Web Publishing

Lern to Publish http://www.utexas.edu/learn/ Publishing Options and Groups Server Options UT Guidelines and Policies Creating Sites Web Design Process Cascading Style Sheets Dreamweaver Forms HTML: Getting Started Long Documents Online Surveys Tables Managing Sites Accessible Web Sites Files/Directories Redirection Restricting Access (Requires UT EID) Searches Stellent Content Management Services UNIX for the Web Uploading Files Usability Testing Web Analytics: Urchin Statistics Reports Web Quality: IBM Rational Policy Tester - formerly Watchfire WebXM (Requires UT EID) Web Security: IBM Rational AppScan Enterprise - formerly Watchfire AppScan (Requires UT EID) Graphics & Media Digital Media Collection (Requires UT EID) Flash Graphics Web Video Programming CGI Scripts Creating RSS Channels PHP Web Application Security (Requires UT EID) Database Services ColdFusion & MS Access MySQL (Requires UT EID) FAQs/Support TeamWeb Help Desk ITS Help Desk Forums UT Web Central FAQs Internet FAQ Archives Web Design Process http://www.utexas.edu/learn/designprocess/index.html Project Definition Site Structure Visual Design Site Development Testing Launch Plus Cascading Style Sheets http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/index.html CSS Tutorial - http://www.html.net/tutorials/css/ http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/css.html Cascading Style Sheets Introduction A style sheet provides a set of rules describing how a document should appear. Each style rule sets a property for an HTML tag or set of tags. Style sheets maintain the separation between structural and presentation information, and provide for a graceful fall-back if the specific presentation requested by the style sheet is not available. Covering the entire style sheet mechanism is beyond the scope of this site, but we will provide a general introduction, some useful examples, and, we hope, generate interest in using this technology in your Web development for styling and positioning elements on your web pages. CSS Properties The most widely used CSS properties fall into six categories: color, fonts, text,boxes, positioning, classification. The header is displayed in white text on a red background. The Arial font is used, or if it is not available, a default sans-serif font will be used. The ability to assign a list of values to a property is an important feature of CSS. Each value is attempted in turn, from left to right, until one is found that the system can display Incorporating Style Sheets Into Your Document - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/incorporating.html Rules: Class vs. ID - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/rules.html CSS Common Properties - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/CSSproperties.html Inheritance - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/inheritance.html Style Sheets and Forms - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/forms.html Positioning - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/positioning.html Backgrounds - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/backgrounds.html A asmpled CSS styled page - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/sample2.html# http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/conclusion.html http://www.utexas.edu/learn/css/references.html Dreamweaver CS3 http://www.utexas.edu/learn/dreamweaver/index.html Adobe Dreamweaver CS3: Since its launch back in 1997 Macromedia (RIP - now merged with Adobe), Dreamweaver has become one of the leading tools of choice for web designers and developers, commanding over 90% of the professional market. The program originally made its name by providing visual WYSIWYG page design, then consolidated it by adding rock-solid HTML hand coding and strong standards compliant CSS and XML. Dreamweaver CS3 now includes Spry elements such as pre-canned pieces of code for fading and growing elements. Spry provides Ajax functionality that allows designers to build pages that provide a richer experience for their users. Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 addresses CSS support in several ways. One is the CSS Advisor which helps to identify common CSS issues and bugs. Be sure to check out the other standards-based CSS tools supported in Dreamweaver CS3 here. Worth a mention is Photoshop integration. You can now copy from Photoshop, make a selection or a layer, whatever you have in the Clipboard, and paste it into Dreamweaver. It''ll prompt you for a Save File dialog, an image optimization dialog, and then it will drop it right on your page, make the correct paths, and also maintain that link to the original PSD. However you want to produce your web site, Dreamweaver is designed to help. This tutorial is designed to provide an introduction to some of the basics of the Dreamweaver CS3. Only a very small sampling of what you can do with Dreamweaver CS3 will be covered in these pages. To delve further into this application, we suggest you visit Adobe for a thorough look at Dreamweaver CS3. Dreamweaver CS3 allows you to control/maintain an entire site through the application rather than simply opening and editing individual pages. Generally how this works is you have a folder on your hard drive that contains all the files for your web site. You then define a site within Dreamweaver CS3 referencing that folder. If you are uncertain as to the best way to name and structure the files and sub-directories of your site, view the Learning To Publish Files/Directories Pages. Defining Your Site First make sure that any existing files for your web site are located within a specific folder on your hard drive and you know where that folder resides. If you do not have any existing files yet, go ahead and create the folder where you will keep them somewhere on your hard drive. You define your own sites using the Manage Sites option located under the Site menu. In the dialog box that appears click on the New button. A dialog box will open for you to put in all the specifics for your site http://www.utexas.edu/learn/dreamweaver/sites.html Creating a new page - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/dreamweaver/pages.html http://www.utexas.edu/learn/dreamweaver/css.html Cascading style sheets are currently the best practice for the layout and styling of a web page. Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 provides several tools that help you create and add CSS functionality. Included in Dreamweaver CS3 are: Unified CSS panel CSS layout visualization CSS rendering improvements Style Rendering toolbar Code hinting and completion CSS-styled templates to get you up and running http://www.utexas.edu/learn/dreamweaver/server.html - Before you can put your files on a server, you will need to get an account on one of UT''s available servers. See the Server Options Page for more information on how to do this. Once you have completed your site (or finished modifying a specific page that needs updating) and want to put it on the web you need to upload the file(s) to your server. You can do this one of two ways: Using a separate FTP software like SSH Secure File Transfer (Windows) or Fugu for Macintosh; or From within Dreamweaver using the Remote Site feature. Using a Separate FTP Software If you prefer to use a separate application to upload and download files to and from the server, view Learning to Publish - Uploading Web Pages. Within Dreamweaver Using the Remote Site Feature If you prefer to do all your web creation, maintenance and uploading/downloading within Dreamweaver, you can configure and use the Remote Site Feature. To do this you will need to know: The Server Name Your Username for the Server Your Password for the Server The location where your files live on the Server Web Forms http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/index.html Web Forms Fill-out forms or web forms are used to gather information from users. The appearance of the form is controlled by HTML and CSS, and the information gathered by the form is handled with a CGI script. NOTE: These pages are designed for the intermediate HTML publisher. If you are not comfortable with writing HTML code, we recommend you review Learning HTML before learning to write web forms. The HTML form is what the user sees while looking at the web page, it is created using the FORM tag, and may contain any of the following elements: Text Input Fields Text Fields Password Fields Hidden Fields Checkboxes Radio Buttons Text Boxes Menus Pull-down Menus Scrolling Menus Action Buttons Image Buttons Reset Buttons Submit Buttons Labels Fieldsets Legends The examples on these pages are designed to show an example of the HTML element and the HTML code which created the element. For examples of web forms in use at UT, look at the Web Central Maintenance Forms. Use the View -> Source feature in your browser to examine the HTML source for these pages. This brief summary contains a list of the tags used to create forms and the attributes each tag supports. The Form Tag - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/form.html Labels - Making Forms Accessible - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/label.html Text Input Fields - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/text.html Checkboxes - http://narod.yandex.ru/templ/selector.xhtml?STATUS=EDIT&page_id=377205&error_upload= Radio Buttons - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/radio.html Text Boxes - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/boxes.html Menus - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/menus.html Action Buttons - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/action.html Fieldsets and Legends - Form Organization - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/fieldset.html, http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/example.html http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/summary.html Other Forms Sites - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/others.html HTML: Getting Started http://www.utexas.edu/learn/html/index.html Quick Start Getting Started with HTML HTML Intro HTML Quick Reference HTML Tutorial Basics XHTML 1.0 Tutorial - W3schools HTML 4.01 Tutorial - W3schools Bare Bones Guide to HTML 4.0 Beyond Basics Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Colors in HTML HTML Station JavaScript for the Total Non-Programmer Special Characters in HTML Style Guides for Web Developers Tables Web Forms Web Graphics and Clickable Image Maps UT Austin Web Publishing Guidelines Specifications XHTML 1.0 Specification (8/1/2002) HTML 4.01 Specification (12/24/1999 Getting started with HTML http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ This is a short introduction to writing HTML. What is HTML? It is a special kind of text document that is used by Web browsers to present text and graphics. The text includes markup tags such as <p> to indicate the start of a paragraph, and </p> to indicate the end of a paragraph. HTML documents are often refered to as "Web pages". The browser retrieves Web pages from Web servers that thanks to the Internet, can be pretty much anywhere in World. Many people still write HTML by hand using tools such as NotePad on Windows, or TextEdit on the Mac. This guide will get you up and running. Even if you don''t intend to edit HTML directly and instead plan to use an HTML editor such as Netscape Composer, or W3C''s Amaya, this guide will enable you to understand enough to make better use of such tools and how to make your HTML documents accessible on a wide range of browsers. Once you are comfortable with the basics of authoring HTML, you may want to learn how to add a touch of style using CSS, and to go on to try out features covered in my page on advanced HTML p.s. a good way to learn is to look at how other people have coded their html pages. To do this, click on the "View" menu and then on "Source". On some browsers, you instead need to click on the "File" menu and then on "View Source". Try it with this page to see how I have applied the ideas I explain below. You will find yourself developing a critical eye as many pages look rather a mess under the hood! For Mac users, before you can save a file with the ".html" extension, you will need to ensure that your document is formatted as plain text. For TextEdit, you can set this with the "Format" menu''s "Make Plain Text" option. This page will teach you how to: start with a title add headings and paragraphs add emphasis to your