Creating Research-Based Web Sites with Netscape Composer

Adding Content to Your Site

When you build your site, if you have completed a Web Site Structure Map and the Web Site File Structure, the step of building your pages and setting up the navigation system should be a well defined task of creating the pages you specified in those documents and then linking those pages together.  This was what we did in the Lab Session and in Module 3.  Once those parts are completed, you are ready to add the content to your web site’s empty pages.

“Content” is the information that you put into your web pages.  It can be text, images, tables, graphs, lists, multimedia files, etc.  Text content is much easier to cut and paste into your pages than it would be to create the text from scratch by writing it directly in the Netscape Composer HTML pages.  Generally, using a word processing program is the best way to create your electronic text.  One major benefit of doing it this way is that it allows you to take advantage of more advanced spelling and grammar checking systems than those built into Composer.  Another is that it allows you to concentrate exclusively on the creation of your text content separately from the building the web pages.  This can allow you to focus on the content without the distractions that can arise when building the web pages.

If you use a word processing program to create your text content, here are some tips that may make the process easier for you:

• Don’t format the text in the word processor.  What does this mean?  Don’t spend a lot of time doing things like bolding, indenting, or visually arranging the text - you are better off doing this kind of formatting manually in Composer to have the formatting appear correctly in the web pages.
  
  
• Save your word processed documents as a .txt (text) documents.  This format removes most of the formatting that is applied in a word processed document.  By using this format when you cut and paste your document, you will not have any stray formatting being copied from your word processed document that could potentially make it difficult for you to format the text on the web pages the way you want to.

When formatting the pasted text in your web pages, here are some additional tips to follow:

• Stick to a standard font.  Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana and Courier are all fonts that will work well from browser to browser, platform to platform.  If you use a non-standard font, you are at the mercy of the user’s browser to make substitutions for any fonts that the user doesn't have loaded on their computer – and sometimes the substitutions result in HTML pages that do not display as you originally intended.
  
  
• Avoid getting too fancy with page layouts.  The more formatting you put on a page, the more opportunity you have for it not to display correctly in different browsers or platforms.
  
  
• Keep it readable.  Large blocks of text should be broken up with paragraph breaks, images, charts, etc.  It is difficult for users to read large banks of text, especially if the text block is the full width of the screen.  Pages that are vertically longer and have narrower columns of text are easier for users to read on screen, even if users have to scroll the pages to see everything.
  

Images and graphics add impact to your site.  They also break up large sections of text that you will be creating in your research-based web sites.  Images should be optimized for the web by reducing their size, and converting them to the appropriate file type - .jpg or .gif (.jpg images are good to use for photographs that have millions of colors, like photos from books or snapshots, .gif files are good to use for images that don’t contain that many colors, like logos, cartoons, charts, graphs or drawings. 

If you need to scan a picture for your site, use the scanner settings that are appropriate to create images for a web site.  Typically this means scanning images at around 96 dots per inch (dpi).  Scanning at resolutions greater than 96 dpi is not necessary for use on the web since most monitors cannot display images scanned at the higher resolutions.  By scanning at higher rates than 96 dpi, you increases the size of the file and the time it takes for user to download that file in your web pages. 

Jerry Slezak has a scanner in his office ( Monroe 206) with the software needed to scan and reduce your images.  The scanner in the Monroe 105 lab is also equipped with similar equipment.  Jerry is happy to set up an appointment to help you learn the process of scanning photos and images for your web site – but please do not wait until the last minute to ask for this assistance.

You can also locate images on the internet and use them in your sites as long as you properly cite the source of the image.  One advantage of this method is that the images are usually already properly sized and optimized for quick downloading in a web page.  Google Image Search allows you to use Google to search for images.  Google Image Search is located at http://www.google.com, then click on the “Image” link just above the box where you type in your search terms.  Dr. McClurken also recommends the Library of Congress web site for images – it is located at http://www.loc.gov .

Other types of content that you might want to add include multimedia files.  To add these types of files, you may need some special assistance.  You also need to remember that the file space in your H: /Home drive is not endless and multimedia files can take up lots of space.  However, good multimedia files integrated into web sites in the proper way can add a depth and richness beyond what images and text alone can achieve.