These tips can be received daily from:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnoteaday/newsletterSignup.aspSetting Your Sites on a Plan
Before you begin designing a Web site, you need to create a site map, a blueprint for the content and features that will make up your site. The easiest way to make a site map diagram is to start with an old-fashioned outline. After you have an outline, it's fairly simple to turn it into a diagram, which is the beginning of a site map.
Here are four basic steps in building an outline
1. Make a wish list. During the concept stage, when you sit down with your client, jot down a wish list of all the content that the site will include. This gives you an idea of the size and scope of the project.
2. Group content. From the wish list, you can begin to
organize the content into logical groups. For example, you can lump all the general company information together and all the product stuff together.3. Create categories. After you have a few groups of content, you begin to see a pattern emerging. Some groups are similar, and you can lump them together into categories. The key to a successful site map is precision Try to identify the smallest number of distinct categories as possible.
4. Build an outline. After you complete steps 1-3, the outline practically builds itself. The categories become the main ideas. Below the categories are the groups, and within the groups are lists of content.
Put the Good Stuff First
People who see your Web page decide whether to stay at your site or go elsewhere based largely on what they see when your page first comes up. If your purpose is to provide information or links, put that information first, or, at most, one click away. For example, to create a site that provides information about your company, put the contact information --
your company name, address, phone number, and fax number -- within quick reach. To create a personal site that is attractive to potential employers, make clear that employment field you're in and make your resume easy to access.
Understanding Basic Web-worthy Language
Here are some key terms that can help you develop a fundamental understanding of the wide world of Web words:
* Web page. A text document that is published on a Web server, has HTML tags in it, almost always includes hypertext links, and often includes graphics. When you click the Forward and Back buttons in your Web browser, you move chronologically through the Web pages that you already visited.
* Web site. A collection of Web pages that share a common theme and purpose and that users generally access through the site's home page. Some Web sites have only a home page; others have many pages and even multiple home pages.
* Home page. The Web page that people generally access first within a Web site. You let people know the URL (address) of your home page and try to get other Web page creators to provide links to it. Your home page is your Web site's starting page and contains links to other pages in your site.
* Site versus page. You can use these terms almost interchangeably. Just remember that a Web site can have more than one Web page in it.
Paring Web Publishing to the Basics
The basic steps to creating a Web site are pretty simple:
1. Write some Web pages. One page is plenty to start with. You can use any text editor or word processor, but spiffy Web page authoring programs designed for this purpose are available and many are free so you might as well use one.
2. Test them out using your own browser. Before you make your pages visible to everyone, make sure they look good! Using your Web browser, open the pages (press Ctrl+O and specify the name of the file that contains your page).
3. Publish them on your ISP's system. The rest of the world can't see Web pages in files on your disk. You have to copy them to your ISP's system so that your ISP's Web server can offer them to the world.Observing Basic Rules of Web Site Design
When you're gearing up to develop your first Web page, consider
the following seven rules of site design:
* Rule #1: The Web is for reaching out to people.
* Rule #2: Keep your Web pages lean and clean.
* Rule #3: Don't make your visitors jump through hoops.
* Rule #4: Never make an unnecessary link.
* Rule #5: Always group necessary items together.
* Rule #6: If you can give visitors an option, do so.
* Rule #7: It's your Web site. It's your vision. Do it your way.Fashioning Attractive, Inviting Web Pages
Design can simplify your Web-based message by breaking long batches of text into manageable, bite-sized chunks. Subheads (mini-heads that briefly convey the point of the text that follows) are the most obvious use of design as a simplification tool. By inserting subheads into long columns of text, you can increase readership of even the longest message. By adding white space and by using a different typeface, you can make sure that each subhead adds visual contrast to your message, replacing boredom with interest. Each subhead provides an additional entry point for the reader to begin reading your message.Home Pages
One of the hardest things to do when you are new to Web design is to decide what exactly you should design. The simplest and most common page to start with is a home page. It's an excellent way to build your skills and produce usable content at the same time. You can post pictures of your new baby or your last vacation for friends and relatives to enjoy. You can also tell people about your hobbies or particular passion in life -- the choices are unlimited. As your skills expand, so can your home page. Soon you may add rollovers, image maps, and maybe even some animations.
Most free e-mail services such as Yahoo! Mail http://mail.yahoo.com
offer space for personal home pages.The Three Clicks Rule
The "three clicks" rule is a good one to add to your Web design toolkit. This rule requires that a visitor is able to find what s/he wants on your site by clicking three times (maximum) from your homepage. To make this happen, you'll need a structure that is flatter than it is tall and
very well-organized so that a visitor can clearly see and understand the options. If you think three clicks isn't enough, here's something to keep in mind A homepage with six main options each leading to six more and those each leading to six more will give you room for 216 content pages -- for most sites that's plenty.
Three Clicks On A Big Site
How can you achieve this on a large site without having to offer a swag of options on every page? The answer is to include a search engine on
your site that allows a visitor to search for the information by typing a keyword or two rather than having to make a choice from a menu structure. You should, of course, still offer a menu-based navigation tool for visitors who prefer to find information that way, but a search tool will go a long way toward making your information more accessible to everyone.
Ask Friends to Preview Your Site
Like any new product, your site should be tested off-line thoroughly to get all the bugs out. Having a friend or two look over your Web site is a great way to troubleshoot your project and reveal weak points in your design. The ideal process is to have a diverse group of people preview your work, point out things they had trouble with, and suggest improvements. This is important because a variety of people will view your work when it's published on the Web.
Slice and Dice
Have you ever noticed that large graphics on Web sites tend to load in pieces? This technique is used to decrease download time while showing viewers some content to keep them interested. Image slicing is when a large graphic is sliced into separate smaller images that you can assemble in a borderless table to form a complete image. Many graphics programs (Macromedia Fireworks:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks/for example) have automatic image slicing routines that make the process easy for novice designers.
Downsizing Can Be Good
Graphics are a great addition to a Web site, but their size can really affect a page's load time. If you make visitors wait too long to see your pages, they may leave and never come back. Optimizing your graphics will decrease download times. When you work with graphics in programs such as PaintShop Pro, Macromedia's Fireworks and FreeHand or Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, you have significant control over the output file size. By carefully selecting the type of file to export (GIF, JPEG, or PNG) as well as the number of colors to use, you can decrease file size while maintaining image quality. The right balance between size and quality is the key.
Keep Graphics Small And Simple
Graphics shouldn't take so long to download that the visitors go elsewhere. That means:
*Keep the graphics files as small as possible so that they download quickly.
*Keep them small enough in height and width -- anything more than 640 pixels across will force horizontal scrolling on the many 640x480 displays in the world.
Test them on 640x480, 800x600, and 1280x1024 displays to see what they look like in the three most popular resolutions.
Another Design Tip
Here's another thought on design: Don't use more than three different fonts on your Web page. It makes everything too busy for readers to really absorb.
Breaking Up Isn't Hard to Do
If you like neat fonts it's a good idea to break up the text you create before importing it into your Web pages. When you break the text down into a graphical element, users no longer need to have that funky font installed on their computers to view your site as intended. And after all, what's the use of creating something visually unique just to have it come out in plain old Times Roman?
Sound FX
If you use sound frequently in your Web site designs, you may want consider purchasing a sound editor. A sound editor gives you much greater control over sound splicing, volume levels, and even sound effects. Several types of editors are currently on the market -- for example: Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge XP
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/NewShowProduct.asp?PID=6
You can also find several editors that are free to download -- check out:
ZDNet Downloads
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/and search for audio editors for your system type (PC, Mac, Palm, etc.).
Sonic Torture
Movie soundtracks add to a film's storyline. But do Web pages need background audio to enhance their content? Chances are the answer is no, so unless you absolutely must have sound playing in the background, resist the temptation. Or at the very least, have an option for users to turn it off. Background audio may be effective the first time users visit your site, but when they return (as you want them to), it can get annoying fast. Audio also increases download time.
Meta Content
A common mistake novice Web designers make is overloading the content they place in a page's META tag, the spot where key words that describe a site's overall content and focus appear. Web search engines use the information in the META tag to select a site during searches, so there's a natural tendency to include as many words as possible in the tag to increase the chances of a search engine pulling up the site. What many people don't know, however, is that most major search engines reject pages with overloaded meta tags. So the key is to include only a few words that best describe your Web site. Keep the description concise and it will be more effective.
A Consistent Look and Feel Is Good
A good Web designer is able to create a consistent look and feel across an entire Web site. One page should flow into the next so that users quickly become accustomed to the visual and operational aspects of the site's design. This means graphics, layout, colors, navigation, and links are uniform across the whole site. The result is a slick site that makes users feel comfortable right away, which increases the chances of them coming back.
Table That Form
Tables are the best way to keep forms neat and tidy. Without a table structure, the form may look different from one browser to another. So insert a table on your form page and then create or drag the elements into cells of that table. (Remember that the dashed rectangles that surround form elements in FrontPage's normal view disappear when the page is previewed or seen in a browser). Then test in browsers.
Out of Style
One of the most important decisions you'll make when you design a Web site is the overall style. Many factors influence the style you choose. As the site grows, it's vital to keep track of style elements, not only for you but also for other people who may be working on the project. Keeping a log of a site's style elements, including text, graphics, layout, link position, and colors, is an important step toward becoming professional in your design work. A great way to do this is to print out sample full-color layouts with all the necessary information using Macromedia FreeHand or Adobe Illustrator. As the site changes, you can update these files. They also make showing off your design concepts a snap.
Read All About It
If your site offers content that changes on a regular basis, it's vital that your audience knows this. Keeping a user mailing list enables you to e-mail people automatically when your content changes. Another great idea is to add a What’s New link to your splash page or home page (whichever is seen first by the viewer). If you keep your site fresh people will come back for more, and that repeat traffic makes for a successful Web site.
Just Browsing
By now you've probably noticed that different browsers display your HTML code in different ways. This can be frustrating, especially if you're trying to reach the widest audience possible (and who isn't?). It's vital for Web designers to understand how their content will display on a variety of browsers, both old and new. Testing only on the most current version of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator is a recipe for disaster. A library of browsers of various levels can be a great asset when you test your Web site, and in the long run it will ensure that your site is as viewer-friendly as possible.