text add images add links to other pages use various kinds of lists If you are looking for something else, try the advanced HTML page HTML Tutorial - Table of contents http://www.html.net/tutorials/html/ Introduction A brief introduction to the tutorial and what you can expect to learn. Lesson 1: Let''s get started Find out what tools you need to make your own website. Lesson 2: What is HTML? Understand what HTML is and what it means. Lesson 3: Elements and tags? Elements and tags what the are and how to use them. Lesson 4: Create your first website Learn to create your first HTML document - the basic template for future pages. Lesson 5: What have you learned so far? Recap what you have learned so far and discover what you can expect in the next lessons. Lesson 6: A few more elements Familiarise yourself with seven of the most-used elements. Lesson 7: Attributes Learn to add extra information to your tags and formulate commands in a more explicit manner. Lesson 8: Links Discover how to create links to your own and other pages on the Internet. Lesson 9: Images Find out how simple and easy it is to insert images in your pages. Lesson 10: Tables Construct HTML tables for the presentation of structured content. Lesson 11: More about tables Create even more advanced tables. Lesson 12: Layout (CSS) Understand how Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be used to add fantastic layout to your pages. Lesson 13: Uploading pages Find out how to get your pages published on the Internet so others can enjoy them too. Lesson 14: Web standards and validation Learn about the common standard of HTML and how to check your coding is correct. Lesson 15: The final tips A few pieces of good advice for your website projects CSS Tutorial - Table of contents http://www.html.net/tutorials/css/ Introduction A brief introduction to the tutorial and what you can expect to learn. Lesson 1: What is CSS? A little on why CSS came in to the world, and why it is clever to choose CSS over HTML for layout and design. Lesson 2: How does CSS work? Learn the basic syntax of CSS and have to create your first stylesheet. Lesson 3: Colors and backgrounds Learn how to apply colors and background colors to your website and how to use background images. Lesson 4: Fonts In this lesson you will learn about fonts and how they are applied using CSS. Lesson 5: Text In this lesson you will be introduced to the amazing opportunities CSS gives you to add layout to text. Lesson 6: Links About how you can add fancy and useful effects to links and work with pseudo-classes. Lesson 7: Identification and grouping of elements (class and id) A closer look at how you can use class and id to specify properties for selected elements. Lesson 8: Grouping of elements (span and div) A closer look at the use of span and div as exactly these two HTML elements are of central importance with regards to CSS Lesson 9: The box model The box model in CSS describes the boxes which are being generated for HTML-elements. Lesson 10: The box model - margin & padding Change the presentation of elements by setting the margin and padding properties. Lesson 11: The box model - borders Learn about the endless options when using borders in your pages with CSS Lesson 12: The Box model - Height and width In this lesson, we will take a look at how you easily can define the height and width of an element. Lesson 13: Floating elements (floats) An element can be floated to the right or to left by using the property float Lesson 14: Positioning of elements With CSS positioning, you can place an element exactly where you want it on your page. Lesson 15: Layer on layer with z-index (Layers) In this lesson, we will learn how to let different elements overlapping one another using layers. Lesson 16: Web-standards and validation This last lesson is about the W3C-standards and how to check your CSS is correct. HTML Tutorial http://www.w3schools.com/html/DEFAULT.asp http://www.w3schools.com/html/ HTML Basic HTML HOME HTML Introduction HTML Get Started HTML Basic HTML Elements HTML Attributes HTML Headings HTML Paragraphs HTML Formatting HTML Styles HTML Links HTML Images HTML Tables HTML Lists HTML Forms HTML Colors HTML Colornames HTML Colorvalues HTML Quick List HTML Advanced HTML Layout HTML Frames HTML Fonts HTML 4.0 Why HTML CSS HTML Entities HTML Head HTML Meta HTML URLs HTML Scripts HTML Attributes HTML Events HTML URL Encode HTML Webserver HTML Summary HTML Examples HTML Examples HTML Quiz HTML Certificate HTML References HTML Tag List HTML Attributes HTML Events HTML Colornames HTML Character Sets HTML ASCII HTML ISO-8859-1 HTML Symbols HTML URL Encode HTML Lang Codes HTTP Messages HTML Introduction http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp What is HTML? HTML is a language for describing web pages. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language A markup language is a set of markup tags HTML uses markup tags to describe web pages -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HTML Tags HTML markup tags are usually called HTML tags HTML tags are keywords surrounded by angle brackets like <html> HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b> The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag Start and end tags are also called opening tags and closing tags -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HTML Documents = Web Pages HTML documents describe web pages HTML documents contain HTML tags and plain text HTML documents are also called web pages HTML WiKi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML HTML, which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. It provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists etc as well as for links, quotes, and other items. It allows images and objects to be embedded and can be used to create interactive forms. It is written in the form of HTML elements consisting of "tags" surrounded by angle brackets within the web page content. It can include or can load scripts in languages such as JavaScript which affect the behavior of HTML processors like Web browsers; and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to define the appearance and layout of text and other material. The W3C, maintainer of both HTML and CSS standards, encourages the use of CSS over explicit presentational markup.[1] HTML course http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tutorials/html/html_course_the_br_break_tag.php3 HTML Basic Tutorial http://www.w3schools.com/html/DEFAULT.asp HTML http://www.techdocs.ku.edu/index.shtml?html HTML: Forms Learn to collect information from visitors to your Web site by providing text boxes, checkboxes, menus, and other input controls with HTML forms. Corresponding Workshop: None HTML: Intermediate Learn advanced techniques for creating hyperlinks, especially targeted links and relative URLs, as well as advanced <head> elements such as <meta> and <base>. Add images to your Web pages and make non-HTML documents available for download from your web sites. Corresponding Workshop: None HTML: Introduction Covers terminology, such as element, attribute, and relative URL, the basic structure and required features of an HTML document, principles of good HTML coding, and how to publish your web page on the Internet. Corresponding Workshop: None HTML: Tables Covers the HTML tags related to the creation, formatting, and accessibility of tables. Corresponding Workshop: None HTML: Tables, Frames, and Image Maps Covers the HTML tags related to the creation, formatting, and accessibility of tables; the use of frames on web pages and how to lay out information using frames; and client-side image maps, or linked image hot-spots. Corresponding Workshop: None HTML: Useful information for HTML/XHTML authors XHTML Tutorial http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp XHTML is a stricter and cleaner version of HTML. In this tutorial you will learn the difference between HTML and XHTML. We will also show you how W3Schools.com was converted into XHTML. XHTML Tutorial XHTML HOME XHTML Introduction XHTML Why XHTML vs HTML XHTML Syntax XHTML DTD XHTML HowTo XHTML Validation XHTML Modules XHTML Summary XHTML Quiz XHTML Quiz XHTML Exam XHTML References XHTML Tag List XHTML Attributes XHTML Events XHTML Colornames XHTML Character Sets XHTML ASCII XHTML ISO-8859-1 XHTML Symbols XHTML URL Encode XHTML Lang Codes HTTP Messages Guide to HTML http://www.werbach.com/barebones/barebone.html Generating Colors in HTML http://www.utexas.edu/learn/html/colors.html The color samples in the tables below are not images; they are generated by the HTML of this page. Colors can be produced for a number of page elements using the color names or RGB hexadecimal codes indicated in each of the samples.The use of HTML elements and attributes for specifying color is deprecated. You are encouraged to use css instead. Of interest to UT Web authors/designers: the University of Texas at Austin Visual Guidelines shows #CC5500 as offical "UT burnt orange." It may not appear so on your screen; the wide disparity in color calibration among computer monitors makes it difficult to predict how accurately color will be rendered across the Web. It is best simply to specify the appropriate color and not worry too much how the result will appear on a given monitor (including your own!). In the future, support for the sRGB (Standard Default color Space for the Internet) and ICC color profiles should reduce this problem. Named Colors These 16 colors can be specified by name in HTML 4. The color names are case sensitive. So, for example, you could use either "#000000" or "Black" to refer to the color black. HTML http://www.december.com/html/ This site provides demonstrations, tutorials, codes, specification summaries, techniques/technologies descriptions, and supporting information about hypertext markup language (HTML) and related technologies JavaScript for the Total Non-Programmer http://www.webteacher.com/javascript/ This tutorial will take you step by step through the fundamentals of Javascript. You will learn how to write functions, use data from text boxes, create IF-THEN conditionals, program loops, and generally make your web page "smarter." I teach computer classes for a living to corporate clients of all levels. After 2 years of teaching, I have learned a lot about communication between people of various levels of computer experience. This tutorial assumes that you have no prior programming experience, but that you have created your own HTML pages. If you find this tutorial helpful, please let me know (it''s my only reward). Also, links are graciously accepted. What is JavaScript? Javascript is an easy-to-use programming language that can be embedded in the header of your web pages. It can enhance the dynamics and interactive features of your page by allowing you to perform calculations, check forms, write interactive games, add special effects, customize graphics selections, create security passwords and more. What''s the difference between JavaScript and Java? Actually, the 2 languages have almost nothing in common except for the name. Although Java is technically an interpreted programming language, it is coded in a similar fashion to C++, with separate header and class files, compiled together prior to execution. It is powerful enough to write major applications and insert them in a web page as a special object called an "applet." Java has been generating a lot of excitment because of its unique ability to run the same program on IBM, Mac, and Unix computers. Java is not considered an easy-to-use language for non-programmers. Javascript is much simpler to use than Java. With Javascript, if I want check a form for errors, I just type an if-then statement at the top of my page. No compiling, no applets, just a simple sequence. What is Object Oriented Programming? Everyone that wants to program JavaScript should at least try reading the following section. If you have trouble understanding it, don''t worry. The best way to learn JavaScript is from the examples presented in this tutorial. After you have been through the lessons, come back to this page and read it again. OOP is a programming technique (note: not a language structure - you don''t even need an object-oriented language to program in an object-oriented fashion) designed to simplify complicated programming concepts. In essence, object-oriented programming revolves around the idea of user- and system-defined chunks of data, and controlled means of accessing and modifying