TC 310 The Computer in Technical Communication Dr. Jennifer Turns Week 6, Day 1 (11/4)

Day 11 By the end of class, students should be able to: What we’ll do… Identify strategies for strengthening work submitted for grading Identify lessons acquired from the HTML assignment Identify the requirements for assignment 6 (Dreamweaver) Configure Dreamweaver for a single site Use basic Dreamweaver functionality to create/edit a site. What we’ll do… Discuss feedback on grading Explore web pages created for assignment 5 Introduce Assignment 6 (Dreamweaver) Introduction to Dreamweaver

Grading Results… Grades range from C+ to A. Majority of solutions are strong, solid, professional Common areas for improvement Design rationale is missing information – complete rationale: decisions + goal + alternative Design rationale are not improving: better rationales connect to users, connect to global goals, explore a range of decisions (not just decisions about color) Professional activity not different from design rationale Professional activity – items for resume, items for project plan, I spent time on this… Self-directed learning is not evident.

Debrief – Asgn 5 – Effective Links Design Effective Links (Farkas and Farkas, 2000) Be sure that all links indicate that they are links Work to ensure that users will view & notice links Be sure that all links indicate their destinations Making the heuristics work for us Unpack the heuristics For each heuristic, Identify one good example. Identify one instance that could be improved.

Looking backward and forward Where we’ve been Activated UW Web Publishing Gained experience with HTML Practiced publishing HTML files with FTP Practiced debugging HMTL code Emphasized web pages Where we’re going Work on multiple page sites Use Dreamweaver to manage HTML Explore design strategies made easier with Dreamweaver

What is a website. Definition A website can exist A website is a collection of html pages that contain references to each other, and the images, movies, animations, etc. referred to by the pages. A website can exist Locally and Remotely On a machine you work on directly or one you connect to via FTP Accessible or Inaccessible to the Internet Although for external parties to see the pages, they much ultimately reside on a machine connected to the Internet

Planning a website Planning a website consists of determining the number of pages and the relationships among those pages. What benefits are gained by planning the website before starting the actual coding of a site?

Thinking about Dreamweaver.. How does Dreamweaver facilitate web page / web site design?

The rest of the tutorial Getting familiar with Dreamweaver Update the site with simple edits Publish the “TC-Topics-Web” website Extend site with a third page, and publish

Looking Ahead Due Dates Next Class Assignment 6 Includes: Tuesday (11/9) By class Includes: Solution Annotations Next Class In Lab: More on Dreamweaver

Hints Practice moving your site to another location Move the website’s folder (or sites folder), then Redefine the site in Dreamweaver (Site>NewSite). This will ensure that you know are comfortable with the “define a site” functionality. Know where you are saving your site. I recommend that you save your websites in a consistent place (such as a folder called U:\sites\mysite (where mysite represents the name of the folder containing your site) You can save the site almost anywhere If you choose to save the site at another location, be aware of where you are saving it!

More Hints! File references in HTML are case sensitive If a link/URL is not working, check that you have the right combination of upper and lowercase letters! Test (publish) early and often Be successful early Extend your successes