Module 1 - Introduction to the World Wide Web and Web Site Design
Web Page Development
When we use the term “Web Page Development,” we are speaking about the process of creating the HTML files that become your web site’s pages. The layout and design of individual web pages will be one of your challenges as the web designer for your web projects. Why the word “challenge?” Well, the way pages display can vary from computer to computer depending on what Operating System (Windows or Mac) or what browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari) the person is using to view your pages. Professional web designers spend a lot of time and get big bucks for dealing with these differences – but you as a student probably do not have this expertise. This is OK, since we will concentrate on creating sites that focus on substance over style. It is more important to have links that work and content that is easy to find and use – more important than lots of bells and whistles that add little to the usability of your site. Simple yet effective layout and design is what we are after. In the long run, simple designs have fewer problems when viewed on different platforms or with different browsers.
One secret of page design that we will be using when we build our sites is the use of tables to arrange the content on the pages. When you build a web page, you cannot place items in specific locations on the page unless you use tables or Cascading Style Sheets (CCS). While CCS has advantages over using tables to place content on pages (CCS is a cleaner code, and it is more easily accessible to users with disabilities that use screen reader software), it is technically beyond the scope of what we are trying to do with our web projects. Netscape Composer helps us with this process by creating tables that allow us to have a bit more control to place objects at specific locations on the web pages.
Additional Resources on Web Page Development using Netscape Composer:
- Andy Rush has created a Netscape Composer tutorial that you may find very helpful when it’s time to build the pages: http://www.umw.edu/training/inte/internet/composer/index.htm