Use index.html or index.htm as the name of your primary document. If you follow this guide then the filename will not need to be specified in the URL and, as an added bonus, you effectively block a Web browser from being able to display the contents of your directory. For example, both of the following URLs are correct, but the second requires less typing and prevents a Web browser from displaying a listing of the contents of the directory /myhome/:
Okay: http://www.unt.edu/myhome/mypage.html
Better: http://www.unt.edu/myhome/ (mypage.html renamed to index.html)
- Organize your files using directories/folders. Many organizational strategies exist, but the most common method is to group files according to their subject matter. The actual strategy used is largely a matter of personal preference, but doing so can make managing your Web pages musch easier.
- Sign your work. It is important to say who is responsible for the content, including any copyright information. Include author(s), status of the work (in progress, Internet draft, final draft) and date. In some cases you may want to reference both the author of the original document and the person who is responsible for the electronic version.
- Date the page. This is especially important when the content of the document is time-sensitive, but it is a considerate thing to do for all your readers in any document. There are several preferred ways to format the date (See Formatting below). Choose one and be consistent.
- Don't use tricks to force page formatting. There are clever ways to do indentation, spacing, centering, etc., that will work on a particular browser but won't have the desired effect on all browsers. Your work will be more effective in the long run if you learn and accept the limitations of HTML and work within its constraints.
- Use complete phone numbers (with area code).
- Format for dates. While the US uses mo/da/yr, much of the rest of the world uses da/mo/yr. The form day Month year (for example, 30 August 1995) is unambiguous and allows for the turn of the century. This format could also be used to automatically check for out-dated information.
- Preview your pages. Before you publish your web pages for the entire Internet audience to view, view them yourself locally. Also, unless you explicitly state that your web pages should be viewed with Brand X's web browser, you should preview your pages using as many different web browsers as possible.
- Make your document printable or provide a link to a printable document. You might also provide a link to a version of the document without graphics.
Avoid the use of gratuitous graphics. Inline graphics cannot be viewed by all browsers and they slow download time on most browsers. Keep the size and number of inline graphics down. With a dial-in connection at 14.4kbps, an image of over 35,000 bytes would be noticeably slow to display.
Although the use of images in place of browser-supplied bullets is popular, keep in mind that each image must be individually downloaded from the web server. On a slow connection, many small images may actually take more time to download than one large one.
Identify images for the benefit of all your readers. When using graphics, use the ALT=" [description of picture] " parameter to inform the user of a text-only browser (or a user of a graphical browser on a slow connection who has disabled loading images) what the image is of or about.
Use a color palette of 256 or fewer colors when creating your image. Not only will this significantly decrease the size of the file, but it will also be beneficial to the environment in which the user's browser is running.
Know your audience and keep them in mind when composing HTML pages. It is tempting to include all the latest "bells and whistles" (i.e extensions to the HTML standard), but you should consider that such "enhancements" will not be viewable by some segment of your audience. At UNT, the Netscape Navigator accounts for 80% of the browsers being used to access our Web pages. However, there is a wide variety of versions of Netscape that are being used, and each new version includes extensions that are not backward compatible. Additionally, 20% of 50,000 (the number of unique hosts that accessed UNT Web pages in Jan 1996) is 10,000 quite a large number of persons who probably could not view your "enhanced" Web pages! Caveat utilitor.
Know the medium. People have different expectations of information viewed on a computer monitor than they do of printed information. If the content warrants it, you may want to conduct usability tests as you design your documents.
Keep the content level high. Create web documents that are more than just a repository of links to other documents. There are situations that do justify this type of document, but they should be used sparingly. The most valuable contribution you can make to your readers is to publish original work. Collections of links to the work of others, while a service that can be valuable, is not a substitute for publishing your own original material.
Take advantage of the work of others. While this may at first appear to contradict the previous guideline, reducing redundancy lets you concentrate on original offerings. Rather than duplicating the work of others, take advantage of it. Incorporate links to the work of others into your own pages, when appropriate. Be sure to properly credit the work of others, also.
Order of items within lists. Use chronological order for lists of journals, periodicals, etc., with the most recent as the first. Use alphabetic order for others, unless there is a reason to do something different.
Provide navigational links where possible. Use links to provide a menu at the bottom of the page for easy navigation. If your documents are best viewed in a certain order, each page should have a link to the next page, a link to the previous page, a link to the first page, and possibly a link to the top of the current page. Keep in mind, however, that "page order" is virtually meaningless within the WWW.
