 The World Wide Web is a collection of electronic documents linked together like a spider web.  These documents are stored on computers called servers located around the world.  The Web has evolved into a global electronic publishing and commerce medium.

 The Web consists of: ◦ Your personal computer or mobile device ◦ Web browser software to access the Web ◦ A connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) ◦ Servers to host the data ◦ Routers and switches to direct the flow of data

 Web pages are stored on web servers located around the globe.  Entering the Uniform Resource Locator or URL of a web page in your web browser or clicking a link sends a request to the server that hosts the page.  The server transmits the web page data to your computer/ device and your web browser displays it on your screen.

 A web page is an electronic document written in a computer language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).  Web pages can contain text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, as well as interactive features, such as data entry forms and games.  Each page has a unique address known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which identifies its location on the server.  Web pages usually contain hyperlinks to other web pages. Hyperlinks are text and images that reference the addresses of other web pages.

 A website consists of one or more web pages that relate to a common theme, such as a person, business, organization, or a subject, such as news or sports.  The first page is called the home page, which acts like an index, indicating the content on the site. For this reason, its file name is typically index.html  From the home page, you can click links to access other pages on the site or other resources on the Web.

 There are three main ways to move between web pages or websites: ◦ Clicking a text link. ◦ Clicking a hyperlinked graphic, such as a button, photograph, or drawing. ◦ Typing the URL of a web page in the location box (also known as the address field) of your web browser and then pressing the Enter or Return key.

 Text links are usually underlined and in a different color from the rest of the text.  To determine if a graphic is hyperlinked, move your cursor arrow over the image. You know the item is hyperlinked if: ◦ The arrow turns into a hand. [Hand Icon] ◦ A URL appears in the status bar at the bottom of your web browser (except in some browsers such as Safari.)

 A text or graphic hyperlink hides a URL.  Clicking a hyperlink passes the URL to your browser.  The text or image you click on is called the label.  In addition to pointing to web pages, hyperlinks can access media files or pop open photo viewing windows.

 A URL indicates where the web page is stored on the Internet.  URLs never use back slashes (\). All slashes are forward slashes (/).  You need to type a URL exactly for your browser to locate the desired web page. Otherwise you will access the wrong site or get an error message.  URLs may not contain spaces between characters.  The location box or address field on your browser indicates the URL of the page you arrived at after clicking a link.

 The home page for the Learn the Net website.  Blogs or weblogs from Wired magazine.  ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/ A directory of files at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that you can download. ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/  news:rec.gardens.roses A newsgroup about rose gardening. news:rec.gardens.roses

 Here's how to interpret the various parts of a URL: ◦ Short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, this indicates a Web document or directory. ◦ www. This indicates a page on the World Wide Web. (These days, the "www" is usually optional, which is why its not used for the URL above.) ◦ urlnextdoor.com This is the domain name, which includes the top-level domain (below). ◦.com Called the top-level domain, it often indicates the name of a company, university, or organization. It can also tell you the country of origin. ◦ / Forward slashes separate parts of the file structure. ◦ ai/ and web-design_1-fundamentals/ These are the folders on the web server that contains groups of related web pages within the website. ◦ index.php This is a web page inside a folder. A URL doesn't always include the file name of the web page. In this case, using design_1-fundamentals/ would have worked just as well., because index.php is the default page for the folder.

 Place your cursor over the graphic you want to save. ◦ Windows users: Click the right mouse button. A pop-up box appears. ◦ Macintosh users: Click and hold the mouse button. A pop-up box appears.  Save the image to your hard drive by selecting a Save Image As… or similar option.  You can accept the current file name or rename the file (web graphic files are usually in.gif,.png or.jpg formats—don’t change this file extension!)