Web Page Development
Tips
Email lewandak@evms.edu with questions
about or suggestions for this page.
EVMS uses Microsoft FrontPage for Web page development.
FrontPage is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool for creating pages for the
World Wide Web. This means that you don't need to learn HTML to create Web pages; it looks
a lot like your word processor. Nevertheless, there are many differences between
publishing information on the WWW and publishing with Microsoft Word, Publisher or something
similar.
Refer to the
EVMS Web Site Guidelines
for more information.
General Guidelines
DO NOT USE
WORD TO DEVELOP WEB PAGES, AND DO NOT COPY TEXT FROM WORD INTO
FRONTPAGE
All page file names must have the
extension .html and must consist of lower case alphanumeric characters
with no spaces. Use dashes or underscores instead of spaces and try to keep filenames, not
including extensions, to 10 characters or less.
The main page for each section must be
named index.html; this is to ensure that site viewers see the main page,
even if they "back up" in the directory tree.
All pages must have a descriptive title,
which will appear in the title bar of the viewer's browser and in their bookmark/favorites
list if they mark the page. It will also appear in the Site Map. To add or edit a
title, in Editor, click File, Page Properties, and enter or change text in the
Title box.
Each page must use the EVMS
navigation system (headers and footer).
Don't link to pages that don't yet
exist and don't use the phrase "Under
Construction". Either don't include the link, or include text such as "Coming
soon" or "This section is under development".
All internal hyperlinks (to files on EVMS'
web site) must be relative, not absolute, links. This means do not use http://www.evms.edu/
at the beginning of the link; the easiest way to create relative links is to select the
desired text and click Edit, Hyperlink, then click on the page you want to link to. The
correct address will appear in the URL box.
External hyperlinks that don't go to a
specific page should have a trailing slash / to signal the server that it should display
the default document (usually index.html). This helps prevent server errors and the page
will display faster.
Example: use http://www.odu.edu/ instead of http://www.odu.edu
Minimize the use of Word
and/or Excel files to be downloaded. Not everyone using the Internet uses Windows and not
everyone using Windows has Word and/or Excel. Web pages are designed to be platform-
independent so they can be seen by any system regardless of operating system or
applications installed. Also, because they are mostly text, HTML pages are much smaller
than Word and/or Excel files, so they download much faster. Keep in mind that not everyone
has a fast T-1 connection to the Internet like we do at EVMS; if users must wait longer
than 30 seconds to download a file, they will often get bored and leave the site.
Do not use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Only browsers of version 4 and higher support the use of style sheets, and they do not
support the standards consistently, so you will probably get unexpected results. In
FrontPage, any button that allows you to set a style should be ignored.
We have used the Verdana font
throughout the new web site. Remember that if you use a font that your viewers do not have
installed on their systems, they won't see it and your page will not appear as intended.
Their system will substitute an installed font for the one you used.
Underline should only be used to
indicate a link, not to make text stand out or in a heading. WWW users expect underlined
text to be a link and may be confused if it is not.
FrontPage
- Don't use themes; our web server does not
have FP extensions installed, so themes will not work well.
Graphics Unless
you have extensive experience with graphic design and preparing
graphics for use on the Internet, it's best to send me
original graphics or images to be scanned and tell me how they are to
be used. If you have digital images, send them in .tif or .bmp format.
If you have experience, please refer to the following
guidelines.
Graphics should be no wider than
480 pixels, and ordinarily should be much less. Many people's monitors are set to
640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high and graphics that are wider than that will require
users to scroll to the right to see all of the graphic.
It's best to use graphics software
to size the graphic correctly rather than setting the size with HTML. If you reduce the
size with HTML, the file size of the graphic does not change, so it takes just as long for
the viewer to download it, and the image often looks distorted.
Graphics that are common to the
entire web site should be referenced from the main images
directory - the main images directory is http://www.evms.edu/images/.
It contains icons, logos, photos of buildings, etc., that are used
throughout the site, to maintain consistency.
Graphics
that are specific to a section of the site should be in a directory
called images under that
section's directory.
Should you use .gif or .jpg
for graphics? Generally, logos and simple line art should be in .gif format, and photos
should be in .jpg format. .gifs are limited to 256 colors, so photos do not look as good
in this format; .jpg files can have millions of colors and will produce a much smaller
file size.
When you insert a graphic, FrontPage
automatically enters the file name and size as alternative text (alt
text, as it is known, is what appears if a user's browser does not display images or the
user has images turned off, for quicker page download). To change this text to something
that meaningfully describes the graphic, in FP, right-click the graphic and select Image
Properties. Then, in the box marked Text under Alternative Representations, type the text
describing the graphic.
Contact lewandak@evms.edu
with any questions you may have. |