Create a table of contents like that at the beginning of this document for organizing long or multi-page documents.
Use meaningful text as a link. It improves the readability of the document. Avoid phrases such as "click here" this is the HTML equivalent of poor grammar. Avoid using "here" as an anchor there are generally more descriptive and meaningful words or phrases that would be more suitable.
Link to context. If part of a document may be cited from outside, permit the user to know its relevance to the whole document. For example, explain an acronym the first time it's used after a link even though it may have been defined earlier.
Use relative URLs with caution. A relative URL does not fully specify the location of the resource it identifies. Relative URLS are concise and facilitate moving documents, as long as entire directories and subdirectories are moved as a whole. However, relative addressing may not work the same way under all browsers.
Use fully qualified domain names when specifying URLs. Within a particular domain (e.g. .unt.edu), a reference to http://www/somedoc.html may work. However, machines outside this domain will not be able to find it. Use the fully qualified domain name (in this case, http://www.unt.edu/somedoc.html) and any host can find it from anywhere on the Internet.
Create browser, computer, and bandwidth independent pages. Make your work accessible to all by designing web documents that do not rely upon a particular web-browser, a specific platform, or an assumption of a high-speed Internet connection. It is important to test your work using as many variations of the aforementioned as you can, including viewing the work with a text-mode browser.
Avoid excessively long pages to minimize download time and ease scrolling difficulties. Large resources especially digitized images, video, and audio files should have an indication of the file size next to the link so end-users can decide if it's feasible or desirable to access this resource.
Only publish what you have time to maintain. Always consider that information ages and will only be useful for a limited time unless updated. Within the WWW stale, out-dated information reflects poorly upon the publisher.
Periodically check links to external sources. The dynamic state of the Internet requires this. What may be a valid link today could change in some fashion and be gone tomorrow.
Use aliases in lieu of real server names when possible. For example, at UNT www.unt.edu is an alias to a specific machine being used as a WWW server. At any time, the web server could be moved to a completely different machine but www.unt.edu will always refer to the correct machine.
Use HTML comment tags liberally. Comment tags provide a highly useful means of internally documenting your work. They are not displayed when the document is viewed by a web browser, but do keep in mind that most browsers do have an option that allows end-users to view the HTML source for the document. In other words, do not place confidential or potentially embarrassing statements in comments.
Use your computer wisely to ease maintenance chores. Create a logical, organized directory/file structure. Use meaningful file names. Create a single top-level directory for common elements such as images.
From NCSA - http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/html-primer.html
From CERN - http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Provider/Style/Overview.html
From NASA - http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/0/docs/heasarc/Style_Guide/styleguide.html
From Willamette - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/cgh/
From MIT - http://www.ai.mit.edu/writing-html.html
From Yale University - http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/StyleManual_Top.HTML
Cobwebs
By Doug Bateman, CWIS Coordinator also known as your Webmaster (dbateman@unt.edu)
This column covers features and resources available through
the University's Campus Wide Information System (CWIS). It was
formerly named "News from the CWIS/Gopher Hole." UNT's Home Page
on the World Wide Web can be found at http://www.unt.edu.
Web-Authoring Guidelines
I'm departing from my usual format for this issue - did I just hear a resounding "Hoorah!"?
Instead, I am going to share with you a Web page I am
preparing to publish. My intent is to use this forum as another
means of disseminating information old technology still has its
uses and to elicit your comments, suggestions, etc. Send me your
comments via E-mail to dbateman@unt.edu, and to really get my
attention use a subject line of "Comment on Web-Authoring
Guidelines".
Web publishers at UNT are responsible for the content of the documents they publish, and are expected to abide by the highest standards of quality and responsibility. Additionally, all publishers should comply wth established publishing policies.
These guidelines are written for the novice or casual
user to follow when designing and creating Web documents to be
published on the World Wide Web. This is not a reference guide to
HTML. The intent of these guidelines is to help you design Web
pages that are functional, can be viewed using a variety of Web
browsers, and that are easy to read and maintain.
Basics
Formatting
Graphics
Content Issues
Using Links
Using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
Device Independence
Maintenance Issues
Links to Information About Style and HTML
Much credit is due to Judy Hallman, webmaster at,
(http://www.unc.edu/) and her staff,
and to (http://www.utexas.edu/teamweb) at
the University of Texas at Austin, for providing the foundation for this
document.
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If you have any problems or questions about this server, please
contact us as soon as possible. Send mail to: www@unt.edu