Beware of the Dark Side
So you have a wicked good-looking site with excellent content, great graphics, cool animation, and all the bells and whistles. Then one of your users tries to print out a page or two to share with their non-Web-savvy friends and lo and behold, the awesome dark background color you used creates chaos. Not only is the text hard or impossible to read, but the poor person completely uses up every last drop of ink in their printer to create a soggy hard copy of your site's content as well. Keep your backgrounds light, especially if you have a site with content that you know people will want to print out.
What’s in a Name?
When users bookmark your page, the page title shows up as the label in their bookmark files. If the title is too generic -- or worse, too confusing -- users may not remember what the bookmark was for and proceed to ignore it and your wonderful Web site. Your page title should be descriptive without being wordy. For example, "home page" is a little short, but "John Smith’s totally awesome Web site development tip warehouse and graphics emporium" is a bit much.
Keep in Touch
If you list your e-mail address on your Web site and then don't reply to the messages users send you, what's the point? When a person takes the time to e-mail you about something on your site -- no matter if it's a compliment, suggestion, or complaint -- you simply must respond. Here are a few tips for answering Web site e-mail:
* Try to be positive.
* Respond quickly.
No one likes to be kept waiting.
* Use the sender's name.
Form e-mail and auto responses are impersonal and put people off.
* Make an effort.
A little extra effort may just sell that person on buying something and/or coming back to your site again.
Make a Banner
Once you create and promote your cool Web site, someone may want to exchange a banner link with you. Animated GIF banner ads are a staple of advertising on the Net, so if you don't have one already, get busy and create a banner ad for your site. Remember to keep it lean and focused on the purpose of your site. If it's too big it will take too long to load, which can irritate users.
Several software packages, such as Macromedia Fireworks:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks/have built-in animated GIF utilities, and some software is completely devoted to static and animated GIF creation, such as Alchemy Mindworks GIF Construction Set:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gifcon.html
Reading Is Fundamental
Strangely, many designers don't take the time to actually read the text they lay out on their Web pages. If they did, they would realize (as their target audience did before pressing the Back button) that their sentences are too long.
It's important to put yourself in the average surfer's place and read your content. Obviously, you're interested in the subject matter or you wouldn't be making the page, but users browsing the site may get frustrated by overblown text blocks. If you keep your text short and to the point, people will breeze through your site and enjoy doing it.
Always Look Toward the Future
A surefire way to stifle your creativity is to fall in love with the things you've done. After a project is finished, move on and don't dwell on the past. Whether you loved your last project or hated it, take what you've learned and get started on something new. Also, don't confuse having a certain style with repeating the same work over and over again, because eventually it (and you) will get old.
The Amazing Technicolor Web Site
Just because 216 Web colors are available doesn't mean you have to use them all on your home page. Some of the most powerful ad campaigns and television commercials today use a limited color palette. Visual impact is a tough beast to master, but simplicity makes a distinct statement. So don't dwell on using your favorite color or the most colors -- it's the message that's important and your color scheme should always support your purpose.
You Can't Trust WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") HTML editors enable almost anyone to create great-looking Web content. But underneath that slick surface can lurk extraneous HTML code. Building tables with WYSIWYG editors, in particular, can create a lot of unnecessary code. To get the most out of a WYSIWYG editor and still keep your pages as lean as possible, you must allocate some time at the end of your project to transport your bloated code into a text editor and clean it up. In order to do this, you must have a solid grounding in basic HTML.
Create a Logo for Your Business
One of the easiest ways for people to remember your company and its site is a unique logo that sticks in their mind. It doesn't have to be fancy, complex, or animated -- it just has to be eye-catching. Use a graphics program such as Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Fireworks to create a logo you can use throughout your site. Brand recognition isn't just for the big boys anymore, but remember if your logo looks too much like the "golden arches" Ronald's lawyers will come calling!
It's in the Shop
Keeping your site fresh and current is important. However, constantly overhauling your site can annoy users. People who bookmark your site may get an error message when they try to return to your site if you change a file name on the server or remove the file completely. If this happens too often they won't keep coming back. So if you change, move, or remove pages, make sure you leave a redirect link at the very least. Better yet, keep a consistent naming structure.
Wide Load
Considering the equipment and browser types of your audience is always important when you design Web pages. It's a good idea to keep tables and graphics less than 500 pixels wide. Many PC users don't realize that Mac and WebTV browser windows don't open to a full screen and that 500 pixels is the maximum width available. If you go beyond 500 pixels, users will have to scroll sideways, which may cause them frustration.
Lean and Mean
Most people want to access a Web site quickly and will only stay if the site can keep up with them. But if you overload pages with large, slow graphics, users will probably hit the Stop button and move on without ever knowing how cool your site is. A good rule of thumb is 100K total for graphics and text per page. This size gives your pages a lean look and a fast download time for the average surfer, who will then stick around to see what you have to say or sell.
No Dancing Hamsters Allowed
Almost everyone has been to a site with an annoying home page that you must get through to get to the rest of the content. When you design a Web site, your first impulse may be to create an introductory page that catches people's attention. Rookie designers tend to make this page flashy and loud, full of graphics and colors and sound, which is great the first time users visit the site. But what happens when users come back a second or a third time? If they have to sit through that same flashy page over and over again, they will probably lose patience and leave. So ask yourself what the introductory page really needs to contain, and whether you really need one at all.Faster Loading with Height and Width Tags
Providing users with the information they want as fast as possible is one of the best ways to approach Web page design. Proper use of the HEIGHT and WIDTH tags allow the text (information users really want) to load first while the graphics load second. Your pages appear to load faster because users are busy reading your content instead of watching the text jump around while the graphics load. Thus, everybody wins: Users get speedy information and you get them to stay on -- and hopefully return to -- your site.Get the Word Out
Here are just a few ways to get your site noticed on the Net:
* Search Engines -- These sites include your site in their keyword search databases. For a start, visit
Lycos - http://home.lycos.com/addasite.html and
Go.com - http://www.go.com/AddUrl?pg=SubmitUrl.html&svx=CTOC_Add_url
to submit your URL.
* Web Page Directories -- Directories list sites by various categories. Visit
Yahoo! - http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/ and
LookSmart - http://submit.looksmart.com/info.jhtml?synd=US&chan=lshomebus to submit your URL.
* Submission Services -- These sites take your information and submit it to various search engines and directories for a small fee. Visit
DOOG - http://www.doog.com or
SubmitIt! - http://www.submitit.com to learn more.
* Newsgroups -- When you create a new site, it's a good idea to post a message about your site on relevant newsgroups or club pages. The post only stays up for a short time, but it's a free and effective way to target a specific audience.
Use Fonts in Moderation
Every designer loves fonts, and there are so many wonderful ones to choose from that Web page creators sometimes try to use them all. For the sake of your users, you should keep the overall number of fonts on your project low. No more than 20 (and preferably much less) is a good rule of thumb -- keep in mind that the human brain can't distinguish the subtle differences in your fonts after that. Additionally, it is wise to use fonts such as (Arial, Times New Roman, and Comic Sans MS) which are standard on most computers. A page default font, usually Times New Roman, is used as a replacement font for fonts not resident on the viewing computer.Will That Be Cache or Charge?
Did you know that by default Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator set aside a memory cache (RAM and hard drive) for storing recently used images? So, with a little thought, you can design your pages to take advantage of this cache by reusing various graphics like logos, navigation bars, and headers. When you reuse common graphic elements as often as possible, your pages receive a massive performance boost by loading the images directly from the cache instead of downloading them through your Web connection.Make It Look Fast
The precise amount of time it takes your Web page to become accessible to a user can be the determining factor in whether that user stays or goes. Even though your page may still be rendering other materials, the trick is to get enough information up in a short amount of time to ensure the user's attention won't stray to the Back button. Thus, the perceived speed of your page is what really counts -- in other words, how fast the page seems to load. Here are a few tips to increase your perceived speed:
* Use text instead of graphics where feasible.
* If you need to use a gif or jpeg, compress it as much as possible.
* Simplify the overall layout of your page so the content will come up quickly for the user to view.In Search of Great Graphics
The easiest way to obtain graphics is to get access to a clip art collection. Computer stores sell many inexpensive collections of graphics on CD-ROM. You can also access a number of royalty-free graphics and icon collections online. Two good sites to check out are the
Online Image Archive http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/images/images.html
and Webreference.com http://www.webreference.com/authoring/graphics/backgrounds.htmlAuthor! Author!
If you're planning on using graphics and/or multimedia in your Web site, you may want to consider investing some time and, for professional-level work, money in a Web authoring tool. These tools are designed specifically to take the worry out of tedious or complex tasks such as placing and sizing graphics, embedding multimedia, and so on. For more information regarding authoring tools, check out Creating Web Pages For Dummieshttp://catalog.dummies.com/product.asp?isbn=0764507338
Finding Graphics for Your Web Site
If you're new to all of the Web stuff, you may want to use existing images in your Web site rather than create your own. Several resources are available to you for finding ready-made images, including the following:
* Clip art collections: You can purchase clip art collections containing thousands of images at any computer store.
* Web sites: Some Web sites offer free Web art. To start your search, check out Coolnerds.com
http://www.coolnerds.com/webart
The Clip Art Archives
http://www.onlinebusiness.com/shops/_clipart/BEST_OF_WEB_clipart.shtml
also provide links to lots of graphic images.
* Photographs: If you have favorite photos, you can scan them into digital pictures for use on the Web.Web Site Creation Do's
If you follow these Web publishing tips, you'll be well on your way to creating a top-notch site:
* Do think about your target audience.
* Do use good sites as models.
* Do get permissions for content.
* Do use links to outside sites.
* Do use graphics and multimedia.
* Do think before you create.
* Do ask for feedback.
* Do test your pages.
* Do publicize your site.
* Do update your site.
For more Web publishing pointers, check out Creating Web Pages For Dummies:
http://catalog.dummies.com/product.asp?isbn=0764507338Inline Images
An inline image is a tiny graphic image that you can use to call attention to a line of text. Some people use inline images as custom bullets in bulleted lists. Short words like "new" or "cool" are often used to point out particular chunks of text.