those chunks. Object-oriented programming consists of Objects, Methods and Properties. An object is basically a black box which stores some information. It may have a way for you to read that information and a way for you to write to, or change, that information. It may also have other less obvious ways of interacting with the information. Some of the information in the object may actually be directly accessible; other information may require you to use a method to access it - perhaps because the way the information is stored internally is of no use to you, or because only certain things can be written into that information space and the object needs to check that you''re not going outside those limits. The directly accessible bits of information in the object are its properties. The difference between data accessed via properties and data accessed via methods is that with properties, you see exactly what you''re doing to the object; with methods, unless you created the object yourself, you just see the effects of what you''re doing. Other Javascript pages you read will probably refer frequently to objects, events, methods, and properties. This tutorial will teach by example, without focusing too heavily on OOP vocabulary. However, you will need a basic understanding of these terms to use other JavaScript references. Objects and Properties Your web page document is an object. Any table, form, button, image, or link on your page is also an object. Each object has certain properties (information about the object). For example, the background color of your document is written document.bgcolor. You would change the color of your page to red by writing the line: document.bgcolor="red" The contents (or value) of a textbox named "password" in a form named "entryform" is document.entryform.password.value. Methods Most objects have a certain collection of things that they can do. Different objects can do different things, just as a door can open and close, while a light can turn on and off. A new document is opened with the method document.open() You can write "Hello World" into a document by typing document.write("Hello World") . open() and write() are both methods of the object: document. Events Events are how we trigger our functions to run. The easiest example is a button, whose definition includes the words onClick="run_my_function()". The onClick event, as its name implies, will run the function when the user clicks on the button. Other events include OnMouseOver, OnMouseOut, OnFocus, OnBlur, OnLoad, and OnUnload JavaScript for the Total Non-Programmer: The Message Box, HOW IT''S DONE http://www.webteacher.com/javascript/ch01.html Here''s the entire page, minus my comments. Take a few minutes to learn as much as you can from this, then I''ll break it down into smaller pieces HTML: Special Characters http://www.utexas.edu/learn/html/spchar.html HTML Entities and/or ISO Latin-1 codes can be placed in source code like any other alphanumeric characters to produce special characters and symbols that cannot be generated in HTML with normal keyboard commands. For example, to render Düsseldorf the HTML source should read D&uuml;sseldorf or D&#252;sseldorf While many similar lists are available on the Web (run your favorite search engine using "ISO Latin" or "HTML Entities"), none I''ve seen account for the standard character sets of different operating systems (e.g. Windows vs. DOS vs. Macintosh, etc.); this list should produce the same results on all platforms. Web Developer''s Style Guides http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Style/Guides/ Style: editorial directions to be followed in spelling and punctuation and capitalization and typographical display Style sheet: a sheet summarizing the editorial conventions to be followed in preparing text for publication There are many different Web sites that have some form of writing on them. There are news sites, e-zines, universities, religious sites, sports sites, and many others. Many of them have several different subject matters located on the same Web site. Writing requires that certain conventions, or styles, be used in order to maintain some sort of order. As writers from different backgrounds contribute to online writing sites, the necessity for that order becomes more apparent. There are style guides for writing the code on the page; others for citing sources used in the article; others to help with common grammar/spelling mistakes; and still others to help with special topics. So how do you keep it all straight? You want your visitors to remember you by your witty prose and great style, knot beecuz u cant spel. Well, ... not to fear ... the WDVL is here! We have gathered together a selection below that should help you in "setting the style" for your Web site The WDVL Style Guide http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Style/Guides/WDVL.html HTML Formatting Speling Errers in You''re Sights http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Style/Guides/Writing/ WebTV Style Guide http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Style/Guides/WebTV.html Guide for online hypertext http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/Overview.html This guide is designed to help you create a WWW hypertext database that effectively communicates your knowledge to the reader. It has been prepared in the light of comments by readers, and many demands by providers of online documentation. Some of the points made may be influenced by personal preference, and some may be common sense, but a collection of points has been demanded, and so here it is. The guide is designed to be read sequentially, but feel free to depart from this. The sections are as follows: Introduction Etiquette for server administrators Overall structure of a work Structure for the reader Trees Document size To refer or to copy Within each document Sign it! Give its status Give links into context A good title Don''t format for a particular browser Using standard HTML (1997) Use style sheets (1997) Think about printing it Keep it readable Don''t mention the mechanics Making your pages bookmarkable (2004) Cool URIs don''t change (1998) Publishing data (2006) Allowing input - forms and editing Test your document Ramblings: Related but more random thoughts. Under construction. Acceptable Content Educational hypertext and the "why" link Why one should provide why links Background reading Reader comments The above lists all the parts of this guide except for individual reader comments Tutorials for Web Developers http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/ Whether you''re a novice just starting out in Web development, or an accomplished HTML hacker seeking to broaden your range, the WDVL Tutorials have something for you - Internet, HTML, CSS, CGI, ASP, PERL, PHP, graphics, Java, JavaScript, DHTML, database, XML, etc... Multiple tutorials in each topic should get you up to speed in no time Tutorials for Web Developers - ASP http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/asp.html Microsoft''s Active Server Pages (ASP) technology provides a framework for building dynamic HTML pages which enable Internet and Intranet applications to be interactive Cacading Style Sheets Tutorials http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/css.html Style Sheets allow you to control the rendering, e.g. fonts, colors, leading, margins, typefaces, and other aspects of style, of a Web document without compromising its structure. CSS is a simple style sheet mechanism that allows authors and readers to attach style to HTML documents. It uses common desktop publishing terminology which should make it easy for professional as well as untrained designers to make use of its features. Visual design issues, such as page layout, can thus be addressed separately from the web page logical structure. Tutorials for Web Developers - Computers and Internet http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/internet.html Internet is about the Internet in general, including history, structure, applications, email, protocols, commerce, web-related topics, organisations, statistics, intranets, e-zines, and pointers to further information ASP Microsoft''s Active Server Pages (ASP) technology provides a framework for building dynamic HTML pages which enable Internet and Intranet applications to be interactive. Cascading Style Sheets Style Sheets allow you to control the rendering, e.g. fonts, colors, leading, margins, typefaces, and other aspects of style, of a Web document without compromising its structure. CSS is a simple style sheet mechanism that allows authors and readers to attach style to HTML documents. It uses common desktop publishing terminology which should make it easy for professional as well as untrained designers to make use of its features. Visual design issues, such as page layout, can thus be addressed separately from the Web page logical structure. Computers and Internet Internet is about the Internet in general, including history, structure, applications, email, protocols, commerce, Web-related topics, organisations, statistics, intranets, e-zines, and pointers to further information. Databases Simply put, a database is a computerized record keeping system. More completely, it is a system involving data, the hardware that physically stores that data, the software that utilizes the hardware''s file system in order to 1) store the data and 2) provide a standardized method for retrieving or changing the data, and finally, the users who turn the data into information. Design Web site design is more than just some text and pretty graphics. DHTML "Dynamic HTML" is typically used to describe the combination of HTML, style sheets and scripts that allows documents to be animated. Dynamic HTML allows a Web page to change after it''s loaded into the browser --there doesn''t have to be any communication with the Web server for an update. You can think of it as ''animated'' HTML. For example, a piece of text can change from one size or color to another, or a graphic can move from one location to another, in response to some kind of user action, such as clicking a button. Graphics Resources, demos and tutorials on the basics of graphics design and construction, including integrating images into your Web pages. HTML HyperText Markup Language is the fundamental building stuff of the Web. We present several articles, tutorials, and references on HTML. JavaScript JavaScript is a programmable API that allows cross-platform scripting of events, objects, and actions. Multimedia Multimedia makes your Web sites come alive. These tutorials can help make that happen. Perl a interpretative language used in CGI for handling text files PHP An open-source server-parsed embedded scripting language. Ruby Ruby is a blended language that includes parts from, Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp. This new language tries to create a balance between functional and imperative programming. Ruby on Rails Ruby is a blended language that includes parts from, Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp. This new language tries to create a balance between functional and imperative programming. Usability Make certain that your Web sites are "user-friendly". Web Programming & Scripting Static HTML pages can be supplemented with server or client-side programming, or ''scripting'' as it is often known. Currently the main languages for this are Perl, Java, and JavaScript, sometimes used in combination with CGI. XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a human-readable, machine- understandable, general syntax for describing hierarchical data, applicable to a wide range of applications (databases, e- commerce, Java, Web development, searching, etc.). Introduction to UNIX for Web Developers http://www.wdvl.com/Internet/UNIX/Intro/toc.html Day One: Basics What is UNIX What is an Operating System What is the UNIX Kernel What are Shells Utilities Executing Utilities Using Wild Cards Input, Output, and Redirection The "man" Utility UNIX and Webmasters History of UNIX Logging In and Out Resetting Your Password Day Two: Essential Commands The UNIX File System Relative versus Absolute Pathnames The "cd" Utility The "ls" Utility (And Hidden Files) Permissions The Password File The Group File Who Are you and Who else is here? Undersrtanding the Permission Bits The "chmod" Utility The "chown" Utility The "chgrp" Utility Reading a File Creating a File Copying Files Moving or Renaming Files Deleting