Day 4

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DAY 4
Build Your Own Web Page

I. What Not to Do (Activity)

www.webpagesthatsuck.com offers a little guidance on what is considered annoying or bad design. View this page before you finalize you page for uploading. Make any adjustments you find necessary. Remember, the ideas offered are only suggestions...you may have a very valid reason for doing something "wrong".

II. Work your plan (Guided Activity)

Remember you purpose, audience, content, navigation, theme, and layout ideas from Day 1? Let's put all that to good use! Create directories if needed, and finish your page.
For grins, we will create an account on Tripod (you can delete later) to use for uploading your page and files.
Go to www.tripod.com and click on the Sign Up Now section. Follow the on-screen instructions, fill out the forms, and select a sub-domain name. It will be http://yourname.tripod.com.
Now, go to the File Manager.
If you need directories, click on Create Directory button as soon as you get to the file manager area --- name them the same (case-sensitive!) as they are named in your hard drive files.
In the file manager area, upload the files to your Tripod server space (don't forget your graphics!) by clicking "single files (8)" in the "upload via" box. You will go to a form/checkbox area that will let you upload up to 8 files at a time. Click browse and go to the drive/directory where your page and its files are stored. When you have all your files listed, or all the boxes are full, click on the "Upload" button. If you make a change to your page and want to reload the changes, be sure to check the little "Allow Overwrite" checkbox before you click upload or it won't replace the old version of the file.
Now in the browser window, type in the URL (http://yourname.tripod.com) for your new page and see if it looks all right. If not, open FrontPage Express, make adjustments, save changes, and then upload it again (don't forget to tell it to overwrite the old version of the file!).

III. Break

IV. De-Bugging (Guided Activity)

Use Dr. HTML http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML to do an online check-up for your page. Click on "Single Page Analysis" and type in the URL for your new Tripod web page. Leave the report format at "Standard" -- it will offer little explanations to you of what is wrong when it generates the report.
Leave all the boxes checked in the middle area -- we're going to do a thorough diagnosis!
Below the table of checkboxes is the area for you to type in your username and password for your Tripod account (remember it is case-sensitive!).
Click GO!
The report will tell you if you have any possible errors. Scroll through and see what you might need to fix.
If you have anything REALLY drastic that you need to take care of, open FrontPage Express, edit your page and then upload it again.

V. Evaluate

Use one or more of the following to critique your site:
Web Evaluation for Primary Grades
http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/edu/rubric1.htm

SCORE Web Page Design Rubric http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/WebPageDesign.html

CyberKids WebPage Design Rubric http://cyberkids.ccsd.k12.wy.us/SV/Business/CompLitWeb/wpdesignrubric.html

VI. Extras and Advanced Goodies

Here are some good starting points for when you are ready to add some spice to your site.

CometCursor (those cute little cows and sunglasses like Shelli has on her site)
http://www.cometcursor.com
DynamicDrive DHTML (effects codes like mouse trailers and clocks for your page)
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/
TheFreeSite Webmaster Freebies (links to free counters, guestbooks, etc.)
http://www.thefreesite.com/Webmaster_Freebies/

MFISD Continuing Education Course

Instructor: Shelli Spruiell
sspruiell@marblefalls.txed.net