You can find inline images in many Web sites or create your own. For some freebie examples of small inline images, go to Coolnerds.com
http://www.coolnerds.com/webart/bullets.htmBackground Design
The white background behind the text and pictures on your page need not be white. The background can be any color you like. Or you can use a graphic image as wallpaper for the background. The main trick to formatting the background of your page is to ensure that a good contrast exists between the background and the foreground. Otherwise the text is difficult to read. Also keep in mind that if the background is too dark, it may be difficult for a user to read when printed out.Promoting Your Web Site
After your Web site becomes available on the Web, you need to let people know about it if you're going to get any traffic. To get your pages listed with the big search engines right away, add a series of meta tags to the head section of each page. The following list summarizes the tags you use for promotion:
* Title: Represents the title of your page as you want it to appear within the search engine.
* Description: A description of the page's contents, visible in many Web browsers.
* Keywords: A list of individual words that the search engine uses to index your page.Step-by-Step Web Publishing
Getting an initial Web page up on the Web is easy, but making a good, useful Web site takes a little more work. For anything beyond an initial home page, keep in mind the following decision-making process:
· Determine the purpose of your site.
· Decide the structure of your site.
· Decide the layout of your pages.
· Decide what links to use between pages in your site.
· Decide what links to external Web sites to include.
· Create the text for your pages.
· Convert the content to HTML.
· Create the graphical elements in your pages.
· Test your site.
· Put your content on a Web server.
· Publicize your site.
· Bask in the glory of being a Web publisher. Then start again at the first step….
For more design tips, check out the book Creating Cool HTML 4 Web Pages:
http://164.109.153.102/product.asp?isbn=076453484XAdding Your Site to Search Engines
If you don't want to wait around for search engines to stumble upon your Web site, you can speed things along by adding the site yourself. Typically, this procedure involves visiting the search engine that you want to add your site to and then digging around the site to find an Add URL or Submit Your Site link. Following the link should take you to instructions and a form for submitting your site. Typically, all you have to do is type in your site's URL. The search engine goes (eventually) to your site and adds your site to its database.Make Your Site Count
Counters are one of the best things to have in a Web site. In fact, any serious Web site should have a counter on each page, to make knowing what users visit and what they don't easier. The counter doesn't have to display its count to the user, but it should make the count available to you.
However, counters require CGI support. Most Webmasters provide counter support. Check with the Web site that your Web page is on to see how to put counters in your Web pages.
For more info on this topic, read Creating Web Pages For Dummies http://catalog.dummies.com/product.asp?isbn=0764507338.Let the Music Ring
Sound Ring [http://www.alexcia.com] has links to tons of free MIDI and WAV files, as well as graphics, that you can use to add sounds and sights to your Web site. You can also apply to have your own site included as a link.Staying Up-To-Date
To keep up with advances in all aspects of publishing on the Web, check out these periodicals:
* Web Developer's Journal
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com is an online magazine geared toward all aspects of creating and maintaining Web sites.* Web Techniques
http://www.webtechniques.com is an excellent magazine for keeping in touch with advances in all aspects of Web development.
Lasting Impressions
As soon as you get your site up, log on to it as a normal user. See if the site works. Test all links to make sure that they go where they should. Make sure that you can easily move between pages. Try accessing your site from a computer with a slow modem connection to see how usable the site is at slow speeds. Be ready to take notes on your reactions from the moment your first log on to your site until the end of your visit. Use your browsers print capability to print out pages in the Web site and put your notes right on the printout. First impressions are hard to recapture. Taking notes will help you remember everything you want to change.Frame Up
Using frames to divide your visitors' browser window into separate compartments can be a worthwhile addition to your site. However, as with all design elements, it's important not to overuse them. (Like cheap cologne, a little goes a long way!) If you find that any page on your site has more than two frames onscreen at once, you should reconsider your design. If too many things are going on at once, your visitors will end up battling a cluttered interface, especially if they're using a monitor that's smaller than 14 inches.Real Simple
If you're creating a Web site -- not just one page, but several linked pages -- planning and organization are essential. So remember to keep it simple. The easier it is for visitors to find what they're looking for on your site, the more likely they are to stick around -- and to come back often.Ask and You Shall Receive
Ask for feedback! You can put the request for feedback right in your Web site. You can also ask friends and colleagues to try the site and give you their honest opinions. Ask them some leading questions, such as "What do you think the site is for? How does it compare to other sites you've seen? What's the one thing you'd change about the site if you could?"
For more great tips on creating Web pages, keep a copy of Creating Web Pages For Dummies:
http://catalog.dummies.com/product.asp?isbn=0764507338Fanfare
You've probably seen this on every site you've ever visited -- it's a link that, in most browsers, pops up an e-mail form so users can e-mail to the site owner.
Here's how to add the e-mail link tag to your code:
1. Open the word processing document you used to create your pages.
2. Add this tag: <A HREF=mailto:webmaster@mypage.com>Click here to send me mail</A>.
This tag has some parts that you must customize:
1. Put your e-mail address in place of webmaster@mypage.com.
2. You can insert any words you'd like where the tag reads "Click here to send me mail." For instance, you could insert something such as "Send me praise!"
For more information on web page design, check out Webmastering for Dummies: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=65 by Daniel A. Tauber and Brenda Kienan, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.Coloring Carefully
When designing your Web page, keep in mind that viewers are drawn to well-designed graphic layouts and repelled by large amounts of gray text. For backgrounds and bold graphic elements, natural pastel shades typically found in nature make good choices. Avoid bold, highly saturated primary colors except in regions to which you wish to draw a great deal of attention. Even in these areas, be cautious about using these bold colors. The color of the typeface must always contrast sharply with any background color.
For more information on web page design, check out Frontpage 2000 for Dummies Quick Reference: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=968
by Damon Dean, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.Size Does Matter
The dimensions of your Web page are an important design consideration. Web page designers often create page grids that look great on their 21-inch monitors, forgetting that most users view the pages on monitors between 14 and 16 inches wide. When choosing your dimensions, remember that only 10% of Web surfers ever scroll the page -- it's usually better to shoot for a page size that will be appropriate for the majority of the visitors to your site.
For more information on web page design, check out Teach Yourself Microsoft FrontPage 2000 http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=948
by David Crowder and Rhonda Crowder, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.Proportional Pictures
Web page graphics should not be more than 535 pixels wide or more than about 320 pixels high. If the graphic is larger than this, it will be too big to print on letter size or A4 paper. While length is less important, you have approximately 30 square inches at the top of your page to make your first impression --use it carefully. You may lose some viewers by slowing the load time with a complex graphic at the top of the page.
For more information on web page design, check out GoLive 5 for Dummies:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=4105
by William B. Sanders, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.Bold and Beautiful
If all the text on your page is bold, nothing stands out -- and it looks like you're screaming at your viewer! Pages packed with overly dense text will send a viewer surfing off into cyberspace clickety split. The key to making your text interesting is visual contrast. Use major headings sparingly. Avoid long paragraphs of dense, gray text. Use soft colors to create non-jarring visual contrast, and use heavy, bold, primary colors only when necessary for added emphasis.
For more information on web page design, check out Webmastering for Dummies: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=65by Daniel A. Tauber and Brenda Kienan, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
Where Does It End?
Web pages that trail on for screen after screen will lose their effectiveness after about three or four screens. In order to keep your reader engaged, approach your content with a modular strategy. Try to organize your content into sections that are no more than three pages long. You can provide a link to the full-length document to help in printing.
For more information on Web page design, check out
Frontpage 2000 for Dummies Quick Reference href=http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=968by Damon Dean, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
In the Gutter
The space that appears between columns is called the gutter. When designing your page with tables, you can create gutters by including an empty and invisible cell that acts as a gutter, by using the cellpadding tag that adjusts the amount of space between the cell contents and the cell borders, or cellspacing that adjusts the amount of apace that exists around the exterior of the cell.Do It With Style
Creating a style sheet for your Web site will help you maintain consistent word usage and appearance, which will make your site more readable. Your style sheet should include such things as type face, layout settings, normalized spellings, heading styles and sizes, and other important elements in the appearance of your site. As your site grows and expands across many pages, a current style guide becomes more important.
For more information on web page design, check out Creating Web Pages For Dummies, 5th Edition http://catalog.dummies.com/product.asp?isbn=0764507338
by Bud Smith and Arthur Bebak, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
Practical Linking
If you want readers to read the text you have placed on your page, filling that text with links only invites them to leave without finishing. Only the most critical and relevant links should appear in the body of your text -- all others can be collected below your main text. When you do link to other sites, be sure to create a hypertext link on the most relevant word in the sentence, rather than asking your user to "Click here" for more information -- many users find "Click here" directives to be a nuisance.
For more information on web page design, check out Your Official America Online Guide to Creating Web Pages, 2nd Editionhttp://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=4498
by Edward Willett, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
Picture Perfect
After you place a picture in your Web page, there are several ways to manipulate it. The simplest way is to alter the picture's properties. Here's how:
1. Right-click the picture you want to change.
2. Choose Image Properties from the menu that appears. The Image Properties dialog box appears.
At this point, you're presented with the options on the Appearance tab. The first option, Alignment, lets you decide how you want to place the picture in relation to nearby text. When you are placing a fairly large picture in your document, you probably want to choose from the following options:
* Bottom: one paragraph of text aligns next to the bottom of the picture.
* Middle: one paragraph of text aligns next to the middle of the picture.
* Top: one paragraph of text aligns next to the top of the picture.
* Left: the picture appears to the left of all neighboring text.
* Right: the picture appears to the right of all neighboring text.
For more easy-to-follow tips on making your Web site picture perfect, order a copy of CliffsNotes Creating Your First Web Page
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=1852
by Alan Simpson, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
Keep Those Names Straight
Naming your files correctly and consistently will help you avoid problems with browsers, servers, and within your own workflow, especially if you are working in a production team. A safe rule of thumb is to use all lowercase letters with the DOS eight-dot-three (8.3) format, such as "coffeemn.htm" or "coffeemn.html". To play it safe, check with the ISP that will be hosting your site to see if they have a preference for filenames based on what type of machine will be serving the site.