Files Manipulating Directories Creating Directories Deleting Directories Moving and Renaming Directories Day Three: Advanced Tools Searching The "grep" Utility The "find" Utility The "sort" Utility The "diff" Utility The "comm" Utility The "uniq" Utility The "spell" Utility The "wc" Utility The "cut" Utility The "paste" Utility Time and Date Managing Processes Manipulating your Environment Compression and Archiving Introduction to the Web Application Development Environment (Tools) http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tools/Tutorial/toc.html Introduction to the Web Application Development Environment (Tools)- Part 1 Of Lego Blocks and Puzzle Pieces The Thick of Things Web Application Examples The Display (GUI) Layer - Part 2 Understanding the Web Browser A Short History of Web Browsers Basic User Interactivity with HTML Forms Extending the Browser with Plug-ins - Part 3 Java Exposing the Browser API with Client-side Scripting Exposing the Document with the DOM and dHTML Summing up Transmission, or How the Web Works - Part 4 The Basics of TCP/IP Internet Protocol (IP) Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) HTTP Additional Resources Parts of an HTTP Transaction: The Request - Part 5 Parts of an HTTP Transaction: The Response Encryption Public Versus Private Key Encryption Secured Transmission (SSL , HTTPS) Introduction to Server-Side Processing - Part 6 CGI (Common Gateway Interface) Perl is the Right Tool for the Job Perl is Easy SSI (Server Side Includes) SSI Directives SSI Directives Cont. SSI with Proprietary Tag Sets ASP (Active Server Pages) - Part 7 COM and Active-X Server-Side Java Distributed Resources DCOM, CORBA, RMI Introduction to Data - Part 8 Raw Data Databases HTML Introduction to Data: XML - Part 9 Advantages of XML: Breaking the Tag Monopoly Advantages of XML: Moving Beyond Format Disadvantages of XML Style Sheets (XSL, CSS) Databases http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/database.html Simply put, a database is a computerized record keeping system. More completely, it is a system involving data, the hardware that physically stores that data, the software that utilizes the hardware''s file system in order to 1) store the data and 2) provide a standardized method for retrieving or changing the data, and finally, the users who turn the data into information Tutorials for Web Developers - Design http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/design.html Tutorials for Web Developers - DHTML http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/dhtml.html "Dynamic HTML" is typically used to describe the combination of HTML, style sheets and scripts that allows documents to be animated. Dynamic HTML allows a web page to change after it''s loaded into the browser --there doesn''t have to be any communication with the web server for an update. You can think of it as ''animated'' HTML. For example, a piece of text can change from one size or color to another, or a graphic can move from one location to another, in response to some kind of user action, such as clicking a button. Tutorials for Web Developers - Graphics http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html Flash, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Imagemaps The Flash Animator tutorials http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Animator/ http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Basic/ http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Basic/flash2_1.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Basic/flash3_1.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Basic/flash4_1.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Basic/flash5_1.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Basic/flash6_1.html This is the first in a series of articles to help users learn how to use Flash 5. Intrigued by digital animation? Know a little bit about Macromedia Flash but are ready to take it to the next level? The Flash Animator will teach you how to create traditional-looking animations faster, cheaper, and with more delivery options. Sandro Corsaro helps you to develop a solid understanding of the principles of traditional animation, and then guides you step by step through bringing those principles to life with Macromedia Flash. Topics range from creating basic ball bounces to managing complex character design, sound, and optimization issues. Interviews with numerous experts in the animation industry-complete with beautiful artwork and insights from feature-film animators and web pioneers-are included to inspire you along your Macromedia Flash animation path. Interviewees include: Iwoa Takamoto, creator of Scooby Doo; Brad Abelson, storyboard artist, The Simpsons; Joe Shields, Joe Cartoon; Tom Winkler, Doodie.com; and many other influential animators. This book''s CD contains all source files for the book''s examples, exclusive animation files, and bonus Macromedia Flash cartoons. There is also an in-depth audio interview with Iwoa Takamoto. Chapter 3: Drawing in Flash In this chapter Working with Tablets Working with Scanned Artwork Working with the Mouse Flash''s Drawing Tools This chapter focuses on the various tools artists can use to draw in Flash. Whether you want to splatter paint with your Wacom tablet or draw line art with a mouse, Flash offers an array of choices. There are three basic methods in which Flash artists can create their artwork for Flash: pen/tablet, mouse, or scan and trace. Although some are more time consuming than others, each has its own distinct advantage. Working with Tablets One of the most frustrating parts of animating in Flash is learning how to draw with pressure sensitive tablet and pen. Many traditional artists have complained of the slickness and lack of traction on the tablet. (Yes, I know, I feel your pain.) When I first began using this tool, I would go absolutely nuts because I could not replicate my stroke with the ease I had on paper. It felt like learning to ride a bike all over again. One thing that helped was to place a sheet of paper on the tablet in order to gain some tooth (or traction). The paper was thin enough so that the pressure-sensitive pen could still transmit my strokes onto the screen. Sure enough my strokes got better. Using the paper as a set of training wheels also prevented me from hurling the computer out the window. Eventually, I got used to the feel of the surface and got rid of the paper. Drawing while looking up at a screen instead of down at the paper represents another learning curve for many artists. There will be a period of hand-eye readjustment, even for the highly skilled traditional animator. With consistent practice and diligent hard work, it won''t be long before you''re replicating your pencil art perfectly. Turning on the pressure sensitivity will turn your pen into a loaded wet brush. Consequently, the artist will have to learn how to delicately gauge the applied pressure. Mastering the digital stroke is a skill that saves an enormous amount of time in the long run. Practice drawing simple shapes or familiar characters when starting out. Try tapering your paint strokes by gradually building and then releasing pressure as shown in the following figure Macromedia Flash 5 Developer''s Guide http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Dev/ http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Dev/flashdev2-2.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Dev/flashdev2-1.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Dev/flashdev3-1.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Flash/Dev/flashdev4-1.html - pages This manuscript is Chapter 20 "Overview of Flash 3D" from the McGraw-Hill book Macromedia Flash 5 Developer’s Guide. With the rise in popularity of Macromedia''s Flash tool many developers are expanding their skill sets to include this dynamic scripting language. Developers looking to dig deeper into this favorite tool now have a new guide from McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media, Macromedia Flash 5 Developer''s Guide. Novice to advanced Flash developers who want to learn more about the tool and its scripting language will find many detailed examples, including a vast number of code examples. The concept behind this book, from cover to cover, is to give readers exposure to all the different issues in Flash development. This guide is arranged in six parts, representing the major divisions of Flash development including: Flash components, Flash and the Web browser, action script, connectivity and server-side processing, Flash peripheral issues, and getting the most out of Flash. This guide is a must-have for Flash developers, providing them with hard-to-find information on Flash 5''s advanced features and development tools. Key elements in the book include: Using and compressing bitmap images Translating video into a Flash document Developing with action script Integrating Freehand, Illustrator, and Photoshop files Motion guides and tweening JavaScript and client-side scripting Connectivity and server-side processing 3D modeling and animation Graphic design tips. This up-to-date definitive guide offers information on extending Flash 5 into sophisticated, online media development. It is the ultimate resource for developers who are serious about learning one of the most noteworthy applications in use on the Internet today Using Flash with JavaScript http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Flash/Flashenstein/ JavaScript isn''t going to go away just yet; and Flash becomes a more prominent part of the web landscape every day, whether you think of it as a weed or a flower. Put them together and BAM! - you got your chocolate in your peanut butter. Flash developers are already doing lots of cool stuff with Flash/JavaScript, but you have to do a little digging to get started. Well, here is a good place to break ground Flash Articles and Tutorials http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Flash/index.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html Flash has already grabbed everyone''s attention as the hot thing in Web animation, and it promises to be an increasingly serious tool in Web development. This section will cover Flash, including articles, tutorials, links and resources Flash movie http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Flash/0to60/ - Flash player http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Flash/0to60/tweening.html http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Flash/0to60/publishing.html - To publish our creation http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Flash/0to60/babies.html the basics of Flash including the beginning creation of our first Flash movie Photoshop http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/Photoshop/Metal/dirty1-1.html - metall effects http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/Photoshop/Metal/dirty1-4.html - Arched Cutout Type http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/Photoshop/Metal/dirty2-1.html -gradient http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/Photoshop/Metal/dirty2-3.html http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/Photoshop/Metal/dirty3-1.html http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/Photoshop/Metal/dirty3-3.html -reflective crome http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/Photoshop/Metal/dirty3-4.html - airbrash Topics include: Drop Shadow Techniques Cool Type Effects Metal and Chrome Effects Photographic Effects Down & Dirty Little Tricks Paint & Brush Effects Advertising Effects Texture and Background Effects Photoshop Web Effects Special Effects Paint Shop Pro 7 filtering http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/PSP7/Effects/ http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/PSP7/Effects/light.html -the light effects http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/PSP7/Effects/light2.html - The Light Effect Dialog Box http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/PSP7/Effects/selective_effects.html - Selective Effects http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/PSP7/Effects/closer_look.html - a closer look http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/Tools/PSP7/Effects/conclusion.html - a combination of effects How to add an image to a Web page? http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/ABC_Graphics/ In its simplest form, an image tag looks like this: <IMG SRC="images/fluffy.gif"> The