Web Design Lesson Set #1

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If you don't do it already, learn to 'multitask' when using your computer. It's often good to have open several instances of your Internet browser. For example, you might want to keep the Assignment page open while you follow other links within Blackboard. You CAN log into Blackboard more than once at a time if you need to.
When following a link, but you don't want to leave the page you're viewing, right click the link and select "Open in New Window".
When you need to contact the instructor, use email first. If you want to talk on the phone, email and include your phone number and the best times to call.

Windows-based computers have as a default setting that most file extensions are hidden. Power users like to know the files extensions they are using. If you are using a computer where you are allowed to change the settings, consider making all file extensions visible at all times. To do this using Windows 98 or Windows ME, start 'My Computer' (or right click the 'Start' button and click 'Explore'), click View, Folder Options, View, then remove the check mark from the box labeled 'Hide file extensions for know file types'.
If you are a Mac user and want to see file extensions, see if you can figure out the right settings to do it.
URL means "Uniform Resource Locator" - which in this course means the address of a web site. See the Glossary for other terms.

Two Types of Link Addresses:

Links can use either absolute or relative addresses. Absolute addresses are comparable to a postal mailing address, such as Robin Doe, 1234 Utopia Lane, Portland, OR 97201, USA. Relative addresses are more like the quick directions you might give: go three houses down, it's the brown house on the left.

Absolute addresses are always certain - there is no other address like it. An example of an absolute web address is http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/Alaska/Area_Guides/.

Relative addresses are easier to type in, and when building your web site they are usually the address type of choice. An example of a relative address is index.htm. BUT! There are millions of web sites out there, and almost every one will have a file called index.htm.

IMPORTANT: If you copy a file that uses relative addresses to a different folder, your links will not work. It's like you gave the 'three houses down' directions, but you are now standing on the wrong street for those directions to have any meaning! Always redo your links if you copy/paste a file. FrontPage will (usually) automatically change links for you if you drag a file to a new location, or if you rename a file. FrontPage will alert you if it cannot re-establish the links.

If you try to edit an animated GIF file in a program that can edit only single-pane GIF files, you may be editing only the first pane of the GIF.
It's a good idea to keep the original files of your digital images. If you have the original, you can always re-create the edited versions of the file. To make it more difficult to accidentally overwrite or erase your original image, make it a 'read-only' file. In File Manager or Windows Explorer, go to the file or files you want to change to be 'read-only'. Highlight one or all of the files, then right-click and select 'Properties'. Find the box labeled 'Read Only', put a check mark in it, then click 'OK'. If there is a check mark there already, the file or files are already read-only. If there's a grayed-out check then some of the files selected are already read-only In this case, click the box once to clear it, then click it again to set all of the selected files as read-only.