the beginning of a short list with only your index.html listed. At the right of that list it says "Edit, Rename, Copy and Erase" for that page. Those are the things you can do to your page. You would click on "Edit" to take you to the "Quick Page Editor®" Each page you create will show up like that. This is also where any files that you transload will show up until you create a sub-directory. Files are gifs, jpgs, midis etc.

Above the list is where you will eventually go to create a new page or a sub-directory. Below the list will be another list of how many files you have and how much space you have used and have left.

Now is the time that you should save this page, the "Housekeeper®" in a favorites folder. Later you should make it a shorcut "F" key. That way when you want to access your site all you have to do is hit that "F" key. If this would be the first time today you accessed it the "Log In" screen would pop up and after logging in it would take you to the directory. If you had already logged in it would just take you straight there.

Now let's get back to building your page, click on the "Edit" on the line for your "index.html" page. Then click on the "Next Page" below.