Start Page

[Kubie]

When I signed for DSL, my start page is through MSN. I would like to try some other page. Yahoo is like MSN so don't want that. Does anybody have some ideas where to look for a start page?
Carl

[mhayes]

Why not make PC Mech your start page?

[Kubie]

I've been thinking about it.
Carl

[DrZaius]

Hi Carlgif,

The best is to make your own start page. Using simple HTML you can organize your favorite links into specific categories and have a link list of your daily visits. Plus the page looks exactly how you want it to look. You can even include a search box from your favorite search engine (you can find out how at the search engine site, my favorite is Google). Just create the HTML page (put it in C:\Windows or somewhere similar) and set it to your homepage in IE. Hope that helps.

[Kubie]

DrZaius, I have never attempted to work with HTML so would have to start from scratch. The idea sounds good though and may look into it. Thanks.

Carl

[glc]

I just load a blank page on startup. I have Google set as my home page.

[DrZaius]

Carlgif,

You don't need to know HTML, you can use a WYSIWYG editor like FrontPage Express or Composer. Or, better yet, there is a program I remember using a while back made by PC Magazine called Page1, and it lets you create your own startpage, all you have to do is enter an the URLs of your favorite sites and you can customize layout and colors and graphics. No HTML needed.

http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stori...,,000V7T,.html

Hope that helps.

[mairving]

I have made Google.com my start page. It almost always loads fast. I also click the home page button before I go to another site so that they can't spy on where I have been.

Carlgif, if you need a page made in HTML. I will do it for you as LawyerRon would say, pro bono.

[Kubie]

Cool!! I took mairving's offer to heart.
Thanks everybody for the suggestions.
Carl

[mosquito]

I use about:blank as start page.

[Carl Price]

Originally posted by mairving I also click the home page button before I go to another site so that they can't spy on where I have been.

Paranoid as hell but I like the idea.

[mairving]

Hey, Carl it may not be paranoia as much as it is knowledge. As anyone who has run a website would tell you, there is lot that you can learn about a person from a visit to your website. Stuff like where they have come from, what browser they use, and what OS. I guess that I like to disguise some of that info a little bit. Okay, okay I am paranoid.

[SARGE]

Carl, go for the HTML - you need the lesson & frustration

[Parangles]

Hey Mairving,
How about writing a brief 'How to make a custom Start Page'?
Could we use a template from MSPublisher or Front Page?
I was not successful importing animated GIFs and other
similar stuff, last time I tried. They were dead on arrival.

[Statica]

An easier way is to write a page of sites you go to along with a description at the side in Micro$oft Word or sthing similar and save as a webpage. Use that URL for ur start page

[mairving]

Parangles,

It is probably not that simple. Each one would be different. The one for Carlgif was pretty easy because he doesn't have that many favorites.

Basically I would do something like this:

• Figure out how many columns and/or pages that you want.
  
• Make a table with that number of columns.
  
• Put a header and a name on each section of your favorites.
  
• Put tags at the top where you can go to the different sections.
  

Here is an example of what I am talking about for a 3-column table:

<table width="750" align="center">
<tr>
<td width="250"><a href="http://your1stfav.com">Name of fav 1&lt/a>&lt/td>
<td width="250"><a href="http://your2ndfav.com">Name of fav 2&lt/a>&lt/td>
<td width="250"><a href="http://your3rdfav.com">Name of fav 3&lt/a>&lt/td>
</tr>
</table>

Pretty simple or you could actually export your favorites and use that file as your start page. It will have everything in a one column format though.

Now to reference any pictures, as long as they are in the same folder as your start page, they are referenced like so <img src="yourpicture.gif">> If they are in a different folder, you will have to put in that path to the picture. For instance, if your start page was in c:/start & your pictures were in c:/pictures then you would have to specify your pictures like this <img src="c:/pictures/yourpictures.gif">. This would only work on your local drive though. Most of the time, images are placed in a separate folder called images. This folder on your local system would be c:/start/images. You would link to your pictures like this <img src="images/yourpictures.gif>. If you decided to move all of this to a web site. All you would have to do is to create a directory off of your root called images and drop the pictures in there.

Hope this helps to explain somethings.

[Parangles]

Thanks Mairving, but I agree with Sarge those <> things make my head hurt. I couldn't even get qbasic. I'll put the favorites on a blank page !