Transcript Intro to Web Site Design and Microsoft FrontPage

Introduction to Web Design and
FrontPage
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Web design software
Web design issues
Preservation of format
Fonts
Web site performance
Web site content
Web site issues
Related software
Web design tools
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INTRO TO WEB SITE DESIGN
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Web design software options
• General word
processing software
(e.g., MS Word)
• Low-end web editors
• Export from other
programs—e.g.,
– MS PowerPoint
– Databases
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• Higher-end web design
software—e.g.,
– DreamWeaver
• Highly flexible
• More difficult to use
– MS FrontPage
• Easier to use
• Automatic standard
formatting
• By default somewhat
less sophisticated
– Adobe GoLive
• Highly integrated with
Acrobat, PhotoShop,
and other Adobe
products
INTRO TO WEB SITE DESIGN
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Editing Web Sites
• WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You
Get”
• Actual HTML code
– May be most efficient way to find a
problem
– Can insert “code” received elsewhere
– Used to edit non-visible parts of content
(e.g, “meta tags”)
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Tools Used in Conjunction with Web
Design Software
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Image editing tools (e.g., PhotoShop)
Animation tools (e.g., Java, Flash)
Databases
Adobe Acrobat (PDF files for preserved
format)
• Visual Basic
• Script languages
– Java
– CGI
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General Web Design Software (e.g.,
DreamWeaver or FrontPage)
• Basically sophisticated word processing
program intended for creating web sites
• Text and image editing optimized for online
display
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Issues in Web Site Design
• Speed and bandwidth
use vs.
– Reliability
– Features
• Video streaming
• Games/animation
– Aesthetics—e.g.,
• Graphics quality
(resolution)
• Letter text vs. text
as graphic image
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• Consistency of
appearance across
– Browser software,
settings
– Computer systems
(font availability,
display mode)
• Re-use of “objects”
• Security issues
• Effort vs. quality
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“Heavy” Users of Bandwidth
• High resolution pictures
– Lower resolution can often be used on
screen than would be needed on paper
• Other graphics
• Video streaming (buffering required)
• Audio (buffering required)
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Web Site Content Page Types
• “Index” page
• Information
– Organizational
– Product description
• Sales
• After service support
– FAQ
• Purchase tools
– Shopping cart
– Inventory information
– Shipping calculator
– Customer account
– Check-out
– Order tracking
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• Graphics
– Simple images
– Video “streaming”
• Recorded
• “Live” camera
• Databases
• Games
• Group forums
– “Chat”
– User forums
• Feedback or other “forms”
• Links
• Sound/entertainment (e.g.,
Media Player, Real Player)
• Voice chat
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Potential Problems
• Font substitution or alteration
• Displacement of
– Text
– Graphics
• Malfunctions
– Animation
– Database interface
– Other transactions
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Fonts
• Monospace (e.g.,
Courier) vs.
proportionally spaced
(e.g., Arial, Times
Roman)
• Font sizes
– Measured in
“Points” (average
length and height of
a letter)
– All fonts with the
same “size” are not
equally large!
(Times Roman is
more “efficient”)
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• Serif vs. sans-serif
– Serif fonts have
sharp edges (e.g.,
Times Roman)
• Easier to read for
longer
documents—less
eye strain
– Sans-serif lack
sharp edges
• Generally look
more pleasant
• Used for
headlines
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Some “Standard Fonts”
• Courier (not used much in contemporary
documents, but has been found effective in
direct mail)—looks like a typewriter
• Times Roman—default on many programs
• Arial (Helvetica)—common sans-serif font
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Fonts Usually Standard in Windows
(But Not Necessarily Macintosh)
• Comic Sans
• Letter gothic (monospace)
• Trebuchet (proportional, hybrid serif/sansserif)
• Book Antiqua (proportional, serif)
• Century gothic (proportional, sans-serif)
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Preserving Formatting
• Use of “standard” fonts
• Testing across
– Multiple browsers
– Computer types and configurations
• Use of invisible “tables”
• Use of Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files
– Good for preserving document formatting
while avoiding large task of reformatting
– May require the user’s browser to open
Adobe Acrobat (resulting in delay)
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Web Site Structure
• Index (“root”) file
• Subdirectory files (e.g.,
http://www.larsperner.com/mktg476 takes the surfer
to the index file in the subdirectory “/mktg476)
• In UNIX, directory slashes are forward slashes
rather than the Windows backslash (\)
• Other files in the “root directory” (e.g.,
http://www.larsperner.com/past_courses.htm goes
to the file “past_courses” in the root directory).
These files addresses usually contain an explicit
suffix (e.g., .htm, .html, .cgi)
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Web Site Structure II
• Other files that may be found on web
servers
– Server “extensions” (files used to allow
for features not available in simple HTM)
– Graphical files
– Animation files
– “Script” files
• Files created by web servers
– “Log,” visitor, or “transaction” files
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Secure vs. Non-Secure Files
• Files found in http:// domain addresses are
usually NOT secured against interception
• Files found in https:// domain addresses are
usually encrypted
• Secure files require special setup of server
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Web Site Implementation
• Web site hosting
– Many choices available
– Issues
• Features offered
(e.g., extensions,
video streaming,
support, e-mail,
database support,
mailing lists)
• Domains,
subdomains allowed
• Storage space
allowed
• Bandwidth transfer
included
– 500 MB space w/ 10MB
monthly transfer
available as low as
INTRO TO WEB SITE DESIGN $48.00/year
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• Domain name registration
– Usually $8-50 per year
– Trademark issues and
disputes
– Domain names
available
– Value by type of domain
• Premium: .com, .net
• Valuable: .org, .tv
• Less valuable: .info,
.us, .biz
– Country regulations
– Some registrars:
usacheapdomains.com,
directNIC.com
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Some Tools
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Templates
Style sheets
Objects
Scripts
– Java, cgi
• Links to other programs
– Databases
– Visual Basic
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site
• Enter FrontPage
• On the right side of the screen, click on
“Navigation”
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 2
• Select File, new, page
or web
• On the right side of the
page, click on “Empty
Web.”
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 3
• Enter an appropriate file path and name
(e.g., a:\companyweb )
• Double-click on “One page web”
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 4
• On the left side, double-click on “Navigation”
again
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 5
• Single-click on the icon near the center of the
screen
• Single-click on the default name “index.htm”
and type in a desired name for the site (e.g.,
“Profit Co., Inc.”).
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 6
• Single-click on the icon again to make sure it is
highlighted
• On the top screen menu, click on the “dog earned
page” icon to create an additional page “below.
Click again as needed to create the desired number
of pages.
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 7
• If you clicked three times, you should have
something like this:
• You can now change the descriptions of the
pages as previously described to get something
like this
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 8
• By default, FrontPage
assigns meaningless
names like “New Page
3” to pages created
this way. To assign a
more meaningful
name, double click
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 9
• Single click on one of the default meaningless
names and type in a more meaningful one
• For example, you could rename this file to
“products.htm.” Be sure to retain the same
extension (in this case .htm) for the filename.
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Starting a New FrontPage Web Site,
Step 10
• To work with a file, click on the “Navigation”
icon on the left and then double-click on the
icon of the file you want to edit.
• Within the file itself, you can edit much like
you would do with a word processor. Over
the next three sessions, we will study
special techniques to enhance the content.
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