SRC (source) attribute specifies the name of the image file to be displayed. Like the HREF in an A (anchor) tag, the SRC statement must specify the appropriate path to the image file. This path can be absolute or relative. An absolute path specifies the complete URL of the image file, for example: <IMG SRC="http://WebDevelopersJournal.com/images/fluffy.gif"> A relative path specifies only the path from the page on which the IMG tag is found to the image file, for example: <IMG SRC="images/fluffy.gif"> In this example, the image file is found in a directory called "images." For convenience, many site builders put all their images in one directory, often called "images," though you may call it whatever you please. The path in this example will only work if the "images" directory is under the directory where the referring page is found. If the referring page and the image file are in two directories at the same level, the tag would be so: <IMG SRC="../images/fluffy.gif"> This tells the browser to go up one level, then look for the directory called "images." If the image can''t be found, or can''t be displayed for any reason, you will see a little icon that''s supposed to look like a "broken image" (in Netscape), or a little square with an X in it (in MS Explorer). If this is the case, it may be that the path specified in your IMG tag is incorrect. Try including the absolute path, and see if that works. Normally, relative paths are used whenever possible, as this reduces load time. For clarity, I use ALL CAPS for the names of tags and attributes, but it doesn''t matter whether you use upper or lower case. Be careful about case in filenames, however. Quite a lot of Web pages are designed on Windows systems, but served by Unix machines. Windows and Unix treat case differently, so always make sure that the filename specified in a tag is exactly the same as the actual name of the file on the server. Web Image File Formats At the moment, Web browsers can only display two types of graphic files: GIF and JPG (these are sometimes called JPEG, and have a .jpg or .jpeg file extension). These are both compressed file formats, designed to load fairly quickly in the bandwidth-deprived world of the Web. Both formats have drawbacks, and a newer file format called PNG is in the offing. It''s worth reading this recent article about the PNG format, but it probably won''t come into widespread use for a while yet, so we beginners will stick with GIFs and JPGs for now. To create a GIF or JPG, simply save your graphic in the desired format. All the newer graphics software supports both. Which format to use? For technical reasons which we won''t get into, JPG tends to look better for photographs, while GIF works better for other graphics. However, only GIF allows you to create transparent and interlaced graphics (details later). Keep in mind that both GIF and JPG are compressed formats, designed to be used only for the final output of your creative process. Always create your graphics in the native format of your graphics software (.psd if you use Photoshop, for example), and make the conversion to GIF or JPG the very last step. If you need to edit your graphics later, go back to the original files - don''t try to edit a GIF or JPG if you can avoid it. Sometimes you can get away with editing these files, but sometimes they come out looking terrible, especially JPGs. Also keep in mind that even a cheap printer uses a much higher resolution (300 dots per inch or more) than does the (72 dpi) Web. Although it is possible to print a GIF or JPG image, the result will be very low-quality. Always print from the native format of your graphics software, or convert to a high-quality format such as .tif or .bmp. The moral of the story is always to keep your original (native-format) graphics files for future use. If you have a design shop creating graphics for you, make sure they give you the original Photoshop (or whatever) files, not just the GIFs or JPGs. http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/ABC_Graphics/add_image.html Attributes of the IMG Tag http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/ABC_Graphics/attributes.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/ABC_Graphics/ HTML for Web Graphics http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Graphics/Techniques/HTML.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html http://www.wdvl.com/Graphics/ABC_Graphics/ Inline Images http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/HTML/Body/img.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html HTML BODY: Hyperlinks or Anchors HTML BODY: Hyperlinks or Anchors - http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/HTML/Body/anchor.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html Client-Side Imagemaps http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/HTML/Body/csmap.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html Server-Side Imagemaps http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/HTML/Body/ismap.html http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html http://www.wdvl.com/Quadzilla/Imagemaps/ http://www.wdvl.com/Quadzilla/Imagemaps/ http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/graphics.html HTML Tutorials http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/html.html Tables http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/ Tables Tables are used to organize and display tabular data. Uses for tables include calendars, schedules, and statistics. These pages include sample tables and their HTML and CSS source code. Each sample builds upon the previous one, increasing in complexity as they go along. The samples are designed to walk you through the design of a table. You may use these tables as templates simply by copying the sample source code into your HTML document and putting your information within the tags. Building a Simple Table - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/simple.html Using scope - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/scope.html While someone who can see has no problem associating a specific data cell with a header, someone who uses a screen reader, to experience the web may have more of a challenge. The scope attribute helps a screen reader associate a data cell with the correct headers Adding a Border - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/border.html Centering a Table - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/center.html Aligning Text in Cells - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/cell.html Using colspan & rowspan - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/spans.html Cell Padding and Spacing - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/padding.html Table Tags - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/tables/tags.html Web Forms http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/ Web Forms Web Forms Fill-out forms or web forms are used to gather information from users. The appearance of the form is controlled by HTML and CSS, and the information gathered by the form is handled with a CGI script. NOTE: These pages are designed for the intermediate HTML publisher. If you are not comfortable with writing HTML code, we recommend you review Learning HTML before learning to write web forms. The HTML form is what the user sees while looking at the web page, it is created using the FORM tag, and may contain any of the following elements: • Text Input Fields o Text Fields o Password Fields o Hidden Fields • Checkboxes • Radio Buttons • Text Boxes • Menus o Pull-down Menus o Scrolling Menus • Action Buttons o Image Buttons o Reset Buttons o Submit Buttons • Labels • Fieldsets • Legends The examples on these pages are designed to show an example of the HTML element and the HTML code which created the element. For examples of web forms in use at UT, look at the Web Central Maintenance Forms. Use the View -> Source feature in your browser to examine the HTML source for these pages The Form Tag - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/form.html Fill-out forms begin with <form> and end with </form>. The FORM tag has two required attributes, METHOD and ACTION, and one optional attribute, ENCTYPE. Most fill-out forms use a FORM tag in this format: <form method="post" action="http://www.utexas.edu/teamweb/cgi-bin/generic.cgi"> Various form elements </form> Labels - Making Forms Accessible - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/label.html Forms are one of the most important parts of a web page to be made accessible.The <label> tag is used to make form elements accessible. It helps screen readers handle your forms. The label tag can also help make it easier to select an <input> or <select> tag while using a mouse. The label tag should surround the text associated with an <input> or <select> tag. It has one attribute; the for attribute. When using label the id element should be included in the input or select tag. The for and id attributes must be unique within a web page Web Forms http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/ Text Input Fields - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/text.html Text fields are used to gather short text responses from a user. Text fields can also be used to gather numerical data. Text fields are created using the <input> tag. When used to create text fields, the INPUT tag has two required attributes, TYPE and NAME, and four optional attributes, ID, VALUE, SIZE, and MAXLENGTH. Sample HTML source for a text field: <input type="text" name="id_number" value="Enter ID here" id="id_number" size="16" maxlength="16" /> Checkboxes - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/checkboxes.html Checkboxes allow the user to toggle between two possible choices. They work like an on/off switch. Checkboxes are created using the <INPUT> tag. When used to create checkboxes, the INPUT tag has three required attributes, TYPE, NAME, and VALUE, and two optional attribute, ID and CHECKED. Sample HTML source for a checkbox: <input type="checkbox" name="duties" value="filing" id="duties" checked="checked" /> Radio Buttons - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/radio.html Radio buttons are used when you want the user to choose only one of a small group of options. Radio buttons are created using the <INPUT> tag. When used to create checkboxes, the INPUT tag has three required attributes, TYPE, NAME, and VALUE, and two optional attribute, ID and CHECKED. Sample HTML source for a radio button: <input type="radio" name="title" value="Ms" checked="checked"> Text Boxes - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/boxes.html Text boxes are used to gather lengthy or multiple-line text responses from a user. Text boxes are created using the <textarea></textarea> tag. The TEXTAREA tag has three required attributes NAME, ROWS, and COLS, and one attribute that works only in Netscape, WRAP. Sample HTML source for a text box: <textarea name="comments" rows="10" cols="50" wrap="physical"> Default Text </textarea> Menus -http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/menus.html Menus are used to allow the user to select one or more of a list of options. Pull-down menus and scrollable menus are both created with the <select></select> and <option> tags. The SELECT tag has one required attribute, NAME and two optional attributes, SIZE and MULTIPLE. The OPTION tag has two optional attributes, VALUE and SELECTED. Sample HTML source for a menu: <select name="menu" size="4" multiple> <option value="chinese">Chinese Food</option> <option value="japanese">Japanese Food</option> </select> Action Buttons - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/action.html Action buttons are used to submit a form to a CGI script or to reset all of the form fields to the default values. Action buttons are created using the <INPUT> tag. When used to create action buttons, the INPUT tag has one required attribute, TYPE and four optional attributes, NAME, VALUE, SRC, and ALIGN. Sample HTML source for an action button: <input type="submit" name="submit_button" value="Submit Form" /> Fieldsets and Legends - Form Organization - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/fieldset.html The <fieldset> tag creates a border around a form, or section of a form to organize elements. Fieldset creates a box around the included form elements http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/example.html Text summary of form field tags -http://www.utexas.edu/learn/forms/summary.html