Creating a Website
This is not a step by step "how to" worksheet (though it does tell you
some places where you can get that information). Rather it is a list of
hints and tips that I have gleaned while making this site that may help
you to create yours more quickly than I did!
How to write it
Links
References
What makes a good site?
Most people want a site that they visit:
- to have interesting and useful content
- to be user friendly and easy to navigate
- to be quick to download and view
- not to be irritating
- to be accurate
Before you start
- Think about the purpose of your site. Who is your target
audience? Try to create a site that fulfils a need. To find out
what people need go to http://iteslj.org/c/webidea.html
.
- Plan your site maybe with good old fashioned pen and paper before you
start creating it.
- Remember "content is king" - you need to have something to
say.
How to write it
- I used Front Page 2000. This is a Web Editor, which means that you
don't have to learn and spend hours writing html code. Several people told
me that Dreamweaver was better and it may well be if you want to create
something really flash, but this has been fine for me. The big advantage
with Front Page is that, because it's Microsoft, it is so similar to Word that
most menus, buttons etc are very familiar. Once you've learnt the
basics, it's quite simple to use. I used some books to help when
I had a problem.
- If possible check what it looks like on both Internet Explorer and
Netscape Navigator (and any other browsers you have access to) as different
browsers make your pages look different.
- If there's something you want visitors to see immediately put it at the
top of the page, because that will appear on their screens
first.
- Check all your facts (if you got them from another website, are you sure
it is a reliable source?) and check your spelling and language too.
Remember you're 'going public'.
- You need to try to strike a balance between 'good-looking' and
'fast-loading'. See the next two sections for advice on this.
What to put in it
- Pages should all be similar in layout so visitors get used to your style and
can find their way around easily.
- Interesting, and useful content.
- Put your name and credentials on the site and reference your sources
of information if you want people to take you seriously. Also observe
copyright regulations. It's easy to copy things from other websites,
but you usually need permission.
- If you have some pages for teachers and some for students, for example,
make it clear which are which.
- On your homepage put a simple sentence (if it's for students) to describe
what this site is about.
- If you want to put pictures in to help get your message across you can get
them from various sources. They are easy to find on the
web through Google Images, but there is the copyright problem. Strictly speaking
if you use an image from someone else's site you need their permission, so I avoided these. However there is plenty of copyright free clipart at
such sites as www.allfree-clipart.com
that you can use. Also of course you can use pictures you've scanned or taken with a digital
camera .
What not to put in it
- Don't include too many or too large images and graphics because they make
the page slow to download. Only add graphics that add something to the site.
- There are lots of fantastic high tech features you can use, like
animations and background music, but if you use too many you'll make your
pages slow to load and people soon get tired of them.
- Likewise keep to a few simple fonts and uncomplicated backgrounds.
- You only need one set of navigation buttons per page (more makes it look
too cluttered)
- It is especially important to keep the main page (homepage) quick-loading,
so very few images and animations here.
- Avoid using frames unless you really know what you're doing, they can
appear different on different browsers
Links
- Make sure visitors can always get 'home' - you need a link back to the
homepage on each page.
- Hyperlinks should add useful information. Be careful that they don't
make text too difficult to read.
- If you think people may read your pages off-line or printed out, it's a
good idea to write the name of the website out in full and hyperlink that. If you just write 'click here' for the hyperlink visitors must
be online to find out what the link is.
- People should be able to reach anywhere on your website with about 3 or 4
clicks. Test it out.
How to publish it
- You can get free webspace or you can pay for it. Free space has the
disadvantage of having advertising (sometimes even those awful pop-ups) but
it's free.
- Check to see if your institution will provide
you with free webspace (mine did- thank you, Bell!)
- You are probably allowed some free webspace from your ISP. Check the
details carefully though, mine (virgin.net) doesn't support FrontPage
extensions and that means some things might not work properly on it.
They believe that everyone should write their webpages in HTML - don't they
realise we have busy lives?
- Otherwise you can use Yahoo Geocities
or similar. As well as the ads you may have to put up with a long URL.
How to maintain and promote it
- Check your external links regularly. Too many 'dead' links are
really annoying.
- Try not to change your URL
- Add the date of your last update and your email address so people can
inform you if something is out of date.
- After all your hard work you want people to see your website (yes you do!)
so tell people and you could put the URL on your email signature
References
Manuals for Microsoft FrontPage:
-
Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Fast and Easy by Witherspoon C
(1999) Prima Tech, Rocklin.
A very comprehensive but
easy to understand book. It looks boring, but is very sensibly organised
and easy to use. In fact it was the best one.
- FrontPage2000:Complete Concepts and Techniques by Shelley G
B, Cashman T J, Mick M L (2000) Thomson Learning. USA
Very comprehensive and easy to
follow, but rather hard to find what you want. Gives a bit
of background which may help you to understand the concepts rather than just what
to do.
-
FrontPage2000 Simplified by Maran Graphics (2000) IDG Books
Worldwide Inc. Ontario
Very easy to follow
and it makes no assumptions about what you should know. Almost
cartoon-like graphics to appeal to non-computer-minded people. Useful for
basics but not for getting you out of a muddle
-
Successful ICT Projects in Front Page 2000 by Heathcote R S
U (2000) Payne-Gallway Publishers Ltd. Ipswich.
With this book you learn by
doing a couple of projects. Useful if you've got time, but I found I was
wasting time sorting out problems in a project that I probably wouldn't meet
in my real web page. But also useful for reference.
Here are some really useful sites that I referred to
while creating my website and writing this guide:
And some books that have very useful chapters on creating websites for
teachers:
- Dudeney G. (2000) The Internet and the Language Classroom: A
practical guide for teachers, Cambridge University Press
- Warschauer M., Shetzer H. & Meloni C. (2000) Internet for English
Teaching, TESOL
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