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GeoCities, your home on the web.

Using WebTV with GeoCities

Once you've signed-up and joined GeoCities, it's time to start your home page. Creating a GeoCities home page using WebTV is easy and fun. Because GeoCities provides the ability to create home pages without uploading files, WebTV users can enjoy creating their home page right away using tools that we have on our site. But before you start creating your home page, there are a few IMPORTANT things for WebTV users to know. (Don't worry if you don't understand all of this now--it will make sense later.)

1. If you have trouble using any forms in GeoCities (including the File Manager), it may be because you have an earlier version of WebTV. These problems can range from getting an error after submitting a form, to an HTML file being "saved" as an empty, "0 byte" file (disappearing page). The current version is WebTV 1.1 . This version is more compatible with the form elements that we use. For more information about upgrades, contact your WebTV representative, or visit the WebTV Home Page and WebTV Forum Page.

2. Web pages created by WebTV users must be under 30k, or roughly 30,000 characters in size. (By characters, we mean letters and numbers.) This may sound like a lot, but we've seen a few pages with enough words to reach this limit! In the (unlikely) event that you hit this limit, you will simply not be able to type any more text into your HTML file with the Advanced Editor. The solution is to create a second page and link the two together. For tips on creating links see our Resource Guide

3. Links cannot "wrap" when you enter them into the Advanced Editor. When using the Advanced Editor, make sure that your links are all on one line. If the a link wraps to the next line, WebTV will insert a "space" where it changes lines, making the link (or URL) invalid.
(The Advanced Editor is found in the File Manager)

4. WebTV users are not able to use the "EZ Editor". The EZ Editor was written with JavaScript, which is not supported by WebTV at this time. We recommend the "Basic Editor" if you are new to HTML coding, or the "Advanced Editor" if you know HTML. (The Basic Editor is found in the File Manager) Select it in the pull-down menu next to "Choose Your Editor:"

5. You cannot "upload" graphics with WebTV. Putting graphics on your page can only be done by referencing other directories. This means that since you cannot upload graphic files into your own directory (homestead), you must create links to graphics that already exist in other directories. GeoCities has some graphics that you can use. You can add them to your page when you use the Basic Editor.

If you have a friend that has graphics on their home page, you can ask if it's okay to link to them. A link to a graphic looks like this:

<img src="http://www.geocities.com/pictures/geobutton.gif">

Example:
If your friend has a home page at Athens2090, and an image (or graphic) called "right.gif" , you would link to their image like this:

<img src="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2090/right.gif">

or better yet...
you can use a shortcut method:

<img src="/Athens/2090/right.gif">

Because both of you are in GeoCities, you don't have to put in the "http://www.geocities.com" . This is technically called a "relative path" and will make the image load faster.

Important!
You mustn't link to an image on another web page without expressed permission from the creator.

What next?
Now that you are aware of some of the things that you must consider as a WebTV user in GeoCities, you can start (or continue) creating your home page. Click Getting Started and you're on your way. If you have trouble, you can find information on getting help by clicking the Information link on the left sidebar.