When naming files and links, don't use spaces. For example, when writing HTML, the filename "hot_drinks.html" is better than "Hot Drinks.html". It is much more universal to use underscores ( _ ) in place of spaces, or to use no space at all, in filenames. Whatever you do, create and implement a consistent naming scheme so you can keep things straight.
For more tips on making your Web site all it can be, check out a copy of Web Design Studio Secrets, 2nd Edition http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=4555
by Deke McClelland, Katrin Eismann, and Terri Stone, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
Hotspots
Image map hotspots -- the areas on the image that correspond to different URLs -- are available in three different shapes: rectangles, circles, and polygons. Each shape is created in a slightly different way.
Draw the rectangle shape from corner to corner; when you make the initial click, you hold the mouse button down and drag until you have the size of rectangle you want.
When you draw a circle, you follow the same steps, except that the circle expands outward from the initial point, which forms the center of the circle instead of the edge.
To create a polygon shape, you click and release the button at the initial point, and then move the pointer to the next point and click again. You continue to do this until you've created the shape you want. At the final point, you double-click to complete the shape. Don't worry about getting the initial point and the last point exactly aligned -- FrontPage takes care of that for you automatically.
For more tips on adding graphics to your Web pages, check out Teach Yourself Microsoft FrontPage 2000 http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=948
by David Crowder and Rhonda Crowder, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
Don't Weave a Tangled Web
Creating a multi-page Web site may be a good idea for you. This way, your visitors can find what they want without having to read through everything on your site. It's a great feeling to go to a site with a clear idea of what you want and to find it within two or three clicks, even when you've never visited the site before. Multiple pages also make your site richer -- there's simply more content to choose from. You give visitors a choice about learning a little or a lot about the topic they're interested in.
Finding Web Help on the Web
The Internet is a great source of information about everything under the sun, but there are probably more pages devoted to information about the Web itself than anything else. What this means for you is that you can find lots and lots of resources to make your Web site the best it can be. Check out these great sites:
* CNET Builder.com [http://home.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-3880.html] provides an immense source of resources on all sorts of topics, from HTML and multimedia to e-commerce and security.
* WebMonkey [http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/] features ever-changing articles about Web design and other Web-related topics.
* WebReference.com [http://www.webreference.com/] provides news, tools, and expert guidance in all areas of Web design.
For more resources on building your Web page, order Your Official America Online Guide to Creating Web Pages, 2nd Edition [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/product.asp?prod_id=4498] by Edward Willett, published by Hungry Minds, Inc.
Adding Ads
Many Web sites use banner advertising to generate extra revenue for their operations. If you decide to take advantage of this opportunity, follow these steps to add a banner ad to your page using FrontPage 2000:
1. Select Insert, Component, Banner Ad Manager from the menu.
2. Set the width and height of the banner ad.
3. Select the Transition effect from the drop-down list.
4. Set the duration for the image display.
5. Click the Add button to select images.
6. Select an image from the current Web – you can also browse the Internet for an image or select an image from another folder.
7. Click OK.
8. If you want, click the Browse button to select a page or other file to link to.
9. To delete an image from the listing, click the Remove button.
10. Reorder the images to your satisfaction.
11. Click OK to finish.Learning to Love Lists
Lists are popular for a reason, and here are a few explaining why you may want to include them in your Web pages:
* People think in lists.
* Lists are persuasive and you want to make your evidence clear.
* Lists are used as shorthand.
* Lists indicate the sequence of events in instructions.
* People often remember material set apart from the main text.The Write Stuff
If you're adding text to your Web page, remember that viewers will need to stay at your site long enough to read what you have to say. Here are three ways to make sure visitors take the time to read your text -- and take it seriously.
* Keep It Short. Onscreen text is hard to read, and your visitors aren't going to want to scroll through page after page of text while you leisurely get to the point. On the Web, shorter is better.
* Keep It Sweet. The best Web writing tends to be informal and fun. When you're writing content, imagine that you're writing a chatty letter or e-mail to a friend. Be hip, cool, and friendly and you'll keep your visitors entertained and interested.
* Spelling Counts. So does grammar, punctuation, and all the other mechanics of writing you may not have paid as much attention to as you should have. Many of your visitors will be less likely to trust the quality of the information you're providing if your text is riddled with errors.
Coding Your Way to the Top
If creating a Web page is all new to you, you're going to need to get a handle on HTML. Get your feet wet with the HTML Tutorial for the Beginners
http://www.relisoft.com/java/html.html
an online guide to the basics of HTML. Your fingers will be code-crazy in no time at all.
Finding a Message
If you're considering building a Web site, the first thing you need to do is decide on the content. What's the purpose of your site? What do you want your visitors to walk away with? If you are creating a personal Web site, maybe you want to feature some of your favorite places on the Web, an online journal all about you, or some of your own creative writing. Think about the things you're interested in -- can you point visitors in the right direction for more information on obscure topics, or do you have a special knowledge all your own to impart? The most successful sites offer visitors what they want -- information -- so pay attention to what you want to say to those who click your way.
Up and Running for Free
Once you've got your Web site well under way, you need to find a Web server where you can store all your documents, giving the world access to your creation. Check with your Internet service provider to see if it will provide free storage for your site -- many ISPs offer this service to their clients. Otherwise, check out the resources at TheFreeSite.com
http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Web_Space/to learn more about free hosting services.
Verifying Visitors
You've seen counters before -- they're those nifty little gauges on Web pages that tell you how many people have visited a site. They're great for advertising the popularity of your site to new visitors (although this works in the reverse if attendance is low), as well as keeping track of the numbers for your own reference. To install one on your site for free, visit Count Master:
and follow the step-by-step guide.
Get Noticed Fast
Submit It!
http://www.submitit.com/
takes the headache out of submitting your Web pages to search engines one page at a time. Their program submits your site to over 400 search engines and directories and provides tools for verifying your site's placement.Trying Out Tables
Tables are a great way of displaying and organizing information on your Web page. As you build your page, you may want to try out different ways of presenting the same stuff to your visitors. Use PageTutor.com's Table Exercises:
http://www.pagetutor.com/pagetutor/exercises/exercise05.html
to see what different table style will work best for you.Brilliant Buttons and Bullets
Jazz up your Web page with colorful buttons, bullet points, bars, and lines. If you can catch your visitor's eyes, you're that much closer to making them a long-time fan. Download a few fun and different graphics for free from MagicWiz:
http://www.magicwiz.com/eng/freeimages.shtmlTest, Test, Test
31 Jan 2001
You have to test your work. Because of the informal system of creating pages and publishing them, which most of us work in, this is easy to forget. Don't wait until you receive mail from someone who visited your site telling you links don't work to learn this. Your visitors shouldn't be your beta testers. Here are a few important points to keep in mind when you're testing your site:
* Look at your site, clicking through all the links from a variety of browsers (both Netscape and Internet Explorer in their most recently released versions and one or two versions earlier). Looking at your site in a few versions of AOL's browser is also not a bad idea because they have such a large installed base.
* Look at your site from both Macs and PCs.
* Look at your site after setting your screen resolution to 640 X 480, 800 X 600, and 1024 X 768.
* Look at your site with the browser sized to the full screen and with the browser taking up only part of the screen.
* Look at your site from within your domain and then from outside your domain. Permissions may be different if you are coming to your site from outside your domain.
* Look at your site from the desk of someone who doesn't have privileges on your server.Before the Creation Begins
So you want to create a Web page, do you? Before you get started, make sure you have all your ducks in a row by installing your authoring tools. To get running with FrontPage Express and Web Publishing Wizard, follow these quick steps:
1. Click the Windows Start button.
2. Choose Settings, Control Panel.
3. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
4. Click the Windows Setup tab.
5. Click Internet Tools and then click the Details button. The Internet Tools dialog box appears.
6. If you need to install FrontPage Express, click its check box at the top of the list of components that appears.
7. If you need to install Web Publishing Wizard, scroll down to the bottom of list of components and select the check box next to Web Publishing Wizard.
8. Click OK at the bottom of the Internet Tools dialog box.
9. Click OK at the bottom of the Add/Remove Programs dialog box.
10. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen.The Hype About Hypertext
If you're new to Web page creation, your understanding of HTML may still be a little fuzzy around the edges. HTML is a hypertext markup language that allows you to separate structure from presentation. Hypertext is just a fancy way of saying that your information is organized in such a way that readers can choose their own path through the material. Instead of clicking through sequentially organized pages, a hypertext user clicks specially highlighted text, called a "hyperlink," to go directly to the information of interest.
When you mark up a document with HTML, you can define some of the text as a link, within which you embed the computer address of another resource on the Internet -- this could be a document, a movie, a sound, an animation, or a file to download.Put Your Writing Cap On
If you think being out of the classroom is an excuse for getting lazy with writing, you're wrong. The quality of information you provide on your Web page will make or break you. If you provide relevant, interesting information, but your visitors can't get to it for all the spelling, grammatical, and sentence structure errors, you have a problem. Brush up on your writing skills with "11 Rules of Writing":
http://search.britannica.com/frm_redir.jsp?query=writing&redir=http://www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/
so you not only say it, but say it well.ASK AND YOU MAY RECEIVE
Let's say you're tooling around the Web and you find an image that would be perfect for your site. Before you snatch a copy to post as your very own, keep this in mind: What's posted on someone else's site is generally not free for the taking. Unless a site is offering freebies (like free images, hit counters, or poems), the contents of a site belong to the site owner. If you want to use a copy of that image, you'll have to contact the site owner and clear it first.Designing Made Easy
Creating a Web page with AOL? Check out AOL's Easy Designer tool. Just go to AOL keyword: PUBLISHING TOOLS. Click Easy Designer from the list of tools and choose a Category and Topic.
Easy Designer has several templates that you can use as a basis for your Web page. Template categories (which contain specific topics) include "Your Hobbies" and "Your Sports."
Use the Blank Page option if you want to start with a clean slate; next, choose a category and topic, and then a Layout and Color Style.Quiz Me!
If you want to add a cool feature to your Web page that's sure to get surfers clicking at your door, you may want to create a few online quizzes. Create A Quizhttp://www.pc-shareware.com/quiz4win.htm
is a software program that lets you generate quizzes, tests, and questionnaires for use on your very own Web site. Check out all this software has to offer and download an evaluation copy.
