Workshop - How To Do A Web Site
Melinda Wilson
SOAR Ministries, Inc.
Anyone
that knows a little about computer software can create a very simple web
page. There are several different kinds
of software available to help you with the creation of the page. The web software can cost anywhere from
$600.00 or $0.00. If you are interested
in learning and working with what the experts work with then that would be
Macromedia’s MX Studio 2004. It includes
Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Freehand in one studio. Freeweb software requires you to only register
for the product. One of these is called
Trellian WebPage. I found it on the
internet and have been experimenting with it.
I have found it to be easy to quick to learn and easy to use. You can also use the Composer part when you
download Navigator browser. There is
also a product called Go Live by Adobe and some of the public school systems
use this in their computer lab.
Dos and Don’ts
There
are some real basic dos and don’ts in web page design. The design needs to be pleasing to the eye
and not drive someone away before they get their information from your
site. So, do not use red, bright yellow,
bright green (lime) or orange as your background. Some say that you should not use black as
your background either. Teens seem to
love it as their background, so know who your audience will be. Do not have some flashing billboard type
sign, word or sentence. This turns most
people off and they will leave your site.
Do
not have your site’s first page so graphic intense. Some people are still on dial-up and it will
take forever to bring up the page. Think
also about those that are running on satellite services in a far away
place. If you want those graphics, or
pictures, place them on separate pages and let the viewer choose if they want
to navigate to that page.
Do
not have your first page (home page) to information intense. If someone is looking for your address and it
is buried in the 10th paragraph on the first page, most people will
not scroll down that far.
Home Pages (First page
of web site)
For
your home page, (first page), what is it that you want your audience to know
about your mission. The need for simple
navigation is a big issue, so that if someone clicks and gets to the wrong page
they can easily find their way back or on to another page. Do not ever leave your viewers out there
blowing in the wind.
To
make a simple web page for your mission you can use Netscape Navigator with Composer
(free) (http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp) or Trellian
WebPage (freeware) (http://webpage.vendercom.com). These are simple to learn and use and before
you know it you have created your very first web page.
Let’s make a web page
to show you how simple it really is.
Do
you have a logo for your mission? If so,
determine where you would like it to be placed on the homepage. After that determine where you would like to
place the navigation for your page.
The
best practice for designing a web page is to put to paper your basic ideas for
the page. Draw out on paper where
different elements of the page should be placed.
A
simple way to make a webpage is to have the page set up entirely in a
table. You can start with a simple page
of 2 rows with 1 column. This would
allow for the navigation to be in the top (1st) row and the 2nd
row to be the body of the webpage. See
example 1.
Example
1
Or
you can use a 2 column with one row type document. This would allow for the navigation to be on
the left side and the body to be on the right side of the navigation. Example 2
Example
2
If
you use either of these configurations you will have a simple web site. When you get ready to save the first page of
the web site is sure to give it the name of “index”. All other pages in the web site can be named
what ever as long as there are no spaces in the name. (Example:
projects_2004.htm)
If
you are interested in learning how to code and use HTML instead of software
then I have included some HTML tutorials on the reference page.
Inserting Pictures On
Your Web Site
You
do not have the same control over images as you do in word processing. You can not just place a picture anywhere
that you would like for the picture to appear in the paragraph. So with that said, here are some of the
things you can do with images.
Formats
that is good to use on a web page. If it
is a photo with lots of color then use the jpeg format, if the image is of a
logo with only a few colors then use the gif format, and if you are at a loss
for what to do you can use png format.
The
advantages of using the jpeg format is that if it is a photo to be used, this
will allow for the most colors for the photo and it will look very good.
The
advantage for the gif format is two fold.
If the logo is less than 10 colors and has a transparent background,
then gif is the format for you. Also,
this format is much, much smaller than any of the other file formats. See example 3
Example
3
In
the Trellian software you can insert the image by selecting Image, then select Insert Image. Locate the
image file you want to insert and click OK. You can place the image left, center or
right. To make this change, select Element, select Element Properties and then change the alignment to left, center or
right. Then click Ok. That’s all there is to
it.
Now that the image has
been inserted into the web page, you also need to identify the image for those
that can not see and must use a screen reader.
This brings up the topic of W3C.
A very simple way to make your page reader friendlier is to place the Alt text for the images. The
rule of thumb goes, if the photo says something that helps to explain your
sight then place some explanation type text.
Example: with the picture to the
right, the Alt text could read something like this == “Volunteer cleaning and
reconstructing wheelchair”
See
Example 4.
Example
4
Hosting
And Domain Names
Now
that you have a web page ready you must also have someone to host the
site. Some ways you might be able to
host for free are: check with your
church to see if they host their own web site.
If so, ask if you could be part of their site. I did a search of the internet for free web
hosting and came up with lots of choices.
Here are just a few that I looked into.
Free with ads (banner at the top of
the page)
$4.89 for 25 MB of space with no ads
$8.89 for 50 MB of space with no ads +
5 emails
Free with ads – 100 MB of space
$6.95 for 250 MB of space
Free without ads – 50 MB space
No free
$4.99 for 25 MB of space
1 domain name
1 site with 10 pages max
2 emails
As
you can see there are lots of choices you have to make. Do you need email, do you need a domain
name? These are all questions that you
will have to answer before your page can go “LIVE”.
When
choicing a host that is free, you may not get service that you may expect. If you are able to pay for the hosting, check
on the testimonies or references.
Domain
names have to be purchased if they are not part of your hosting plan. If you want to own your own domain name then
you will need to purchase the domain name yourself. I have listed several of the domain
registration sites on the reference page at the end.
Reference Page
HTML Tutorial Web Sites
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/lessons.html
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html
http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp
http://www.weballey.net/html/index.html
Digital
Pictures
http://www.weballey.net/html/plaatjes.html
http://www.graphicsiq.com/resources/tips_techniques/489-GraphicsIQ%20Tips.html
Domain Names