Making a Placeholder Web Page
When new web sites are in development, it is common to put up a single
page announcing that the web site is under construction. The visitor
is usually invited to return at a later date. This single page is used
to confirm to the visitor that they have indeed reached your website
although it is not ready yet. The temporary page can also give some
basic information. The REAL main page will replace it later.
Accounts, Usernames, and Passwords
By this time, it is intended that all students taking this course have
the account where their website will be located, and that they have a
username and password for that account. We won't know until after the
course starts if this is a realistic goal.
The instructor will need to contact each of you individually to work out
the details of your account. The following assignment assumes that
your account is set up and accessible. If this is not the case,
complete as much of the assignment as you can, then email the instructor
that your placeholder web page is ready except for publishing.
Lesson 2 - Task 3
The main goals of this assignment are:
- To start your 'web' on the local computer.
- To build a suitable placeholder web page, and
- To publish the page to your web server so that it is accessible on the
Internet.
Creating Your Web
A 'web' on your computer is the entire collection of folders and files
necessary for your complete web site.
Click here to see the tutorial on
starting a web using FrontPage. FrontPage will add extra folders and
files that it needs to keep track of the webs structure. Other HTML
editors will have a different method, or may require that you simply create
the folders manually.
It is important that you have a system of folders to be able to organize
your files efficiently. Example folder structures are included in the
tutorial link in the previous paragraph. DO NOT put all of your files into a single folder.
Your final web site could easily have 200 or more files, and keeping them
organized is very important.
Publishing to the Class Site (4sightmagazine.com)
FrontPage
instructions
WS_FTP instructions
Netscape Composer
instructions
Dreamweaver
instructions
General FTP instructions for other FTP
software will be similar to either WS_FTP or Netscape
Composer instructions.
Making Your Placeholder Page
Here is an example placeholder page.
Your placeholder page may look different, and may be done without graphics,
but it needs to have the same level of formality and dignity that your
client will require for the final web site you are building.
In most HTML editors, if you type an email address, the editor will
automatically recognize the formal and make a link to open a visitors email
software. There should be NO misspellings! In the 'Normal'
window, FrontPage will underline in red any words not found in its
dictionary.
It is ok, and in fact desirable to put some information about yourself
on your websites, similar to the 'About the Author' write-up common in
printed books. The key is to say just enough so the readers can get a
sense of who you are, but not to go overboard with excruciating detail.
One photo may be sufficient, 3 or more may be excessive. Remember that the
web site is not about you.
After completing your document, SAVE it, and make backup copies of all
the files used. Make a posting in the Discussion Board that includes a
link to your placeholder page, plus your commentary about this assignment.
This is posting L2-3.
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