Work that Wizard Magic
Some elements of Web pages -- those that come in groups -- are best created with wizards. Wizards, tools, dialog boxes, or whatever the marketing department wants to call them are a great way to get something done quickly and accurately. The HTML page structure, tables, forms, style sheets, and channels fall into this category. The best programs give you the option of completing a simple dialog box or a series of boxes to define these elements and then create the HTML for you.Speedy Graphics
Your visitors connect to the Internet at different speeds. If they have to wait more than a few seconds for the page to appear in their browsers, you risk sending impatient browsers to another site they can access more quickly.
To avoid making your graphics a drag:
* Reduce image dimensions.
* Limit colors.
* Keep resolution low.
* Repeat pictures.Play by the Rules
"Finders keepers" doesn't apply online. Much of the material on the Internet is copyrighted, which means you can't use it without permission from the copyright holder. If a Web site doesn't specifically state that images are freely available for use, be sure to check with the owner of the image before using it on your own Web site.Everything in Moderation
If you've surfed enough Web sites, you soon find out that lots of flash and glitter, and bells and whistles detract from the page. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind as you design your site:
* Keep your welcome (home) page simple and elegant.
* Include a link to an "About this site" page for those who want to understand the site's structure and function.
* Use short, direct sentences.
* Keep your focus on the topic at hand.
List It
Lists can be a great way to organize information on your Web page, but you're bound to make a few mistakes as you're learning to create them.
Here are some easy fixes for common errors in lists:
* To remove a dangling bullet or number with no text after it, move the cursor just to the right of that bullet or number and press Backspace to delete it.
* To make a number or bullet appear or disappear, place the cursor anywhere in the list and click the Numbered List or Bulleted List button in the toolbar.
* To add blank space between items in a bulleted list, move the cursor to the end of the top line and press Enter to add a blank line. Then click the Bulleted List button in the toolbar to hide the bullet. Press Delete if you want to narrow the space between the lines.Keep an Eye on the Net
If you want to stay current with the ever-changing Internet world, TheStandard.com - http://www.thestandard.com/ is for you. The site features daily news and analysis of the Internet market, as well as in-depth looks at Commerce, Culture, Ideas & Strategies, Media & Marketing, Policy & Politics, Site Building, and much, much more.
http://www.thestandard.com/Put Your Best Foot Forward
Your site's image is everything it says without words. So think about how you'd want your target audience to describe your site -- friendly, cutting edge, useful, funny, bizarre -- and choose your site's graphics and layout accordingly.Add Guest Book To Your Website
If your personal Web page is getting lots of visitors, that's great. But how do you know what all those surfers think of your site? Wonder no more -- add a guest book to your site and get immediate feedback from your visitors. Alxnet.com:http://www.alxnet.com/services/guestbook/
lets you download a guest book for free and you can customize it to meet your specific needs.
Don't Forget to Update
After you upload your personal Web pages to a Web server, keep in mind that you have two copies of each file in your site. One copy remains in your C:\ hard drive folder; the other copy is on the Web server. When you make changes or corrections to your pages, do so on your local PC. But don't forget to publish your pages again after making those changes. Otherwise, people visiting your site on the Internet won't see any of those changes and corrections!Brushing Up on URL
The location of a file is called a URL (or Uniform Resource Locator). URLs are the addresses of files and are key to the Hypertext Markup Language's functionality. Without URLs, HTML would be nothing more than a method for laying out text. You can link a page to another file by specifying the URL as an attribute of certain HTML elements. This capability is what makes the Hypertext in HTML possible.Saving a File
If you're using a word processing program and it doesn't have an option for saving a document as an HTML file, choose something like text file, ASCII, plain text, or text only as your save options.Good Titles
Search engines are special programs that scan the World Wide Web to make listings of Web pages for sites like Webcrawler and Excite!. A search engine may use the content of the TITLE element to name your Web page in its listings. So be sure to give all your pages good, descriptive titles that accurately identify the pages' contents for potential viewers.Keep It Open
You may want to keep your Web browser open while you're editing an HTML document so that you can flip back and forth between the browser and your text editor. This way, you can immediately see how your changes affect the Web pages' appearance in the browser. However, before you can see those changes, you must save the HTML document in the text editor. Then all you have to do is switch to the browser and click Reload (in Navigator) or Refresh (in Internet Explorer) to see the changes you've made to the page.Tag Versus Element
A tag is not the same thing as an element. The element is everything from the start tag through the end tag, including not only the content, but also the tags themselves.
Tags are always denoted by angle brackets (< and >), which tell a Web browser that the material between the brackets is a markup instruction and shouldn't be displayed on the Web page.Separating Paragraphs
Unlike your favorite word processing program, HTML doesn't recognize when you hit the Enter key at the end of a paragraph. That's why you have to use the P element to separate paragraphs. HTML doesn't allow you to indent the first line in a new paragraph, which is why the P element places a full line space between paragraphs. That's the same as hitting the Enter key twice after a paragraph in Microsoft Word. The line space simply makes the paragraph easier to read.Color My Web World
To add color to your Web pages, you need to know the name of the color you want to use (for example, midnightblue, aquamarine, sandybrown, salmon, and so on). As HTML evolves, the list of possible color names grows dramatically. A nice chart that shows the colors that correspond to each name can be found at Inter-Linked Communications:
http://www.inter-linked.com/color-chart.htmlUnderline Confusion
Underlined text causes a special problem on Web pages. Using underlined text on Web pages can confuse visitors because links to other pages are automatically underlined. For this reason, avoiding the U element is best. Use italics or bold to emphasize words or phrases.Adding Lines
The HR (horizontal rule) element is a simple and intuitive part of HTML. At its most basic, the HR element is nothing more than a straight line that's drawn across the page to separate two sections from each other. Horizontal rules have only four attributes -- align, noshade, size, and width. The size attribute really should be called height because that's what it sets, but you can't have everything.
Also, you should know that Internet Explorer accepts a color attribute for the HR element, but Netscape Navigator does not recognize it.Get Permission
You can't just grab any image you want off the Web and use it on your own Web pages. You do have the ability to download it, but if someone else holds the copyright, you need permission to use it.Using a Web Image
If you decide to use someone else's image from a Web site (and you get permission to do so), make sure that you download a copy of the image and upload that image to your own server rather than use the other site as the image's source. Otherwise, that other Webmaster may get mad at you, because your users end up tying up his or her Web server resources every time they visit your page.Web Design Tips and Tricks
Some of the best resources for Web design are right on the Web itself. Check out the following sites for great Web design ideas:
* David Siegel's Web Wonk - http://www.dsiegel.com/tips/
* Builder.com - http://www.builder.com
* Webreview - http://www.webreview.comBullets
In unordered lists, you can determine how the actual bullet looks by setting the type attribute with one of the following values:
* disc: a solid circle (the default value)
* circle: a hollow circle
* square: a solid square
Note: The square is supposed to be hollow, according to the HTML standard, but both major Web browsers show a solid square.Keeping Your Site Legal
If you are planning on using text or images on your site that you yourself did not create, take the time to make sure that such text or images are not copyrighted material. The Web is filled with non-copyrighted material, so it should not be too difficult to find neat stuff you can legally use.Aligning Left
By default, any block-level element is left-aligned, so you don't have to do anything to make these elements left-aligned. If the element is aligned in some other way, you can return it to left alignment by specifically setting its align attribute to a value of left or by deleting the align attribute entirely.Update Page On Regular Basis
If you want visitors to your Web site to come back for more, you should give them an incentive for doing so. Usually, that means updating your site on a regular basis so that visitors can expect to be greeted with something new when they return. It may even make sense to include a revision date on your Web site to let readers know when you last updated the pages.Check It Out First
A Web browser decides exactly how it interprets an element. HTML suggests but doesn't control the interpretation. To make sure that your Web page appears exactly the way you want it to, always view it in whatever browser(s) you think visitors may use.Style Limitations
Perhaps the greatest limitation of HTML styles compared with Cascading Style Sheets is that if you format text to a certain style and later change the style definition, the text you formatted earlier doesn't update automatically to reflect the changes to the style. Still, in many cases, HTML styles can save time and increase productivity if your needs aren't that demanding and automatic updating isn't critical to your needs.Important Titles
When creating Web pages in FrontPage, always remember to title your pages. A Web browser displays the title that you assign to your page while the page is loading. Titling your page is critical for several reasons. When someone bookmarks your page, the title you assign becomes the default name for the bookmark. Also, the words that you use in your title can influence the relevance ranking score assigned to your page by search engines.Title Techniques
You title your Web page by inserting words between the <title></title> tags. In FrontPage, you can choose File, Page Properties. Key in the title that you are assigning to your page. From the FrontPage Folder view, you can right-click and select Properties from the menu. Then you can add or change the Title field.Preparing to Publish a Web in FrontPage 2000
Here are some tasks that you can perform before you publish your FrontPage Web to ensure that you have an error-free site:
* Check the spelling of the content on your Web site
* Check for orphaned (stray) pages
* Validate links
* Validate components
FrontPage 2000 includes features to help you check each of these aspects of your Web site prior to publishing. Even if you don't need to publish your Web, you should still use these features to check your current Web site for errors -- and to fix them quickly -- because those errors are already live!
Favorite Font?
You have no way of knowing what fonts visitors to your site have available on their machines. If you provide alternate fonts, you increase the likelihood that your visitors will see your page as you intended. You also want to try to use fonts that are used by both PC and Mac machines. Common PC fonts include Veranda, Arial, Courier New, and Times New Roman. Common Mac fonts include Helvetica, Arial, Veranda, Times, Palatino, and Courier. Unix commonly uses Helvetica and Times.
Planning Your Pages
The only tools you need to do the planning part of your first Web page are Web access (for doing research) and either a word processing and drawing program or a pencil and paper -- whichever is more comfortable -- for sketching your plans and taking notes.
A few extra hours up front can save you a great deal of time later, helping you produce a better Web page. Yet the planning step is the most frequently overlooked part of the Web publishing process.
