Summary of the "seminar-discussion" 7/12/2004:

Editing Homepages and

the Structure of the Homepage of Sedimentology

I. Dunkl & C. Fischer

 

Minor technical recommendations:

- usage of Total Commander

- settings in Control Panel

- file naming convention

What is HTML?

- some definitions

- major components of a HTML text

Which HTML program?

- Arachnophilia

- Front Page

- Dreamweaver

- How to convert formatted text?

- How to convert a table?

- How to make a link?

- How to insert a picture?

Bitmap tailoring.

- How to put on the web what is ready?

Interesting Sediment Homepages

Homepages in the GZG

What have we done already?

And now...

- layout

- content / add maybe "Photo Galery", "Literature for courses", ........

 

Total Commander or Windows Commander

- transparent structure

- parallel, double file list

- comfortable zip & unzip

- F4 shows the real (byte by byte) content of the file

- easy upload to the server

Settings - very much recommended:

My computer / Tools / Folder options / View / Hide file extensions for known file types

DISABLED!

File naming

- no space,

- only small characters,

- extension: html

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) [Tim Berners-Lee, 1990]

best description: REChtml-32.html

<html>

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

<meta name="description" content="Web edition of the Metamorphic Map and Database of Carpatho-Balkan-Dinaride Area">

<meta name="keywords" content="metamorphism, petrology, map">

<meta name="title" content="Web-map of metamorphism">

<title>Web-map of metamorphism</title>

THESE ARE IDENTICAL, JUST IN DIFFERENT DIALECT

<meta name="Author" content="Istvan Dunkl">

</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">

Dear All!

<p>Welcome at the Homepage discussion!</p>

<p>Istv&aacute;n Dunkl</p>

</body>

</html>

Absolute or relative link !!!

To be linked, or to be not linked?

Upload and test, test, test and more test!

Arachnophilia

- very stable, very robust

- not comfortable

--- facit: best for check and for minor modifications

FrontPage

- the real imperialist, FrontPage always knows better what I want to make

- danger! it overwrites the links, puts lines into the HTML code those are visible only for Internet Explorer !!!

- very comfortable

--- facit: not recommended and try to avoid the usege on Sedi common files

Dreamweaver

- parallel windows, excellent for learning and tracing what is in the HTML code

- creates short and transparent code

- a bit unclear handling of exotic chatracters

- very comfortable

--- facit: recommended, probably the best compromise in 2004

Word 97

- easy HTML export of a formatted text

- creates short and transparent code

- avoid tables and figures in the text at the DOC --> HTML conversion

--- facit: recommended

Word 2000 (and also 2003)

- creates extremely long HTML code

- danger! it overwrites the links, puts lines into the HTML code those are visible only for Internet Explorer !!!

--- facit: nightmare, avoid the DOC --> HTML conversion in this way

How to convert a table?

The conversion of tables directly from Excel to HTML format creates huge files and it can be rather difficult to edit them later on.

--- facit: Avoid the simplest method!

The recommended method brings into the HTML code less format, but it remains stable and will be visible also for non-MS browsers.

Steps:

1) export the excel table as a rich text file (.rtf extension)

2) open the rtf file by Arachnophilia, let it convert to HTML

3) save HTML file

4) further editing, formatting and decoration by Dreamweaver

5) decide the size/zooming property and type into the HTML code:

either <table width="95%">

or <table width="700">

How to make a link?

Dreamweaver:

1) copy the target file into the directory structure that (will) exist on the server

2) select the text

3) Link / Browse for file

4) check HTML code: it must be a relative link

How to insert a picture?

1) Decide the rough size of the planned image (the whole screen is ca. 1000 x 1200 pixel, if the web page contains frame the available area can be considerably less). Not advisable to insert images wider than 700 pixel and higher than 400 pixel.

2) Convert the image to the estimated pixcel size by IrfanView or Corel PhotoPaint (or PhotoShop, but it is rather complex).

3) Apply as high grade compression as possible withouth damaging the picture quality.

4) Copy the image file into the directory structure that (will) exist on the server.

Dreamweaver:

5) Insert / Image.

6) Check HTML code: it must be a relative link.

How to put on the web what is ready?

Total/Windows Commander:

1) Net / FTP connect

2) upload newly generated files into the proper directories of the server

3) switch on browser, reload the newly generated files, check layout and that the links are working and check again ...