Web Page Guide

"Things involving the computer fill me with a childlike terror. Now, if it were a nice ogre or some such, I'd be more in my element." 

– Rupert Giles

Introduction

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Web Page Creation!

Before we get started, a few notes about this document.
 

First, like all good web pages, this one is broken up into small, digestible lumps of text.  However, over the years, I've found that many people prefer to print the guide out and have the paper copy beside them as they work rather than switching back and forth between two windows. If you would prefer a printed copy, one large page with all the information is available here.
 

Second, although this guide is aimed at teachers who want to make web pages for their classes, it can easily be adapted to teach students to make web pages for a class project.  Feel free to put your newly acquired web page construction skills to work by changing the references and throwing this puppy up in your own space.  (Although keeping my name somewhere would be nice).
 

Finally, this guide is designed for self-instruction: that is, it's designed for a person to go through without the presence of an instructor.  The greatest danger in this is that the person going through the guide will attempt to carry out a task before it has been fully explained.  To prevent this, I have built in a cue: follow the bouncing ball (or in this case, the dancing dot).  Whenever you see Mr. Happy:

...that is your cue to switch to Front Page and attempt the task.  Please do not try a new task before seeing the cue: that way lies madness and aching heads.
 

Onward!
  

Me, Make a Web Page?

Yes, you!

Why?  Glad you asked!

Like all institutes of higher learning, Parkland is increasingly employing on-line education.  Chances are that sooner or later, you'll be teaching fully or partially on-line.  And while many great programs and systems exist for you to organize and publish your course material, it never hurts to be able to do so on your own if the system is limiting, as a back-up in case that system goes down, or if you (like me) are a control freak who wants to do everything yourself.

Or let's say you're teaching in a computer classroom. A web page gives you a place to put all your information, from course policies to assignments.  It's easily accessible both on and off campus, and it's in a format that most of your students are already familiar with.  It also helps cut down on paper consumption: daily activities can be posted to the class web site.  Those students who prefer paper can print the assignment out.

Finally, even if you are teaching in a traditional classroom, a web page can be a useful place to refer students to for information, missed handouts, and links to nifty places.

Plus?  It's just cool.
 
 

Do I Have to Learn HTML?

HTML, for those not familiar with the term, stands for "hypertext markup language."  It is not actually a programming language, but a set of formatting tags.  These range in complexity from the <b> that bolds your text to the complex coding that creates scrollbar boxes.
 

So do you have to learn it?
 

No and yes.

No, you do not have to learn html in any depth.  You can probably get away without learning it at all.  Programs like Front Page, Netscape Composer, and Dreamweaver are designed to construct the code for you. 
 

At the same time, all of these programs have quirks that sometimes require tweaking the code to fix.  It's generally helpful to have at least a passing familiarity with the more common codes so that you can work your way around these problems.
 

However, before you go out and buy books on HTML (she said, pausing to look at the many books on her own shelf whose spines remain uncracked), let me give you one piece of advice: the single best way to learn HTML is to view the code of existing pages, either on the web, or in Front Page as you construct your page.  To view the code of a page you find on the web, just go to "View;Source."
 

You might want to get in the habit of peeking at the code of your pages as you write them.  If you run into trouble, your best bet is to seek out someone who knows HTML and ask for help.  (Please note that if you come see me, my response will most likely be, "Wow.  I have no idea.  Let's mess around with it and see what we can find out.")
 

About Front Page.
Sooner or later, you're going to mention using Front Page to make web pages to someone who will react along the lines of, "You're using that?!" I will be honest with you (and you should be honest with your students) and say that Front Page is not highly regarded among experienced web page designers.  And by "not highly regarded," I mean "most of them will tell you to avoid it at all costs."  Why?  After much discussion, I've isolated four reasons:

1. Microsoft is Evil.
2. Front Page creates really ugly code.
3. Front Page creates code that cannot be read by Netscape, and thus certain effects cannot be read in NS.
4. Front Page encourages really bad web page design.

1.  Yes, Microsoft is Evil, on so many levels. However, since you are most likely reading this using a Microsoft created browser on a Microsoft created operating system while using a Microsoft created word processing program to write assignments, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we've ceded the moral high ground there.
 

2.  Yes, Front Page does create really ugly code. What you have to ask yourself is, "How much to I care?"  Or, more precisely, "who will be reading my code besides that programmer in my class whom I am never going to impress anyway?"  Bottom line, when you get to the point that you care about the code, you'll already be at the point of being able to fix it, or have moved on to a more sophisticated program.

3.  Yes, certain things that are created in Front Page will not show up correctly in Netscape.  Most of these things are fancier functions like rollovers and java script, which we won't be getting into here.  However, it is worth acknowledging that most web pages are going to look different in NS than they will in Internet Explorer.  The only real trouble I have had with pages made in Front Page is with older versions of Netscape (4.7 and back) -- things show up all smooshed together, and darned if I can figure out why.  In Parkland classrooms this really is not an issue: not all of them even have Netscape, and those that do tend to have the current version.  However, with an on-line class, you may want to advise your students to use Internet Explorer if at all possible.

4.  Yes, Front Page does encourage really bad web page design.  Peek at the source of a page with lots of flashing effects, frames that put the main text in the smallest window, and unnecessary java effects, and chances are it was made with Front Page.

About the only thing you can do there is trust your own judgment and aesthetics.  Don't do something like frames just because you can do it: make sure there's a solid reason why.  Right now, the trend in web page design is towards the minimal: fewer graphics, solid colors.  Of course, it's also towards primary colors and white backgrounds, but I refuse to go there.

Should you teach your students to use Front Page to make web pages, you might want to spend some time on the basics of making clear, readable web pages.  You might also want to tell them that if they continue exploring web page design, they'll want to look into programs like Dreamweaver, which really is a vastly superior (but far more complicated) program.

One last note: Front Page is mostly a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program - that means that how things look in Front Page is mostly how they will look in the browser.  There are some exceptions, however.  Therefore, you will periodically want to check to how your page looks in a browser window.  Front Page has a "preview" function that ought to do this for you, but really?  It doesn't.  For that reason, I usually keep and Explorer window open with my page-in-progress loaded.

So, now that we've dealt with all of that: Getting Started