To plan your Web site:
1. Determine the purpose of your site. Is this a personal site? Topical? Business? Entertainment?
2. Decide on the structure of your site and the layout of your pages. Decide how many pages you'll need. Try to build everything out from your home page
3. Decide what links to include. A Web page without links is pretty boring. Provide links to other pages within your site as well as to outside sites of interest. Create a list of possible links. Take a look at the list and see if there's a way to organize them into groups.Quick Text in FrontPage 2000
You can copy text from Word (or Excel, Access, and PowerPoint, for that matter) right into FrontPage's Page view. Select the text in another Office application and click the Copy button in that application's toolbar to save the text to the Clipboard. Then, open or switch to FrontPage's Page view and paste the text at the cursor's insertion point.
Much -- but not necessarily all -- of your formatting will be saved when you paste text. You may be using formatting in your other applications that's not available in HTML pages. But FrontPage will do its best to keep your font type, size, color, and attributes when you paste text from other applications.Learning from Outside Sources
Not everybody has an inborn sense of color coordination, a fact which can easily be verified after spending a relatively brief period of time surfing the Internet and eyeing some of the color disasters passing as Web pages there. One way to develop a good color sense is to take a look at how the real professionals (that is to say, professional artists) have dealt with color over the centuries. A few afternoons spent in your local art museum may do more to improve the look of your Web pages than countless hours spent fiddling with the color options available to you in FrontPage.Title Tips
In order to increase the likelihood that your page will appear prominently on the radar screen of your friendly neighborhood search engine, you must construct your title with care. Consider the following suggestions. Pack the most important information in your title into the first 40 characters. Avoid generic words such as "Welcome to." Your title should make sense when viewed in a long list of titles. Use only words that describe the content of your page. Do not write your title in all caps -- use mixed case. The first word is the most important word in the title: Make sure it's engaging and descriptive.Keeping Your Site Legal
It may be tempting to live by the motto "Talent borrows, genius steals" when putting together your Web site, but doing so may put you in a legally indefensible position. If you are planning on using text or images on your site that you yourself did not create, take the time to make sure that such text or images are not copyrighted material. The Web is filled with non-copyrighted material, so it should not be too difficult to find neat stuff you can legally use. When it comes to choosing material for your Web site, a more appropriate motto may be "Better safe than sorry."Dating on the Internet
Most search engines are designed to place a higher priority on newer material while dropping older material to the bottom of the list. When you first register your Web page with search engines, you are well-placed in their priority scheme. You need to continuously update your material in order to remain high on the priority list of these search engines.Previewing in a Browser with FrontPage 2000
The Preview tab roughly approximates how a Web page looks in a browser, but nothing can substitute for actually testing your pages by looking at them in Internet Explorer and/or Netscape Navigator.
Different browsers interpret Web attributes differently, and different screen resolutions display Web pages differently. You should periodically preview your Web pages in both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, and it may be a good strategy to keep an older version of one of these browsers installed on your computer so that you can also see how your Web pages look in those browsers.
To preview your Web page in a browser, select File, Preview in Browser. The Preview in Browser dialog box allows you to select between any installed browser on your computer and any screen resolution supported by your system.Linking Logic
As you create your Web page, try to provide links that direct visitors to the main page of other sites whenever possible. Although you can't control when other Webmasters rearrange their sites, you can be fairly certain that top-level addresses don't change as often. For example, link to http://net.gurus.com rather than http://net.gurus.com/toc-1dq5.html.
And be on the lookout for tips from other sites on how to safely link to one of their individual pages -- sometimes these other sites even provide you with links.Web Site Success?
Before you design and create your own Web page, define what you believe will make it a success.
* For an initial effort, simply putting up something on the Web that clearly conveys basic information is probably enough.
* For follow-up work, get more specific. Are you trying to reach a certain number or type of people? Will measuring "hits" -- the number of times that people access some pieces of your site -- be enough, or do you need some other measure of response, such as having people send e-mail or call an 800 number?
Talk to people who do advertising and marketing in the real world, as well as people who work on the Web, and get a sense of what goals they set and how they measure success.Word Creates Web Pages, Too!
After you open or create a Word document that you want to publish on the Web, you can use Word to turn your document into a Web page. Here's how:
1. Open the Word document that you want to convert into a Web page.
2. Choose File, Save as Web Page.
If you create a Word document from scratch, you may want to first save it as a Word document before saving it as a Web page. That way, if you want to share a copy of your Web page with others, you can either give them the Word document version or the Web page version if they don't have Word.
The Save As dialog box appears.
3. Type a name for your file in the File Name box.
It's a good idea to save your Web page under a different name than your Word document. That way you won't get confused when trying to open either the Word document or the Web page.
4. Click Save.Publicity, Please
If you want people to visit your Web page, you have to let them know about it.
Almost all Web search sites and directories let you register your page with them -- look for a button that says something like "Add URL." Some search sites only need your URL, while others ask you to fill out a form with site name, URL, site description, and possibly other info.
You can save some time by using a Web site submittal service. Although these services used to be free, most now charge a fee. Here are a few:
* Submit It - http://www.submit-it.com
* Go Net-Wide - http://www.GoNetWide.com/gopublic.html
* WebPromote - http://usaworld.com/WebPromote.htm
Image Creation
Creating the perfect image for your Web site can often be a troubling task. Image size, file formats, pixelation, aliasing and anti-aliasing, layers, and other variables in your imaging software all serve to complicate matters. When you create images for your site, it's helpful to design the image against a background color similar to your site's background color. This helps to eliminate guesswork and can end up being a huge timesaver.Easy Coloring
Sometimes you need to make quick changes to your site and don't have time to mess with hexadecimal numbers. Other times, you just don't want to bother with finding the exact shade of blue for your background color. Instead of typing in the hexadecimal number code to specify the color you want, you can use one of the ten colors whose names mean the same things to different browsers: aqua, black, blue, cyan, fuchsia, lime, magenta, red, white, and yellow.Avoiding Web Publishing Missteps
Your site might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if you forget to include contact information for yourself in the site, how will you find out that you misspelled "bureaucracy" all over the place? Similarly, you won't get as many orders for your spiffy new widget if you put the ordering information five levels down in a Web page called "Fruitbat guano statistics - 1876." Here are a few more basics:
* Include your e-mail address on your Web page.
* Include a copyright notice.
* Add a site map.
* Give credit where credit is due.
* Make the important info prominent.
* Be ready to revise, based on user feedback.Avoid Link Confusion
If your site is like most, it has hyperlinks and images interspersed within and around blocks of text. Try to avoid placing your hyperlinks in confusing areas on the page. Don't place links right next to each other, as they can blend together and look like one. Also, don't bury a succession of links within a block of text. Instead, organize them into a list.Giving Your Web Pages a Pre-Publishing Review
Before you publish your Web pages, check them one more time before they go public. Open each page and look at it in a Web browser, just as your visitors are going to do, Be sure to check your pages in both of the major browsers -- Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Then do the following:
* Read your words. Remember, your pages are going to be visible to friends and strangers. Be sure to read the text (or have a friend do so) and catch any misspellings.
* Check your links. Click each hypertext link and make sure that it does what it's supposed to do.
* Test your graphics. Make sure your images appear on your pages where you want them to. Sometimes, images don't appear because you didn't correctly enter the path to them using the IMG element or because you forgot one or both of the quotation marks around the image's filename.
Coloring Your Online World
The wise Web page designer realizes that the ability to alter colors doesn't automatically confer artistic taste. Good Web artists tailor their output for the audience to whom they intend to appeal. Before you commit to using color changes, take a good, long dispassionate look at them to be sure that they are going to be pleasing to your viewers. If you're looking for a cyberpunk audience, glaring colors with high contrast are fine. If you're dealing with a more conservative crowd of online onlookers, you may want to tone the presentation down a bit.Web Design Resources
The HTML Writers Guild http://www.hwg.org is a Web-based organization dedicated to improving the quality of published content on the Internet. They have an excellent collection of resources available at their site. Their online database has valuable information for all Web designers, from beginners to experts.
http://www.hwg.orgDrawing on the Internet's Art Resources
You can spend endless hours looking for art online. One great site for starting your search is the Online Image Archive
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/images/images.htmlFor backgrounds, visit WebReference
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/graphics/backgrounds.htmlAnd for photographs, try a site with preexisting stock photos, a site with all kinds of graphics, and another that converts your photographs into digital form:
* Weststock - http://www.weststock.com
* Eyewire - http://www.eyewire.com
* Filmworks - http://www.filmworks.com
Select an Informative Page Title
Choosing a distinctive, informative page title is important in good Web design. Not only does the page title appear at the top of the browser window, but it is also is the default Bookmark (Favorites in Internet Explorer) title. When someone bookmarks your page, you want the name that appears to reflect the content of your page. Otherwise, the user may forget why they bookmarked your page in the first place.Target Your Site
Before you begin designing your site, ask yourself who your target audience is. Is your site trying to sell something to consumers, or is it primarily an information clearinghouse? What will people coming to your site be looking for? The answers to these questions should have a large impact on how you design your site. If you are primarily delivering information, flashy graphics and sound should play a small role in your site's design. If you are selling something, your site should be engineered to place emphasis on your products.Keep Graphics Functional
When considering whether to include an image on your site, first ask yourself these questions:
* Will it complement my site or detract from its quality?
* Does it serve any function?
* Would my site suffer without it?
* How can I make its file size as small as possible?Don't Be Color Blind
It's very tempting to include flashy graphics on your Web page simply because they're cool. But it's important to keep in mind that less is more when it comes to Web site design. While there is something to be said for eclectic taste, sites with a mish-mash of unrelated graphics aren't nearly as appealing to the eye as sites that actually seem to have been created with some sense of design. One way to tie your site together is to pick a color scheme and stick with it.Frames vs. Tables
Frames are used for dividing a Web browser window into separate compartments, with each displaying a different file. They can be a great addition to your site, but they can also be a hassle. When choosing between frames or tables, keep these two things in mind:
* For columns or rows, use tables.
* To create a navigational structure that is always visible -- a table of contents, for instance -- use frames.Strive for Balance
As with most things in life, balance is essential to a successfully designed Web site. There are three basic areas to consider in this regard:
* Text and graphics -- Make sure that one doesn't overwhelm the other.
* Download time and page content -- Beautiful pages often come at a price, so strive to balance the content of the page with the realities of download time. Is that photo of your little dog Scrappy really worth a 90-second wait to your visitors?
