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SCMP Reporter

Once upon a time, you were part of the hi-tech elite if you had an e-mail address and knew Yahoo! was more than an especially disgusting soft drink.

 Now, you need a home on the Web. Having one is pretty easy; some Internet accounts come with free Web space.

 Even if that is not the case with your provider, there are sites that offer free Web pages.

 In fact, 'free' is the operative word for today. I'll tell you how to find your own free home in cyberspace, then we'll talk about free tools and techniques that can make your Web site a good home.

  Free Web space: there are dozens of sites offering Web space for free (in return, the service usually puts an ad of some type on your page).

 To get a complete list, search the terms 'free' and 'Web' - or take my advice and try one of these two sites: GeoCities at www.geocities.com or Angel Fire at www.angelfire.com/.

  Free software: Don't let your favorite Web-head scare you away with talk about HTML (the language used to create Web pages) and Java (one of the programs used to add special features). We're going to do things the easy way with a free program called AOLpress you can download at www.aolpress.

com/.

 It's easy to use and amazingly sophisticated, creating links to your favorite sites, placing images and automating many tasks, including adding color or unique typefaces.

  Free images: many pages use public domain images and artwork you can grab right off the page. Just right-click on the image you like, then select 'Save Image As...' and you can put the image on your own page.

 Also, use your search engine to find the hundreds of sites offering free clip art.

 One with 500,000 free images is Cool Graphics on the Web at www.fish net.net/gini/cool. Once you've found images you like, use AOLpress to place them on your page.

  Almost-free photos: you will probably want to use photographs, but unless you have a scanner (I recommend it, and good ones sell for less than US$100 now), you will need another source for electronic images. Some photo labs make electronic images with your prints at little extra charge.

  Guestbooks: try http://titan.guest world.tripod.lycos.com/registration.

cfm; autoresponders (to send out e-mail automatically): www.pagetools.

com; and for a visitor-tracking program try: www.superstats.com.

BILL HUSTED Cox News Service 



Free Web pages help tech-heads keep up