Creating Pages for the Web

First session:

A. Everyone needs a diskette.
B. Possibilities:

1) A professional page, incl. Name, title, photo, expertise, current work, etc.
e.g., Chemistry Dept. http://chem.lehman.cuny.edu/abc/mphil.html
2) Subject pages with links -- e.g., Italian http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/italian/index.htm
or Libraries http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/pages/library.htm
3) Course page possibilities:
a. Requirements, incl. Books, syllabus, etc. to replace handouts
b. Supplemental, incl. Bibliography, links -- e.g., Utopia
http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/hoffmann/utopia.htm
c. Complete: a and b and examples -- e.g., My Internet course

C. Prepare a first page using a good new word processor, such as Word or WordPerfect Type the text, spellcheck, but do not spend time on formatting, then save as an html file/web page: no spaces or symbols are permitted in the file name: I abbreviate very much, e.g., 245sylf77 (245 for course number, syl for syllabus, f77 for fall '77). (Some formatting gets lost in the conversion to html, such as tab indents, headers/footers, columns, tables.) D. Our first linked pages, using Netscape Communicator

Open your page in Netscape Composer (= editor) and format it, using the format bar. Save it. Now create a second page: click on File, New - Blank page: type some text, such as My page two, format it. Now press the Enter key to go to a new line, click the Horizontal line on the toolbar, click Enter to go to a new line.
Now type my page one, select these three words, click on Insert on the menu bar, link, then choose file: find your first page, doubleclick it, click OK. Save.
Now try your first link: it does not work in the Composer -- to switch to the Browser: click File, Browse Page on the menu bar or Preview on the toolbar -- now click on your link, and, voilà, you are on your first page.
Now, on your first page in Composer (click File, Edit Page on the menu bar), add a link to your second page and test it -- as above.

E. Adding author, page name, colors

Have one of your two pages open in Composer. Click Format, Page Colors & Properties on the menu bar, then the tab called General. Enter a page name for the file for the user to see on the title bar, such as XXX 245 Syllabus to go with the file name I used in the example in C above. Not too long, or it will be truncated. Enter your name as the author.
Now click on the tab called Colors and Background, click on the white rectangle next to Background color and on a color from the drop down chart -- if you so desire. Click OK.
To color text, select it, click on the arrow to the left of the black rectangle on the format bar and on a color from the drop down chart.
Save.

F. A portable bookmark file.
1) Load Netscape. Copy the bookmark file that comes with Netscape to your floppy disk: click Bookmark, Edit Bookmark, File, Save as. Change the filename to mybkmk.htm. That way you can be sure you are using your own file.
2) Now replace bookmark.htm which is loaded into memory when you open Netscape with your own file:
Click Bookmark, Edit Bookmark, File, Open bookmark file -- select a:/mybkmk.htm and doubleclick. Minimize.
Now, when you add or select a bookmark, you will be using your own portable bookmark file.
Do this second step every time you load Netscape.

Second session:

1) a. Instead of writing down notes, use Notepad (in Accessories), click File, New, save as A:/notes, minimize. It will be on the taskbar. Just click on it whenever you want to make a note.
1) b. Open Netscape Navigator. Add to the location so that it reads lehman.cuny.edu/acctemp/itcpix/index.htm. Click on Teaching with Technology, on Creating web pages.
1) c. Open your bookmark file: Click Bookmark, Edit bookmarks, File, Open bookmarks file, find your own and open it. Now minimize it. Bookmark our open course page.
1) d. A quick review: create a new page, link it -- what else? any questions?

NEW:
2) Formatting text, using Netscape Composer -- we will use your main page, index.htm
add a horizontal line, below it, add your name, last revision date, e-mail link. Show1
3) On the bottom of your main page, we will add links to your other pages, using a text line or a "Table". Show2
4) Scanning photos, images -- you need to "own" them, have the copyright. You also need a very good original. Often, I go to a copy shop to get a good quality copy of something in a book or a newspaper. A computer monitor shows images in vga quality, 72 dpi (dots per inch). Set the scanner to this value, or else you get a large file size which loads slowly, and you let the computer eliminate pixels at will which downgrades the quality of your image. Example About Scanning
My excellent assistant and photographer, John Orth, will take a digital photograph of you, if you want.
5) Insert an image on a page. Download one from our course page if needed: rightclick it, save as a:/...
6) Converting files created with a word processor or Excel to HTML.
7) Editing a digital image.

Converting existing Word, WordPerfect, Excel files to HTML:

Much of this depends on the versions or dates of the installed software.
Open your file in Word or Excel. Click File, Save as HTML.
Now open your new HTML in Netscape Composer and adjust its look:
Format headers, text, Indent, etc. or perhaps create a table.

What I learned from you:

    Use Word to open a file created in WordPerfect; save as HTML.
    Open an Excel worksheet, save as HTML -- and follow the instructions of the wizard.
    A header/footer or table created in Word apparently does not convert to an HTML table. But I do not know what versions of the two software packages were used. Packages usually are forward compatible but obviously never backward compatible.
Any questions?

Posting your pages on the Web:

First test everything to death: it is so embarrassing to have mistakes viewable by the whole world.
Make sure all of your text is proofread.
Make sure all of your filenames will work on the web: they should have no spaces and they should be short.
Make sure all of your pages have good short titles, list you as the author, have a list of keywords that the search engines can access:
Open each one of your pages in Netscape Composer, click Format, click Page colors and properties.
Make sure all of your links work.

Make a copy of your work.

Now you have five options for posting your pages on the Web:

1) On Lehman's www server: take a copy of your diskette to Florian in College Relations, S102.

2) On a web site that provides free homepages, e.g., Yahoo or Angelfire: but this will put ads on your pages.

3) If you have a home computer and subscribe to an Internet Service Provider, you may be able to arrange a package that gives you space for web pages. 5 MB of web page space is very generous unless you plan on very many images.

4) You can put this on a partition of the hard disk of the computer in your office, marked public -- use this computer as a server, always leave it on. Make sure that your computer is set up correctly so that users can only reach the public area. I do this on my office computer which runs Windows NT. Consult Louis Cruz.

5) If you are a member of the Dept. of Languages & Literatures, give a copy of your diskette to me, and I will post it on Lehman's www server.

Any questions? comments? suggestions?

Last revised on 10/2000 by Ursula Hoffmann