* Background and foreground -- Don't let the background overwhelm the content.Keeping Your Site Dust-Free for Company
If you want your Web site to invite return visits, consider regular updates to your content. A static landscape can leave users longing for some sign of new life at your site, a sure-fire way to turn would-be customers or contacts toward a more vibrant storefront. By tagging your updates with a "The Latest" or "New" icon, you can give visitors a clue as to when they can expect fresh information. Also, keep tabs on your links; you can save egg on your face (or a deep blush in your cheeks) if you make sure that the URLs you're suggesting haven't suddenly become connections to objectionable sites.Act Fast
Visitors to your site should be able to see their options and select one as quickly as possible. A good goal is 30 seconds, which on the Web can feel like an eternity. Two strategies can help you achieve this goal:
* Make every effort to keep page sizes under 30K.
* Create a simple page layout with clearly labeled, highly visible buttons or other navigational tools. A quick glance by your readers should be all it takes for them to understand your navigation scheme and how to select an option.Don't Fringe Your Graphics
When you are creating images that you'll save as Transparent GIF images, create them using a background that is similar in color to the background of the Web page you'll be laying the image upon. This way, when you specify the background color of the image as the transparent color, you're less likely to see an ugly "fringe" of similar, but not quite matching, pixels around the image.Don't Convert GIFs and JPGs
There are basically two common file formats for graphics found on the Web: GIF and JPG. Each has attributes that make it better for certain types of images. But no matter which format you choose, you shouldn't convert GIF files into JPG files, or vice versa. Why not? Well, you shouldn't experience any fire and brimstone, but the files won't be as compressed and the images will become marred by distortions.Molding Your Site from Role Models
Imitation as flattery isn't limited to the offline world. You can find lots of outstanding Web Sites in cyberspace, and adapting these fine examples to your own design and delivery isn't likely to injure the originator's creative spirit. Explore the Web's vast resource of existing sites, making note of those elements that attract your attention -- color, layout, content, navigation, overall organization, and so on. You're likely to appreciate simple graphics, streamlined presentation, and efficient loading, all of which can be key ingredients in an online offering that others, in turn, will want to emulate!Be Kind to Your Visitors
The most irritating aspect of some beautifully designed sites is that they take too long to download because of large graphics files. All browsers cache graphics, which means they store image files on a user's hard drive so the browser doesn't need to download the same graphic repeatedly. It's a good idea to take advantage of this and repeat the same graphic wherever possible on your site -- when you do this, everyone wins. Repeating graphics should save loading time for your visitors and at the same time ease the strain on your server.Connecting with Text Hyperlinks
If you use an image map in your Web site, consider including a list of matching text hyperlinks somewhere else in the page. Visitors who surf the Web with their browsers' image-loading functions turned off (or who use text-only browsers) cannot see both regular pictures and image maps and, therefore, must rely on the text hyperlinks to move around.Choosing a Font
Fonts are different styles of type (for example, Arial and Courier). You've probably used lots of them in your word processor, but if you're like most people, you have one that you stick with, such as Times New Roman, which is the default font in Microsoft Word 2000. It may be tempting for you to get really fancy and use special fonts such as Playbill or Desdemona on your Web site but, unlike print media, you're limited to just a couple of options on the Web.
Most older browsers support only two fonts: Times Roman and Courier, which are the default fonts for Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Recent versions of both browsers support the use of fonts other than Arial, Times Roman, and Courier, but only if the machine doing the browsing has the fonts you specify installed. You can specify other fonts, but people looking at your site might not have them on their machine or might not have a browser that supports other fonts. So it's best to stick with either Times Roman or Courier.Think Small
Reading a computer screen is hard on the eyes and often tedious. Try to limit the size of documents on your page to the size of one screen -- that translates into roughly 300 to 500 words per page. As a rule, people hate to scroll. It's best to split long articles up into separate pages so that users get them in small bites and can click through them from one section to the next.Setting Foot on Your Web Welcome Mat
One of the more exciting aspects of creating Web pages arrives when you enter the URL given to you by your Web host and visit your new Web site for the first time. You need to enter the same URL your visitors use. That way, you can make sure the URL works correctly. Such as URL may resemble the following:
http://www.webhost.com/~username/. The tilde symbol (~) often identifies a user's directory on a Web server. If the URL is correct and all your files were transferred, your home page should appear.Protect Your Property
The advent of the Web has made protecting intellectual property increasingly difficult. One of the biggest infringements is a practice called "direct linking." You are direct linking if you get material for your Web site by linking to files -- such as images or sounds -- on someone else's Web server. The content appears exactly as though it is coming from your own Web server, and visitors to your Web page can't tell the difference. You should never do this to someone else -- not only is it often a form of copyright infringement, it could cost them a lot of money, too.
Unfortunately for you as a person with a Web site, there's no way to prevent this from happening to you. However, you can take a few precautions:
* Put a statement on your main page claiming copyright for all original work on the site.
* If you're making files available for download, clearly describe the conditions you're placing on their use.
* Ask people not to link directly to your files. Often people do this simply because they don't know any better, so you may be able to appeal to their good natures.Write Your Bio
Users often want to know who's behind the content they see on a site. Without revealing private information about yourself or other providers of your content, it's a good idea to say a bit about yourself -- for example, what you do, why you created your site, and when it debuted. Stuff like that. It's also a good idea to include a mailto: command so users can send you feedback.Web Graphics -- A Real Turn-Off
Don't make these three big mistakes relating to graphics on the Web:
* No graphics. No graphics means boring pages -- plain and simple.
* Too many graphics. Using too many large, slow-to-download graphics may be the biggest "newbie" Web author mistake. (A lot of old hands make this mistake as well.)
* No text alternative. Some users don't have graphical capability at all, and many others run around the Web with graphics turned off, only turning graphics capability on when absolutely necessary. You need to accommodate these user by creating your page in a way that supports text-only access as well as graphical access. Try an experiment: Go into your browser, turn off the graphics display, and load your Web page. If you can't tell what is on the page or what links do where, then you need to redesign your page.Frames: Too Much of a Good Thing
Frames, which are used for dividing your visitors' browser window into separate compartments, can be a useful addition to your site. However, like all design elements, it's important not to overuse them. Like cheap cologne, a little goes a long way. If you find that any page on your site has more than two frames onscreen at once, you should reconsider your design. If too many things are going on at once, your visitors will end up battling a cluttered interface, especially if they are using a monitor smaller than 14 inches.Your Little Black Book
When you're building your Web site, keep a journal of your activities. Then every time you work on your site, enter details about the pages you've worked on, what changes you've made, including file names, where they are stored, etc. Build your records chronologically over time and store them as an electronic file so you can use your software's Find tools to locate information when you have questions.Creating Consistency across Web Pages
Content pages should have a common look. If you produce content pages that look vastly different from each other, you may confuse the user. The simplest way to accomplish a common look is to repeat elements from page to page, such as the navigation bar, your logo, or a color scheme that you've chosen as the overall palette for your site. The point is that you create a look for content pages that reinforces to users that they are on your site, not someone else's.Putting Out the Site Welcome Mat
How many times have you clicked a link to go to a site only to find yourself looking at some glitzy image with those inane words [Click Here to Enter the Site] staring at you? It's important to avoid unnecessary links anywhere in your site, but it's most important on your site's main page. The instant that a page loads, you want a visitor to begin using your site, not waste time clicking extra links to find the good stuff. If the site offers a function such as a search engine, visitors want the capability to run a search right there, on the spot – not several pages and links away. If the site is informational, you want to give them access to the information immediately. This stipulation doesn't mean that you must include a link to every page on the site from the main page, but you do want to provide some clear and easy ways for visitors to get from the main page to any other page on the site.Focusing on Pictures for Your Web Page
Use only those pictures that communicate your site's purpose and make getting around in the site easier or more pleasant for your target audience. Also, make sure that visitors can understand your page without the pictures. Some surfers turn off their browser's image-loading option to speed up browsing sessions.Borrowing Web Content -- Only After Asking
Make sure that content you get from the Web to use on your own Web page is labeled as being freely available for reuse, or else get permission to reuse it. Many people are quite happy to help if you ask nicely and credit their work. The best part is that you make some good contacts with other interesting people. You also keep the law on your side.Providing Contact Information at Your Site
Always make it easy for Web site visitors to contact you by providing e-mail, phone, fax, and mailing address information. If you want people to visit your place of business, include a link to a page containing a map showing how to get to your location (as well as a picture showing visitors what to look for when they arrive).Working Out a Web Plan Upfront
Before you take the leap into Web page creation, take the time to consider the content that you want to include on your site. With preparation, the design and delivery process can be easier, more pleasant, and more productive. Use a word processing program or a few pieces of notebook paper to plan your initial Web page. (Use the paper for drawing only -- neither origami nor paper airplanes translate well to the Web.) Just rough out what text you want to put in and what URLs to include. Then you can be ready to focus on the mechanics of getting the Web page right.Finding a Home for Your Web Site
If you can't find a home for your Web site at your Internet service provider and you don't want to pay for a Web hosting service, you can opt for one of the many free Web servers to host your Web site. Examples include Yahoo! GeoCities, America Online, and MSN Home Pages. You won't be able to create a huge site on a free server, but most will give you several megabytes of Web server space free of charge -- enough to set up a few pages at least. What's the catch? Advertising. Users who visit your Web site have to put up with advertisements that pop up in their own windows or appear as banners on your pages. If you don't mind the advertisements, a free Web server can be an easy way to get started creating Web pages.
Opting for Consistency in Your Web Creations
One way to build unity into your Web site is to always place photographs or illustrations in the same relative position on each page and always treat them the same way. One strong variation to placing graphics in the same location is to arrange them against a different colored background to the left or right of text columns. You also can create unity in the way you handle scanned photographs by always placing the same colored border, image-edited borders, or shadow effects around your photographs. Just be sure that you don't inadvertently insert a photograph and forget to modify the border or background. After you establish a standard, stick with it!