This diagram shows the different tags used to create form fields, what attributes are required by each tag, optional for each tag, or not supported by each tag Forms http://www.werbach.com/barebones/barebones.html#forms HTML 3.2 Reference Specification http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32.html#form 17.Forms - Introduction to forms http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html An HTML form is a section of a document containing normal content, markup, special elements called controls (checkboxes, radio buttons, menus, etc.), and labels on those controls. Users generally "complete" a form by modifying its controls (entering text, selecting menu items, etc.), before submitting the form to an agent for processing (e.g., to a Web server, to a mail server, etc.) Here''s a simple form that includes labels, radio buttons, and push buttons Image Formats (GIF, Jpeg, PNG http://www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/fileformats.html The two most common graphic file formats for the Web are GIF files and JPEG files. Browsers and most popular Web graphics programs support both these file formats. There is increasing browser support of a third graphic file format, the PNG file. This format is a great addition to the current graphic file formats. It''s the native file format for Macromedia Fireworks. PNGs with no transparency display correctly in all current browsers. But...one of the really wonderful attributes that .PNG has is *variable transparency. *A note about the variable transparency option in a PNG. It displays correctly in most modern browsers with one big exception: IE.5.5+ and IE6 on the PC. If you need variable transparency in your PNG, there is a style to include in your css that points to an external script file to make .pngs with variable transparency display correctly in IE5.5+ and IE.6 on the pc, but it isn''t a neat solution. Until IE.5.5+ and IE6 for the pc upgrades, this is one working solution we''ve found. PNG transparency for IE on pc. Which file format is better? It depends on the nature of the image. The table below summarizes the features of the different file formats and some of their advantages and disadvantages Web Graphics http://www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/ Web Graphics The <IMG> Tag - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/imgtag.html Use the <IMG> tag to include inline images in a Web page. An inline image appears in the page itself and does not open in a separate window or require a helper application to display. For example <IMG SRC="car.jpg" ALT="flamed Geo Metro car" width="317" height="216" /> Image Size - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/imagesize.html Image size refers both to the height and width of the image in pixels and the file size. Large graphics take a long time to download over the Web and many people will become impatient. Try to keep your graphic files less than 35K in size, and remember that they add up if you have multiple images. Assuming you are designing for an 800 x 600 resolution, make sure your largest graphics are no wider than 720 pixels wide. Images wider than that require scrolling on smaller monitors. Most graphics applications have commands that display the size of the image in pixels. For example, in Adobe PhotoShop choose Image Size from the Image menu to see the dimensions of an image. The figure below is an example of an image that is too large to fit within a small browser window. The graphic is a GIF that is 900 pixels wide. It will stretch any table out to accommodate the large width, so the text in the same table runs off the page also. This is pretty annoying for users with lower resolution monitors or low vision. A big percentage of people will still have to scroll horizontally to see the entire image. (more and more people are viewing in higher resolution, but don''t count on it). Transparency GIFS & PNGS - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/transparency.html The GIF file format enables designers to designate one color of a graphic to be transparent. If a transparent graphic appears on a colored or textured background you will be able to see the background through the transparent parts of the graphic. The figure below illustrates the problem with non-transparent graphics. Notice that Figure 1 has the white background of the GIF appearing against the grey background of the table. Figure 2 is the same graphic except saved in GIF format with the same grey as the background color of the table as the transparent (matte) color. Notice that the background color of the table cells appears. Image Maps - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/maps.html Image maps let you specify different hot spots on a single image. For example, the image below has two hot spots linking to two different URLs. Animated GIFS - http://www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/animatedgifs.html Publishing long documents in PDF http://www.utexas.edu/learn/longdocuments/index.shtml Online surveys Online surveys are fast becoming a popular method of collecting data. A questionnaire on the World Wide Web is easy and convenient for many people to access. A large amount of data can be accumulated in a short amount of time. The data can then be analyzed, summarized, and written about. It''s relatively fast, relatively easy and very inexpensive. But because it''s fast and easy, does that make it good? There are important aspects of online surveys that deserve serious consideration before you begin this process. These include: defining your research goals, designing the questionnaire with relevant and appropriate questions, establishing a sampling frame and recruiting the proper subjects, and providing confidentiality and data security information to your respondents. This document provides the technical information needed to create an online questionnaire, gather data and analyze it. It also provides "food for thought" - serious issues to consider. Incorporating this information into the process should result in higher respondent rate and improved data quality resulting in a better study. NOTE: Texas law now requires that if you collect information from people, you must give them notice that they have the right to ask to review it and to ask that any incorrect information be corrected. In short, this means you must include a link to The University''s Privacy Statement. http://www.utexas.edu/learn/surveys/index.html Laws & Guidelines http://www.utexas.edu/learn/accessibility/guidelines.html Standards for Measuring Accessibility Managing Files and Directories http://www.utexas.edu/learn/manage/index.html This group of pages explain how to name and organize your Web files and directories and how to manage your document masters. This is important because the names of your files and directories determine the URL to your pages. Odd, illogical, or long file and directory names lead to odd, illogical, and long URLs. Naming Guide to naming files and directories. Organizing Guide to organizing files and directories. Managing Document Masters Guide to managing the master copies of your Web documents. Managing/Maintaining a Site - How to keep your site complete, current and cohesive. Naming Files and Directories http://www.utexas.edu/learn/manage/naming.html In general, Macintosh users will have to be more restrictive than usual in naming files and directories. DOS and Windows (pre 95) can be less restrictive. Avoid spaces Macintosh users like spaces. UNIX machines and URLs do not. Avoid them. In fact, Fetch, a Macintosh file-transfer program, automatically converts spaces to underscores when transfering files to UNIX machines. Avoid special symbols Don''t use & # or other odd symbols in your file or directory names. Avoid redundancy Don''t repeat portions of directory names in the names of files and subdirectories. For example, in a directory called purchasing, you might want to create a staff directory. You might call it staff or purchasingstaff. Since you are already in a directory called purchasing, purchasingstaff would be redundant. Notice the resulting URLs. Good: http://www.utexas.edu/business/purchasing/staff/ Redundant: http://www.utexas.edu/business/purchasing/purchasingstaff/ Keep names short and descriptive Give your files and subdirectories short but descriptive names. Remember, these names appear in your URL. Also, keeping your names short simplifies your URLs. So, if you have to communicate one or your URLs verbally to someone, they are more likely to get it. For example: Good: http://www.utexas.edu/research/ Bad: http://www.utexas.edu/Office_VP_Research/ Use lowercase characters only Unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise, always use only lowercase characters in file and directory names. Remember, URLs are case sensitive. For example: This works: http://www.utexas.edu/learn/ This doesn''t work: http://www.utexas.edu/Learn/ (because L in Learn should be lower case) Give file names meaningful extensions File name extensions are three or more characters that follow the file name and are separated from the file name by a period. Extensions convey information about the contents of a file and help Web browsers know how to display or serve a document. For example: index.html graphic.gif newsletter.pdf movie.mpeg - An HTML file. - A graphic file in GIF format. - A newsletter in PDF format. - A video in MPEG format. Use these extension conventions for files that you create. Note that translation programs such at RTFtoHTML automatically append a .html to HTML files that it creates. Name your primary HTML file index.html If the primary file in your home directory is called index.html, you need not specify it in URLs. For example, both of these links work, but the shorter one is more conventional and might be easier for others to remember and for you to type: Okay: http://www.utexas.edu/learn/index.html Better: http://www.utexas.edu/learn/ Create an index.html for every subdirectory you create In general, each subdirectory you create should have an index.html file. Exceptions to this rule might be a graphics subdirectory in which you store graphics files and a forms subdirectory in which you store comments forms. Organizing Files and Directories http://www.utexas.edu/learn/manage/organizing.html Macintosh users are used to creating folders. A folder can contain files and other folders. Likewise, PC users create directories, which can contain files and other directories. In both cases, you use folders or directories to organize and categorize your files into logical units. On UNIX machines, you use directories to organize files, just as you would on a microcomputer. And as usual, directories can contain files and other and directories, called subdirectories. Create an index.html file for every subdirectory you create In general, each subdirectory you create should have an index.html file. Exceptions to this rule might be a graphics subdirectory in which you store graphics files that you use on your Web pages and a forms subdirectory in which you store comments forms. Organize files into subdirectories Create subdirectories to organize your HTML files by topic. For example, you might create several subdirectories, including one each of the following: forms, graphics, newsletters, brochures, etc. Plan for growth Your Web will never be complete. You will always be updating existing pages and adding new ones. It''s important to plan for that growth at the outset. The best way to plan for this growth is to create directories rather than files. For example, suppose you want to serve a departmental newsletter in your Web. It''s a short, simple, 1-sheet newsletter. You have a decision to make. Do you create a file, named newsletter.html for this newsletter, or do you create a subdirectory called newsletter for it? Corresponding URLs would be, for example: Okay: http://www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/newsletter.html Better: http://www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/newsletter/ Many might think that since the newsletter is a simple 1-pager, it doesn''t need its own directory. This is true if you don''t plan to keep old copies around, if there are no graphics associated with the newsletter, if you don''t plan to put each article in your newsletter in a separate file, and if you are certain that the newsletter will never grow out of a simple newsletter.html file. Maintaining a Site