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Standards Manual for Publications
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 Getting
Started
If you are new to
Web publishing, the first step is training. The basic
language for Web pages is HTML. Having knowledge of this
simple programming language can help new Web editors quickly
learn how to create Web sites.
Many of today's
HTML editors work in a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what
you get") environment, as in FrontPage or Dreamweaver,
reducing the need to know HTML. When an HTML editor's
software limitations are revealed, the basic HTML coding
knowledge is handy. Two good online HTML tutorials: Hotwired's
Webmonkey or the World
Wide Web Consortium.
Planning
your pages
The first step in designing a Web site is to make sure you
have defined a set of goals and know what it is you want to
accomplish with your Web site. Careful planning of the
content and organization are essential elements to a
successful site. Ask yourself these questions:
- Who is your
audience? Students, faculty, staff or members of the
community.
- What sort of
information do you want to focus on? Information
about your department, classes, faculty. If you are a
student organization, you may want to focus on the
projects that you do or events that you sponsor.
- Is there
information already in the SAU Web that you can link to
rather than duplicating? For example, if you are
building a page on specific course descriptions, you can
link to the current catalog instead of recreating the
information.
- How are you
going to organize your information? No matter what
the information is, it can be organized efficiently with
some forethought. This helps your visitors find
information and reduce the frustration of not being able
to find what they want. Put yourself in the place of a
potential visitor to your site.
Decide who is going
to serve as the Web editor in your department or office.
That person will be responsible for the content and
maintenance of the Web site. It can be a faculty or staff
member, or a student. The person must have a St. Ambrose
email account and user ID in order to get access to the
server. No access is given to any outside firm(s) or
consultants.
The Communications
and Marketing Office will work closely with individual
department Web editors. Any questions can be directed to Devendra Shrikhande at x6291
How
to create a department Web page on the SAU server
FrontPage 2000 is the Web editing software that
is available via campus-wide licensing. You may already have
it on your computer (exception: Macs). If not, call
Informational Technology at x6368 to have it installed.
- Your department
will need to have a Web folder on the SAU server. It
will be given a descriptive extension of your
departments name (i.e. www.sau.edu/accounting).
The designated department Web editor will need to call
Communications and Marketing at x6291 to set up their
Web folder and have access to it.
- A page template
and an images folder will be put in your folder on the
server for you to use in the creation of your
departmental Web site. The template pages have all of
the St. Ambrose graphic identity elements needed for
department pages. These banners and navigational bars
are not to be altered.
- Now you are
ready to add content to your Web pages. FrontPage
classes are offered twice a year and are also scheduled
on demand. Department Web editors that are not familiar
with FrontPage and/or the Web should attend.
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