Growing (Web Page) Proposition
Web pages, like little babies and national deficits, grow. As time goes on, you're bound to add new pages and even new sections to your site. Build some growing room into your site's organization. Minimize repetitive tasks by creating page templates. Use shared borders and the Include Page FrontPage Components to automate the inclusion of standard elements in your pages. Most important, keep the growth of your Web site in perspective by refining your site's purpose and by remaining focused on your target audience.Determining Web Page Structure
There are two basic kinds of Web-page structures: regular and framed. A regular Web page is a standalone structure; frames are a way to place more than one Web page on-screen at a time. To the visitor, a framed site appears as one coherent whole, no different from a regular page. Frames can run vertically or horizontally. Frames give you more capabilities -- and a few extra headaches just to balance everything.Mapping a Navigation Strategy
Beginners often organize their pages so that their sites are hard to navigate. If your site has more than two levels, you should give some thought as to how your visitors navigate throughout your personal cyberspace. Nobody likes wandering from link to link with no idea what is where or having to follow ten links to find one piece of information. Keep the relationship between your pages simple. Make clear which links are internal to your own site and which go out to other sites. Provide a site map or a common menu. And make navigation work consistently throughout the site.
Monkeying with Source Code
If you don't know HTML, then it's probably best to leave the text formatting details to FrontPage 2000 when you're working on anything important. The direct creation and editing of the source code by hand can lead to all sorts of errors, something that won't happen if you handle everything with FrontPage's menus and toolbars. For example, there's nothing to prevent you from leaving off end tags on elements that require them, or mismatching start and end tags.
Getting the Message Across
You can add your own e-mail address as a link on your Web page. When visitors click that link, their e-mail programs open and display an empty e-mail form that's preaddressed with your e-mail address. Visitors need only to type in a message and click the Send button to send you the message. Creating an e-mail link (often called a mailto link) is virtually identical to creating any other kind of link.
Just a (Pixel) and Blip on the Screen
The entertaining, easy-to-navigate tutorial, hosted by Pixel and Blip, shares the basics of Web page design with FrontPage. The eight-unit tutorial covers topics such as deciphering toolbars, embedding images, choosing fonts, adding video clips, building tables, and making the Internet connection.
The site includes quiz questions at the end of each tutorial section, tips and tricks for using FrontPage in the classroom, and a resource page from Digital Education Network that includes links to free software tutorials and high-quality online courses.
http://www.actden.com/fp/Password, Please
Don't assume that the user name and password for publishing your Web pages are the same as the user name and password you use to log onto your Internet service provider (ISP). They're probably different. To upload pages to your Web server, you need the user name and password from your Web presence provider (WPP). Even if your ISP is your WPP, you may still need a separate user name and password to load pages onto the Web server.Keep 'Em Comin' Back
Keeping visitors around for even a little while, let alone making them want to return, depends on the level of comfort that you provide. If they're not comfortable moving around your site to begin with, what makes you think that they're going to bookmark
it and come back for a return engagement? In creating comfort in your Web site, you need to consider the following questions
* Does the site maintain a consistent layout from page to page? If not, you'll create stress and annoyance for your visitors.
* Is the type and style of content consistent over time?
A large part of visitor comfort comes from always finding what they expect when they visit your site.
* Is it easy to navigate from one page or section to another? Visitors usually don't appreciate being forced to jump through hoops or follow a preset path.
* If the site is larger than a few pages, does it include a search feature? Unless your site enables visitors to run a search so that they can quickly and easily find the material they're looking for, you run the risk of them exploring elsewhere.
Clip Art
The Whole Internet Guide to Clip Art
http//best-of-web.com/computer/clipart_index.shtml
is the place to go when you're looking for some freebie graphic images to embellish your Web site. This site contains links to all the best image repositories; you also can search for the illustration of your grandest imaginings by entering a keyword. Even if you're not in the market for a fancy photo or an animated graphic, exploring the ample offerings is purely entertaining. You are allowed to download most of the images you discover if you plan to use them for a not-for-profit purpose.The Care and Feeding of Topical Web Sites
Making a second career out of maintaining and extending a topical Web site is easy, but the pay is usually nil. This is especially true if you create a Web site for an interest or volunteer group that is, of course, delighted to be on the Web -- and, by the way, will have just a few little ideas of additional things that they'd like to see you put on the site, and then a few more . . .
Here are some things to consider when you create a topical Web site:
* What's on first? As with a personal Web page, the title of a topical Web page and the first screen need to make unmistakably clear the topic that the page covers.
* Keep focused. A topical Web site loses value if it goes beyond a single topic. If you have two interests that you want to share on the Web, consider creating separate sites.
* Create a succession plan. If your Web site grows beyond your capacity to maintain and extend it properly, find someone to help out or to take it over. If your site supports a specific organization, people in that group are the logical ones to take over the site. Decide what role you can handle and then ask for help in doing the rest.
Adding Author Info to Your Page
You can specify the name of the author of your Web page. When specifying the name of the author, you may also want to include the names of any people who helped create the Web page. Only visitors who view the HTML code for your Web page will see the author information you specify.
1. Click anywhere on the Web page for which you want to specify author information.
2. Click File.
3. Click Properties.
The Page Properties dialog box appears.
4. Click the Custom tab.
5. Click Add to specify the author information for the Web page.
The User Meta Variable dialog box appears.
6. Type the word author in the Name space.
7. Type the name of the Web page author in the Value field.
To specify more than one name, separate each name with a comma.
8. Click OK to confirm the information you entered.
Web Page Discretion
Don't put information on your Web page that you don't want everyone in the world to know. In particular, don't include your home address and phone number. More than one person has received an unexpected -- and unwelcome -- phone call from someone (s)he met on the Net. Why would Internet users need this information, anyway? They can send you e-mail!
Presenting the Fine Print
If you must present "fine print" information, such as citations typically found in footnotes or endnotes, make sure the text appears at the very end of your page or range of pages. You may even want to consider putting the fine print in a separate page that users have to deliberately open to read.
If you have to display more valuable information at a smaller type size, try to shrink the text as little as possible. Go down to 10 points, but not all the way to 8 points. And make sure that you use a font that's readable at that small size and place it against a clean, high-contrast background; small text is hard enough to read without having a complex background behind it.
For maximum readability, keep your body text in the 10- to 14-point range, with 12 points typically the best size.
Serving Up Your Pages
Here is a step-by-step explanation of the process by which a Web page is created (or changed) and made available on a Web server
1. Using your chosen Web editor, create a new HTML file, or open an existing one.
2. Make the desired edits to the file.
3. Save the file.
4. Open the file using a Web browser.
5. Examine the page in the browser. If it looks acceptable, proceed to the next step. If not, return to your Web editor and make corrections.
6. Launch your FTP client.
7. Enter the necessary information to connect to your Web server address, user name, and password. Instruct the FTP client to connect to the Web server.
8. Using your FTP client, navigate to the appropriate directory, and upload the HTML file to the server.
9. Return to your Web browser, and open the live file (the copy on the server, not the copy on your local machine).
10. Examine the page live on the Web.
If it looks okay, congratulations! You're done.
Sign My Guest Book
A Web site guest book allows visitors to share their impressions of the site for others to read and enjoy. If you don't want to maintain and manage your guest book, you can find sites that will do the job for you. All you need do is to create a link on your site to the guest book site.
Your visitors can then see what others have said about your site and post their own messages, too.
Finding A Guest Book Service
Looking for a guest book service? If so, here are a two to check
Guest World's Guest Gear!
http//www.guestworld.com/specs/guest.html
For the more experienced Web designer, check out The CGI Resource Index! This site offers links for remotely hosted CGI scripts that you can customize!
http//cgi.resourceindex.com/Remotely_Hosted/Guestbooks
Under Construction
When your site (or part of it) is under construction, give a little thought to your visitors and how they'll feel when they land on a page that says "We're updating our site, be sure to call by again soon." Chances are they'll be muttering to themselves, "Yeah! Right!" and go elsewhere, never to return. However, there's a simple way to improve the chances that they'll call back. To do this, create a mailing list that they can subscribe to and tell them they'll receive a notification when the site has been updated. When your site is ready, email a short message and include a link to the new areas.
The Long and the Short of Pages
Study after study has shown that the best way to present information on a computer screen is in very short chunks -- and on relatively short pages. Readers don't like to scroll, so you're better off creating multiple pages (of short paragraphs) than you are in cramming everything into one super-long scrolling page. Forcing readers to struggle through long paragraphs and long pages increases their annoyance with the material -- and makes it less likely that they'll continue to read all the way to the end.
Lines For Emphasis
Grouping similar and related elements on your Web page allows you to present them in a neat and well organized format. For example, arrange your navigation buttons vertically down the left side of the page - with the content on the right - for a great look. To give added emphasis to the design, use something other than white space to separate the elements. A straight vertical line or a stack of small dots or squares makes an attractive visual break.
Accessible Designs
As you design your site, keep in mind that viewers come to your pages with a variety of computers, operating systems, and monitors. Ensure that your site is accessible to all your potential viewers by testing your pages on a variety of systems. If you want to attract a large audience to your site, you need to ensure that it looks good on a broad range of systems. A design that looks great in Navigator 4.0 and higher may be unreadable in Internet Explorer 3.0. And many people still use old browsers because they haven't bothered -- or don't know how -- to download new versions.
Items That Should Be On Every Page of Your Site
You should assume some of your pages will be accessed directly rather than through your home page. Therefore, there are certain pieces of content that EVERY PAGE on your site should display
-The name of your business or organization
-The e-mail address of the contact person in your organization
-A link to your home page
-Links to other major sections on your site
-A copyright message, if appropriate
.Follow the Three Clicks Rule
The Three Clicks Rule states that no important piece of information should ever be more than three clicks away from anywhere else on your Web site. The most important information should be even closer at hand. Some information, such as contact information, should never be more than one click away. Make it easy for viewers to find information by creating a site map and a navigation bar -- a set of links to all the main sections on your site.
Vary sizes for variety
When you're using multiple images on a Web page avoid the temptation to make them all the same size. Not only is this less visually exciting but it gives your viewer no indication of which image is most important. So, instead, select the most important image and make it the biggest image on the page. The other images, which are of secondary importance, should be sized smaller than this image to reinforce their lesser status.
For more in-depth information on "Website Development Basics" click this link:
Last Modified on: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:20 PM