http://www.utexas.edu/learn/manage/maintain.html Designing a web site is only the first step. Managing and maintaining the site and planning for growth is what keeps your site fresh and useful. Specifically you should strive to keep your site complete, current and cohesive. Complete - everything important is on the web Current - nothing is out of date, archived information is clearly distinguished from current information Cohesive - new pages follow your web site''s style guide Tips for staying Complete, Current, Cohesive Check Links - Use a tool that checks for broken links on your site. WebXM is available that will automatically check all the links on your site and send an email reporting any broken links. Link and File Management - Fixing broken links on a large site can be tedious and time-consuming. Identifying orphaned files (files that don''t have anything linking to them) can be difficult. Manually keeping all pages on your site up to date with your style guide can seem impossible. You can greatly reduce your link and file management workload by doing the following Web Server Statistics http://www.utexas.edu/learn/manage/stats.html Redirection http://www.utexas.edu/learn/redirect/index.html No matter how well you plan your site you will always encounter situations where Web pages change their URLs. How you handle this depends on many factors including the type of Web server you use, JavaScript functionality, and the user experience. The following techniques can be used to redirect users to new pages: .htaccess - this file can be used to redirect your users to the new page/site automatically rather than having them click on a "we moved" link. JavaScript - you can use JavaScript code to redirect people to new pages or to different pages based on their browser type. meta refresh - a meta tag within the head section of your HTML document that tells the browser to load the new page after "n" seconds. PHP - a scripting language that can be embedded in your HTML documents; normally used to redirect people to the new destination according to a certain variable, such as the browser used. symbolic links - in the UNIX world, a symbolic link is similar to an alias on the Macintosh or a shortcut on the Windows platform by acting as a pointer to a file or directory Site-Specific Searching http://www.utexas.edu/learn/search/ Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) In August 2009, Google Custome Search Engine (CSE) will be implemented on the UT Home Page. You can customize the UT Google CSE to search only your site. Google Syndicated Search - End of Life (EOL) February 2004 - August 2009, the search on the UT Home Page was powered by Google Syndicated Search. Google Syndicated Search is no longer supported by Google and is considered End of Life (EOL). ht://Dig ht://Dig is a gathering program that "digs" through your Web site and creates an index of terms. Since the ht://Dig search service is hosted on campus, you don''t have to worry about the reliability of an off-campus provider, or have advertisements on your search results pages. Relevancy To determine relevancy, search engines follow a set of rules, with the main rules involving the location and frequency of keywords on a Web page. This section explains methods for making your page more relevant to search engines. Google Custom Search Engine http://www.utexas.edu/learn/search/googlecse.html There are some important differences between Google CSE and Google Syndicated Search for Universities: Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) is supported by Google. Google Syndicated Search for Universities is no longer supported by Google and is considered an End of Life (EOL) service by Google. Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) supports indexing of University sites that are not within the utexas.edu domain. The University has other Web sites not in the utexas.edu domain. KUT (www.kut.org), the Performing Arts Center (www.utpac.org) and HireALonghorn (www.hirealonghorn.org) are just a few examples of UT sites that can now be included in the UT Google Custom Search Engine (CSE). These sites were not allowed to be indexed by Google Syndicated Search for Universities. In addition to the UT Google Custom Search Engine, numerous other sites on campus have site-specific searches. The University also has an alphabetic index of offices helpful for locating pages on the UT Web. If you have questions about the UT search functionality contact TeamWeb. How Can I Customize the UT Google CSE to search only my site? Instructions on how to customize the new UT Google CSE to search only your site will be provided after the new Google CSE is in production. If you want to limit your search to a particular directory or host within the utexas.edu domain, use Google''s inurl operator. For example if you want to search for the phrase "gutenberg bible" only within the hrc.utexas.edu sub-domain, enter inurl:hrc.utexas.edu "gutenberg bible". Similarly, if you want to search for the word scholarships, but only within the student directory on www.utexas.edu, enter inurl:www.utexas.edu/student/ scholarships. Google Syndicated Search http://www.utexas.edu/learn/search/google.html Important! Google Syndicated Search is no longer supported by Google and is considered End of Life (EOL). The UT Google Syndicated Search continues to provide search results, but we are unable to make any changes to the UT Google Syndicated Search. We encourage you, as your time permits, to migrate from the UT Google Syndicated Search to the UT Google Custom Search Engine. The Web Technology Team is available to help you with this transition. Historical Documentation for End of Life Product Non-JavaScript Solution <p><label for="search"> This form searches only within the "http://www.utexas.edu/learn/" site. </label></p> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/u/universityoftexas" name="searchForm" id="searchForm"> <input type="text" name="q" size="30" maxlength="255" value="" class="content" id="search" /> <input type="submit" value="Search" /> <input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="www.utexas.edu/learn" /> </form> Sample (non-javascript) Search Page JavaScript Solution You can use our University Google search to search only your site by adding the following script tag (within <head>...</head>) and form tags shown below to your search page or page(s) containing your search box. Script Tag <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="/includes/functions.js"> </script> Form Tags You can replace the code shown in bold below with your site information and your preferred values. <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/u/universityoftexas" name="searchForm" id="searchForm"> <input type="text" name="vq" size="30" maxlength="255" value="" class="content" id="vq" /> <input name="sa" type="button" class="content" onclick="javascript:doSearch(''www.utexas.edu/learn'');" value="Search the Learn site" /> <input type="hidden" name="q" value="" /> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="utexas.edu" /> <input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="utexas.edu" /> </form> Sample Search Page For those who use google search and the Firefox browser, there is also information about "prefetching search results" and how to turn off this feature in FireFox. ht://Dig Search http://www.utexas.edu/learn/search/htdig.html Originally developed at San Diego State University, the ht://Dig software is open source and consists of several different programs: ht://Dig: a gathering program that "digs" through your Web site and creates an index of terms htsearch: used to actually search the index created by ht://Dig htnotify: notifies you when your pages are out of date. These programs offer many features to help Web publishers manage their sites. Using ht://Dig, publishers can: Customize search form and search results pages -- Web publishers can include custom headers, footers and navigation on their results page. Index only files actually linked from other Web pages -- unlike the freeWAIS software used previously, ht://Dig only indexes pages that are linked from other Web pages. You can upload content pages to your Web site and not worry about ht://Dig finding them unless you link to them. Index pages on multiple servers -- if your site is on more than one server, ht://Dig can create a single searchable index for content on multiple servers. Support custom tuning of search results -- perhaps the biggest challenge with search tools is getting the most relevant results listed first. ht://Dig lets you tune the relevancy of your search results in many different ways. For example, you can increase the relevancy of pages that have the search term in a heading tag through the ht://Dig configuration file. Build and rebuild search indexes easily -- to create a search index for your site, fill out the request form (requires UT EID) and an ITS Web consultant will contact you to walk you through the process of using ht://Dig and create an initial index for your site. All indexes are automatically rebuilt weekly. Include or exclude certain sections of the site in the search -- from one index you can limit the search results to certain directories so you don''t have to maintain different indexes WWW Search Engine Software http://www.utexas.edu/local/doc/htdig/ The ht://Dig system is a complete world wide web indexing and searching system for a domain or intranet. This system is not meant to replace the need for powerful internet-wide search systems like Lycos, Infoseek, Google and AltaVista. Instead it is meant to cover the search needs for a single company, campus, or even a particular sub section of a web site. As opposed to some WAIS-based or web-server based search engines, ht://Dig can easily span several web servers. The type of these different web servers doesn''t matter as long as they understand common protocols like HTTP. ht://Dig was developed at San Diego State University as a way to search the various web servers on the campus network. Here are some examples of the application of ht://Dig on the SDSU network: Relevancy http://www.utexas.edu/learn/search/relevancy.html Relevancy Search engines generally search pages for keywords and use relevancy ranking systems to sort the results. These systems compute the number of times the word(s) entered in the search appear in the document, and divide this by the total number of words in the document. The assumption is that the more times a word occurs in a document, the more relevant the document is to the search. Some Suggestions for Increasing Relevancy Use keywords and description META tags and place them in the HEAD section after the TITLE tag. Limit the description to 250 characters, and try to keep it under 150 characters if possible. For example: <HEAD> <TITLE>My Favorite Hobby</TITLE> <META name="keywords" content="stamps, stamp collecting, stamp history, prices, stamps for sale"> <META name="description" content="Everything you wanted to know about stamps, from prices to history."