A GUIDE FOR WEBMASTERS IN The present caves.org website is a hodge-podge of designs and styles, created by hundreds of volunteers with widely varying degrees of ability, and accumulated since its inception in 1995. It looks like what it is -- a camel (a horse designed by a committee) -- and does not present the coherent image that a preeminent scientific and educational corporation should have. The IT Committee is attempting to remedy the 'look and feel' of the NSS web site by offering a few common elements, styles, and ways of doing things that we hope our webmasters will take advantage of to improve their pages and make them look like they 'belong.'
Using a common banner is an easy way to promote uniformity and cohesiveness to the site. In addition, by bundling with it a standardized table of contents (TOC) and navigation system, changed links can be updated throughout the site by updating one TOC file, saving many webmasters a lot of work, and eliminating dead links. These are 'virtual includes' that call the graphic and dropdown TOC from elsewhere on the site. All you need to do to add one of these to your page is to copy the include statement (everything within and including the <carets>) and paste it into the CODE VIEW of your page, just below the </head> tag. Then you must complete the page by pasting in the Footer (shown at the bottom of this section) at the bottom of your HTML page. The footer takes the place of the </table>, </body>, and </html> tags. NOTE: The file extension of your page must be ".shtml" for the include to work. and copying the headers from this page will not work. Header 2 (moving video) <!--#include virtual="/template/header2.shtml"--> Header 2a <!--#include virtual="/template/header2a.shtml"--> Header 2b <!--#include virtual="/template/header2b.shtml"--> Header 2c <!--#include virtual="/template/header2c.shtml"--> Header 2d <!--#include virtual="/template/header2d.shtml"-->
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Header 2e <!--#include virtual="/template/header2e.shtml"--> | |||||||||||||||||||||
The preferred FONT for all web page text is Tahoma, a standard Microsoft font (as used on this page). Headlines may be in Arial or Arial bold, if desired. There are two NSS BACKGROUND options: The preferred background is /images/nssback.jpg
An alternative background is /images/nssback.gif Set your page background to 'tile' the image will auto-repeat to cover the entire page. Solid color or plain white backgrounds are fine, too. But please avoid black. Yes, that's the color of caves, but it's hard to read text over...
Only this new, official version of the logo should be used on web pages; any and all previous versions should be updated. Presented here are four sizes, in .jpg and .gif format, as well as with outer glow and in black and white. (The .gif versions have transparent backgrounds.) They may, of course, be resized on your page to meet your need. (Always shrink a larger version; never expand a smaller one.) If other versions are desired, contact admin@caves.org. These logos may be simply copied/pasted onto your page, but this will result in redundant images on the site, which can lead to version creep. The preferred method of placing these images is to link to the graphics already in the /images folder. Simply copy/paste the complete URL below the image into the 'Src:' window in your html software, or directly into the page code, as <img src="http://www.caves.org/images/NSS Logo Dale 080505 Tiny.jpg" width="67" height="34" align="top" />. If width and height are not specified, the graphic's actual size will be used, and you can shrink it manually, if needed. Relative URLs may also be used; all IO's are one level below /images, so ../images/NSS Logo Dale 080505 Tiny.gif will work. Remember that if your site is hosted on grotto1 or grotto2, the image will not appear until the page is uploaded and copied over. NOTE: All of these images are at 72 dpi and are only for web use. For print applications, please see www.caves.org/pub/nssnews/nss_graphics.htm
An effective and simple way to organize content on your pages is to use Tables. Any html editor will offer that feature, which is beyond the scope of this brief tutorial. But a table allows you to compartmentalize your content. A table was used for the logos above. If it had borders added, it would look like this: Table cells will conform to the size of their contents, or the size can be specified by dragging. Many decorations options are available, or you can make the table invisible. Ultimately, we hope to give all webmasters access to the /httpdocs/images directory so that everyone can utilize the same graphics easily, and the same images won't proliferate all over the site in individual folders. Until then, you can still 'borrow' any graphic that you see anywhere on the site without creating a duplicate:
This image was copied here in this way...
Want to limit viewing of some of your content (e.g., member roster, newsletters, cave projects) to just your own grotto/group? You can protect this content by requiring a username and password to access it. Just follow the simple instructions here for setting it up. If you have problems or questions with your page editing, we'll do our best to assist you. Just contact webmaster@caves.org (Alex Sproul) Be sure to preview your work in both Internet Explorer and in Firefox (which now has a 25% marketshare), as many elements behave differently in different browsers, and may also be affected by the version. Thanks for being part of the NSS Web Team!
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