Sample Page: Criteria for Empire Project

Criteria For Empire Project

The Webpage creation software in the computer lab is Netscape Composer. You may never have used it before, but you've surely used a word processor. Input text into Netscape Composer just like it's a word processor. Then you can do formatting much like you would with a word processor. Just above the input area, you'll see icons for Bold, Italic, Underline, Bullet Lists, Numbered Lists, Indentation, and Alignment. There is also a spell checker.

You can download Netscape 7 at: http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp if you need the program to compose Web pages at home.

(You can also compose Web Pages using Microsoft Word or Front Page. In either case, you will need to make sure that all of your links are relative links. Otherwise, you will have problems linking to your files when they are transfered to a central location. Beware: setting up relative links is a bit more difficult with these Microsoft products.)

The biggest challenge in making a Web Page is creating links that work. You'll be making local links to your own web page and picture files as well as off site links to other people's web pages. Here are tips for making the links.

Local Links: Make sure links are relative and that file names are lower case with no spaces. Relative links do not include the full path for the file that is being linked to. Absolute links do include the full path.

Off Site Links: Web links must include http:// to indicate that the link is on the World Wide Web. If http:// is not included, you will have a bad link.

Link Testing: Test your links well ahead of time. You will be embarassed if you get up before the class for your presentation and the links do not work.

Use tables if you need to organize text or pictures in rows and columns. (Columns are vertical, meaning up and down; rows are horizontal, meaning they go across.) The picture and text below is in a table. Use of the table also allows this to appear in a different color from the rest of the Web page.

Images should be either GIF files or JPG (JPEG) files. Do not try to copy and paste images into the Web Pages that you create. For a simple website, you need to save the image files into the same folder as the web pages that you are creating. If you need an image from the Web, the image can be saved by right-clicking on the image, then clicking Save Picture As... (or Save Image As...).

If you use any graphic image that you did not create yourself, be sure to include appropriate attribution for the image in your bibliography.

Do not be concerned with specific font size when creating Web pages. Use paragraph types to differentiate font size. If you change text or background colors, be sure to pick colors that contrast.

To turn in your Web pages, save them to a separate folder in your home directory. That folder should only include the Web pages and images that you want posted for your site. The primary page for your Web project must be named index.htm, not index.html, nor anything other filename. This and all filenames must be in lowercase with no spaces. Make sure that you set an appropriate title for each of your pages. The title should be a very brief description of the page.

If you have questions or need help, Mr. Adams is in the lab daily before school from 8:00 to 8:30, during lunch A and lunch B, and after school. (Check with Mr. Adams about availability after school, since he sometimes needs to go to afternoon faculty meetings.) If none of these times works for you, see Mr. Adams to make an appointment.

You can find this Web page on Mr. Adams' website: http://adamstoolkit.tripod.com. Look for Criteria for Empire Project on the opening page of the Website.