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Ten Useful Tips for Creating a Web Site

by Chanda Child

I created our first Web site using a wizard from a publishing program. I spent considerable time moving heading objects, text objects, and images around and changing fonts and font sizes so it looked just right.

When I opened the Web site in my favorite browser, it looked similar to the version I created in the wizard but the amount of white space between headings and text was not constant. The font sizes were not the ones I had selected. In another browser, the amount of white space was constant but the paragraph font was bigger than the headings. So I spent more time moving objects around and changing font sizes. Eventually I had an acceptable site but not what I really wanted.

I published our first Web site and vowed to fix it before I told anyone where to find it. Here are some of the things I learned along the way. If you are creating your first Web site, I hope you find them useful.

1

Learn HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the publishing language of the World Wide Web, and you can create a Web site that meets your standards for legibility and appeal. There are many inexpensive books you can read to learn HTML. Buy one that suits you and get started! Or download the free HTML specification at www.w3.org/markup. You can find other HTML resources, some free, at www.html.com/resources/index.html.

When you learn HTML, you can view the HTML source for sites created by other people and recognize the elements and attributes used to get the effects you like. To learn how to view the HTML, type source in the online Help index of most browsers.


2

Use the tools you have to get started. Use your Web site design program, such as Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver, to create a draft HTML file. Or use a Web site wizard in one of your programs to create the file. Open the file in a text editor and use the HTML you learn to add or edit elements and attributes to get the look you want. It saves time.


3

Use your word processing program to make tables, numbered lists, and bulleted lists for your Web site, if your program lets you save your document as HTML. In Microsoft Word 97, choose Save as HTML from the File menu after making your table or list. Then choose HTML Source from the View menu. Copy the HTML and paste it into your draft HTML file. This is another time-saver.


4

Test your HTML as you write it. You can quickly see the effects of the changes you make and how the changes look in different browsers. I learned to keep three windows open on my desktop to test my HTML. The first window was a text editor containing my draft HTML file. The other two were browsers displaying the result of my HTML. Each time I made a significant change to the HTML, I looked at it with the browsers to confirm the result.


5

When testing, set the browsers to read the new version of your HTML file each time you look at it. Otherwise you might be looking at an older version stored by the browser and not see the changes you make. Set Netscape Navigator 4.51 to read the new version by choosing Edit from the menu followed by Preferences, Advanced, and Cache. In Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, choose View from the menu followed by Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files, and Settings.

I discovered this when I changed the color of an active link. I tested the change and found it was the color of a visited link. The browsers had read the earlier stored version of my HTML file that I had tested by visiting the link.


6

Limit the number of font sizes in your HTML to three and the headings and text will look the same in most browsers. As soon as I reduced five font sizes to three, the headings and the text in both browsers where I tested them were the sizes I specified.


7

Usenet newsgroups that address Web site creation and HTML are good sources of answers to your Web site design questions. The fastest way to find answers is to search the newsgroups using the Deja News search engine. Simple query rules allow you to find just what you need. Find the search engine at www.dejanews.com/home_ps.shtml and the query rules at www.dejanews.com/help/help_ps.shtml.

When my horizontal rule appeared without color in one browser but with color in the other browser, I used the Deja News search engine to learn why. The keywords HTML, horizontal, and rule gave me the answer. Several people had the same problem and the responses from several others said Netscape does not support color in a horizontal rule.


8

Talk to your friends and colleagues when you have a Web site question or problem. More often than not, they will have the answer and some good advice. Many of the things I learned along the way came from my friends.


9

Plan to spend some time creating your Web site. I spent about thirty hours creating my second Web site including the time I spent learning HTML and experimenting with background colors and horizontal rules. I spent about twenty hours creating the third version including the time I spent writing new topics, adding frames and links for navigation, experimenting with background colors, and visiting other Web sites to get ideas about what looks good and what navigation tools work.


10

Creeping elegance applies to Web site design. I cannot take credit for this principle, but I do appreciate it. Get your first site out there, even if it does not look exactly like you imagine it. Your next version will be better, as will the one after that.

An edited version of this article appeared in the May 1999 issue of the Rough Draft,
the newsletter of the Phoenix Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication.