Creating LCUSD Websites

GOAL

To design, create, publish and maintain an LCUSD website.

OUTLINE

  1. Consider the intended purpose of your website…
    1. Why do you want a website?
    2. Who is your audience?
    3. What information will you include?
    4. How often will it need to be updated?
    5. How "slick" does it need to be?
    6. How will you know if it's meeting your goals?
    7. Sometimes it is helpful to make a storyboard of your website, before creating it on the computer. You can use plain paper or index cards to depict the layout of each page.
  2. Demo of existing LCUSD home pages (http://www.lcusd.net/)
    1. Feel free to revise the purpose of your website…
    2. Take a look under the hood… yikes, it's HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language)
    3. Every page a template…
    4. Speaking of templates… (http://www.lcusd.net/lchs/portfolio)
  3. Design Tips
    1. Focus on purpose
    2. Keep it simple
    3. Content is king
    4. Do not use any files over 20KB (graphics, sounds, etc.)
    5. Suit your audience (content, style, etc.)
    6. Suit your audience's computer (monitor size, connection speed, etc.)
    7. Create and view your pages offline (without being connected to the Internet)
    8. Don't worry, be happy!
  4. Which tools are available for creating a home page?
    1. Use of a text editor like Notepad to write HTML (http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/reference/)
    2. Use of an HTML editor such as,
      1. Netscape (www.netscape.com) – free to educators
      2. PageMill (www.adobe.com), FrontPage (www.microsoft.com), Web Workshop (www.sunburst.com), Home Page (www.claris.com), and lots more… - but they cost
    3. Many applications let you save files as HTML (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, HyperStudio, etc.)
    4. A website is a collection of related html documents (home pages) on a public or private server.
  5. Creating, naming, saving and organizing html documents…
    1. Creating
      1. Notepad (www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/courses/html.html)
      2. Word (save as… html)
      3. Netscape (see Creating HTML Documents with Netscape)
        1. From scratch
        2. From a designated template (http://home.netscape.com/home/gold3.0_templates.html)
        3. From an existing home page
    2. Naming
      1. Your main page must be named, "index.html" (without the quotes)
      2. Your pages must be named (a) all lowercase, (b) without spaces, (c) ending with .html
      3. Choose descriptive names that are not too long
    3. Saving
      1. Save all html documents in a folder called "My Website" (or something like that)
      2. This folder can be on your hard drive or a diskette (or better yet, both)
    4. Organizing
      1. Keep all html documents in one folder if at all possible (no nested folders)
      2. Create nested folders (directories) only if needed (i.e., PowerPoint presentation, etc.)
  6. Publishing html documents…
    1. Use a common publishing tool (ftp://www.lcusd.net)
      1. Netscape Communicator - free, but limited
      2. CuteFTP - free for 30 days then costs $35, easier to use than WS_FTP
      3. WS_FTP - free, but a little difficult to use
    2. Publish your html documents to your personal directory on the LCUSD web-server
      1. Account information
        1. ftp://www.lcusd.net/schoolname/username - Publishing address
          1. schoolname is lchs, lce, pcy, pcr or fthls _______________
          2. username is first letter of first name followed by last name ________________
          3. Enter your complete publishing address: ftp://__________________________________________
          4. password is ______________
            1. To change your password, send me an email with your new password
      2. Via modem - use any Internet Service Provider (e.g., Earthlink, LALCNet, AOL, etc.)
      3. Via direct network connection - disable Bess Internet filter (Netscape… Edit… Preferences… Advanced… Proxies… Direct connection to the Internet)
        1. Choose Manual proxy configuration when finished
        2. Network card and connection required for laptop, or
        3. Save on a diskette and use a networked computer from library or lab
    3. The URL of your website is, http://www.lcusd.net/schoolname/username
    4. Contact the school webmaster to activate your link on the staff page.
  7. Maintaining html documents…
    1. If you create new documents with new names be sure to create a link to them
    2. If you create new documents with the same names, they will replace the old documents (and you do not need to create a link…). This comes in handy for frequently updated pages like homework, (just name it "homework.html")
    3. Communicator does not let you (a) delete or rename files on the server (b) create or delete directories on the server
    4. CuteFTP and WS_FTP allow you to do create/rename files and directories on the server
  8. Additional resources
    1. WebMonkey (http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey)
    2. Weave Your Web (http://www.msg.net/tutorial/)
    3. Website Design Tips (http://www.unplug.com/great/)