> </HEAD> Select your keywords carefully. Consult other people for help in choosing your keywords. Research your "competition" regarding their keywords and techniques, and emulate them where appropriate. Use your most critical keywords in your HTML titles. Manually submit your site to the following search engines, and resubmit if your site significantly changes: AltaVista Google Open Directory Yahoo Don''t "spamdex" or "keyword stuff." Overly repeating words, especially in the same tag, will probably get your site penalized or even banned from most search engines. Also, "spamdexing" increases load time. Also, don''t "spamdex" by using invisible text (text the same color as the background). Some search engines look for this and will penalize your site for it. Don''t use irrelevant keywords to pull in anyone and everyone to your site. Not only is it counterproductive, loading your server with irritated users, but it can get you banned from the search engine listings permanently. Don''t waste money on auto-submission services. Some work, some don''t. Manually submitting your pages to the search engines listed above doesn''t take very long. References Search Engine Submission Tips Galatia: Search Engine Primer The Spider''s Apprentice--How Search Engines Work How To Use HTML Meta Tags SEM Basics: A Guide for Webmasters and Search Engine Marketers http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/ http://searchenginewatch.com/3634082 Video Search http://searchenginewatch.com/3633933 Video is quickly becoming a major factor in Internet marketing and aiding in user engagement. According to comScore''s Video Metrix, U.S. Internet users viewed 14.5 billion online videos in March, up 11 percent from February. (Susan Boyle''s YouTube videos probably helped with the numbers.) Additionally, watch Hulu''s rise because they recently surpassed Yahoo as the third-largest online video site. YouTube, of course, is still king of the hill with almost six billion videos showed and more than 100 million unique visitors in March. Fox interactive comes in second, but comScore predicts Hulu will surpass them this month. With Internet video on the rise and the search engines looking more favorably on video content, there''s an opportunity to leverage this medium for your SEO efforts. We''ll focus on five steps for optimizing for video search, many which run parallel to traditional SEO best practices: Keyword research Video production Landing pages Distribution and keyword placement Tracking/analytics Keyword Research Before producing your video, you should have performed the proper keyword research to identify the top-performing and commonly searched keywords. These should be embedded in your verbal script or commentary. Some search engines have the capability to convert speech to text and then index the results. These keywords should be infused within the title, description, and even the file name and URL, where possible. Use a good keyword tool to identity different keyword phrases. Go for the long tail keywords in this case. More specific keywords are better. Video Production Local Search http://searchenginewatch.com/3632973 As the economy opens the door of opportunity for many people who have lost their jobs, more small businesses are on the rise -- and so is the demand for local search. Are you looking to venture beyond the printed yellow pages? You should be. According to a SBI+M article, 54 percent of Americans have substituted the Internet and local search for phone books. Ninety percent of online commercial searches result in a local offline purchase and 61 percent of all local searches results in a transaction. Do I have your attention? On-Page Factors: Make Sure Your Location is Visible Your contact information should be on every page of your Web site. It can be frustrating for users visiting a site when they come to the point where they''re ready to buy, but they have to search around for a phone number or a local address. Also, make sure the location of your store or office is on each page. Have multiple locations? List those as well. Place this information at the bottom of your pages or get creative and maybe develop a tagline that includes each location. Optimizing each page for SEO is next. Make sure the various HTML tags on your page include your location info where appropriate. For more info see "Site Structure 101" or Search Engine Watch''s Search Engine Optimization section. Solicit Local Links Submit to directories and get your company listed. Look at directories that cater to your local market. Reach out to your local chamber of commerce and other Web directories local to your area, and ask them to link to your Web site. Submit to Directories -- It''s Free Get listed with some specific sites that are designed just for local listings. For each business listing, make sure that your information is complete and correct and that it uses the same keywords you use on your Web site. Here are the most notable ones: Superpages TrueLocal Local.com YellowPages.com Localeze MerchantCircle Hot Frog InfoUSA Instead of taking you to the home page, I found links that will take you directly to the free submission. Most of these services allow you to upgrade to better features for a fee -- in fact, they''re rather proactive at helping you upgrade, so beware. Update or Add your Site on Local Search Engines Just in case you''d like to do these one at a time, here are the links to the search engines where you can place your local listings: Google''s Local Business Center. You''ll need to set up a Gmail account prior to filling out the form. Yahoo''s Local Search. You''ll need to set up an account before you proceed with the listing. Live Search Local Listing Center. Yes, you guessed it. You''ll need to set up a Microsoft Live account. You can also take advantage of a cool new tool, GetListed.org. That''s a one-stop shop for generating multiple listings. What a great idea! Now that you''ve taken the time to set up your business listings, you''re on your way, but there''s still work to do. Reach out to your satisfied customers and ask them to come and rate your business and/or write a review. When people find you, they''ll likely find your competitors as well. Positive reviews will add more credibility and help you stand out in the crowd. In Part 2: more tips on local search tactics, and the impact of mobile search and what you need to know about this growing market. Join us for Search Engine Strategies New York March 23-27 at the Hilton New York. The only major search marketing conference and expo on the East Coast, SES New York will be packed with more than 70 sessions, plus more than 150 exhibitors, networking events, parties, and training days. Search Engine Concepts & Terminology http://www.galatia.com/inform/searchengine.html Search Engine: Used generally to mean any site which allows Internet users to find information on the Net, especially the Web. A more specific definition is one of these sites which uses a robotic "crawler" to index Web pages and other page data. Most search sites fall under both categories; the primary exception is Yahoo!, which is indexed by human beings. Keywords: Any word which captures all or part of the essence of a document''s content. Also, the words which are likely to be searched for by users of search engines, in their efforts to identify relevant documents. Relevancy: When a search engine user enters a keyword or keyphrase to find, the engine must sift through its database of documents to determine which documents are most relevant to the keyword or keyphrase in question. Keyword Density: One of the primary measurements used by search engines to determine a document''s relevancy in relation to specific words or phrases. The higher the percentage of a document''s content consists of a specific term, the more relevant it is likely to be to that term. Keyword Location: Another major measurement of relevancy. Documents with a specific term in the title, for example, are considered more relevant to that topic than those which do not. Search Engine Do''s and Don''t''s DO Identify the objectives of your web site within the context of your greater business plan. DO Exercise great care in selecting your keywords. DO Consult other people, especially clients, about what your keywords should be. DO Research your "competition" regarding their keywords and techniques, and emulate them where appropriate. DO Build a well-designed page in every sense of the term. This accomplishes two things. First, users who reach you through the search engines will find your site useful and enjoyable. Second, since Yahoo! has humans looking at your site, you''re more likely to get a positive review -- and maybe even a little pair of sunglasses -- and thus more visitors from the single most-used search device on the Internet (45% of all users according to recent surveys). DO Use your most critical keywords in your HTML titles. How To Use Web Search Engines http://www.monash.com/spidap4.html What follows is a basic explanation of how search engines work. For more detailed and technical information about current methods used by search engines like Google, check out our discussion of Search Engine Ranking Algorithms Keyword Searching Refining Your Search Relevancy Ranking Meta Tags Concept-based Searching (This information is dated, but might have historical interest for researchers) Search engines use automated software programs knows as spiders or bots to survey the Web and build their databases. Web documents are retrieved by these programs and analyzed. Data collected from each web page are then added to the search engine index. When you enter a query at a search engine site, your input is checked against the search engine''s index of all the web pages it has analyzed. The best urls are then returned to you as hits, ranked in order with the best results at the top. Keyword Searching This is the most common form of text search on the Web. Most search engines do their text query and retrieval using keywords. What is a keyword, exactly? It can simply be any word on a webpage. For example, I used the word "simply" in the previous sentence, making it one of the keywords for this particular webpage in some search engine''s index. However, since the word "simply" has nothing to do with the subject of this webpage (i.e., how search engines work), it is not a very useful keyword. Useful keywords and key phrases for this page would be "search," "search engines," "search engine methods," "how search engines work," "ranking" "relevancy," "search engine tutorials," etc. Those keywords would actually tell a user something about the subject and content of this page. Unless the author of the Web document specifies the keywords for her document (this is possible by using meta tags), it''s up to the search engine to determine them. Essentially, this means that search engines pull out and index words that appear to be significant. Since since engines are software programs, not rational human beings, they work according to rules established by their creators for what words are usually important in a broad range of documents. The title of a page, for example, usually gives useful information about the subject of the page (if it doesn''t, it should!). Words that are mentioned towards the beginning of a document (think of the "topic sentence" in a high school essay, where you lay out the subject you intend to discuss) are given more weight by most search engines. The same goes for words that are repeated several times throughout the document. Some search engines index every word on every page. Others index only part of the document. Full-text indexing systems generally pick up every word in the text except commonly occurring stop words such as "a," "an," "the," "is," "and," "or," and "www." Some of the search engines discriminate upper case from lower case; others store all words without reference to capitalization. The Problem With Keyword Searching Keyword searches have a tough time distinguishing between words that are spelled the same way, but mean something different (i.e. hard cider, a hard stone, a hard exam, and the hard drive on your computer). This often results in hits that are completely irrelevant to your query. Some search engines also have trouble with so-called stemming -- i.e., if you enter the word "big," should they return a hit on the word, "bigger?" What about singular and plural words? What about verb tenses that differ from the word you entered by only an "s," or an "ed"? Search engines also cannot return hits on keywords that mean the same, but are not actually entered in your query. A query on heart disease would not return a document that used the word "cardiac" instead of "heart." Refining Your Search Most sites offer two different types of searches--"basic" and "refined" or "advanced." In a "basic" search, you just enter a keyword without sifting through any pulldown menus of additional options. Depending on the engine, though, "basic" searches can be quite complex. Advanced search refining options differ from one search engine to another, but some of the possibilities include the ability to search on more than one word, to give more weight to one search term than you give to another, and to exclude words that might be likely to muddy the results. You might also be able to search on proper names, on phrases, and on words that are found within a certain proximity to other search terms. Some search engines also allow you to specify what form you''d like your results to appear in, and whether you wish to restrict your search to certain fields on the internet (i.e., usenet or the Web) or to specific parts of Web documents (i.e., the title or URL). Many, but not all search engines allow you to use so-called Boolean operators to refine your search. These are the logical terms AND, OR, NOT, and the so-called proximal locators, NEAR and FOLLOWED BY. next page about web http://educationally.narod.ru/linkscomputer2.html