Web Page Guide

"I believe the subtext here is rapidly becoming text."

- Rupert Giles

After all that hard work, you deserve a little break.  So we'll do the easy part next: text.

Well, okay, easy with one minor exception.

For the most part, text functions exactly the same way it does in Microsoft Word.  The menus, toolbars, keyboard commands, spellchecker (not, thank heavens, the grammar checker) all function basically the same way.  Indents, bullet points, all of it: the same.

So, what's the one minor exception?

Type a word, any word.  Now hit "Enter."  

See what I mean?

For some reason known only to Bill Gates, Front Page defaults to a double space on the hard return.  Actually, in terms of web page design, it's not entirely a bad idea: it is standard design to have a double space between paragraphs.  But there are other places when you'll want a hard return for which you don't want a double space, and there we run into trouble.  

The simplest method of dealing with this is to hold down the <Shift> key when you hit return whenever you want a single space break.  Go on, try it.

It takes some getting used to, but if you're like me and mostly have double-spaced returns anyway, it's no big deal.

If, however, you really want your default to be single spaced, it can be done.  I warn you: it takes several steps, and it looks complicated, but really, once you do it once or twice, you won't even think about it.

Ready?  Deep Breath!  Here we go (there's just no good place to put Mr. Happy here.  Switch back and forth as you need):

• Go to "Format" and select "Style."  This is where you modify style commands.  You'll see a long list of one-to-many letters.  If you don't see anything, look below at "List" and make sure "All HTML tags" is there.
• The tag we're looking for is "p."  Scroll down until you find it.
• Once you have highlighted "p," click on "Modify."  This will bring up another box.
• In the bottom left-hand corner of that box is a button marked "Format."  Click on that and select "Paragraph."  This will bring up yet another box.
• On that box, you are looking for "Spacing."  
• Under "Spacing," look for "Before" and "After."  For both of these, click on the down arrow until a 0 appears.
• Click on "Okay."
• Click on "Okay" again.
• Click on Okay yet again. 

And you're ready to go!  You will need to do this each time you start a page from scratch.  This is one of several reasons that I prefer to modify an existing page rather than starting from scratch.

Otherwise, you type and format your text much the same way you would in word.  You can change colors by clicking on the A with the color bar under it.

A couple of design notes:

First, on fonts.  Front Page defaults to what's called "variable width font."  That means that your page will appear in whatever the reader has selected as her/his browser's default variable width font.  Usually, it is Times New Roman, but sometimes you have strange people like, oh, me, who prefer Arial or Verdana or even something stranger (for two years I had my browser set to Comic Sans MS).  If you want your page to appear in a particular font, you do so the same way you would on Word ("Format;Font" or the font box on the formatting toolbar).  Having said that, unless there's a design reason for choosing a particular font, I've always considered it polite to leave the font in default and let the reader's choice rule.  

Also, be aware that if you choose an exotic font, it may not show up on all computers.  If the computer on which the page is being accessed doesn't have that font, it will instead display the browser's default font.

Finally, be aware that the various monitor resolutions and text sizes that browsers are set to can wreak havoc on indentations.  What looks like this:

Boeck, Tammy L. and Rainey, Megan C.  Connections: Writing, 

           Reading, and Critical Thinking.

on one browser can look like this:

Boeck, Tammy L. and Rainey, Megan C.  Connections: 

Writing,            Reading, and Critical Thinking.

 on another.  It's best to avoid fancy indentation at all if you can.  

Class Web Page Notes:

• I've found that a very simple but effective tool is color coding your course schedule.  Having different colors for daily activities, homework, and major assignments provides an easy visual reference.  Plus, it looks neat.

Moving along: The Images