1. Website Building Tips By Jennifer L. Bowie

2. Starting Out Create a file folder in your web space (your public_html file on your H drive/elocker is one place) for the site –Since you will be creating 3 websites for this class you might want to go ahead and create 3 (say mini, port, & final) Helpful hint: for any file to be visible online it has to be in your public_html folder. Anything in this folder can be read by anyone with the desire and web access (so be careful)

3. Naming your files Do: –Use all lowercase –Use only letters & numbers or the ~_-or. –Make sure the web pages end in.htm or.html (Dreamweaver uses.htm) –Make file names short & easy to remember (and type) Do not: –Use a space in your file names or else the pages will not load

4. Dreamweaver hints Always set up the manage sites when working on a site –On your personal computer you will only need to do this once per site –On the school computers you will need to do this each time you log into the computer (apparently these settings are not saved in your account) Always use the publish function on Dreamweaver to publish your Dreamweaver files, not doing so will break links and cause all sorts of mayhem in your site

5. Management hints Save all your files for the same project in the same folder— this will save much heartache! DO NOT change the names of your files or folders, unless you are using the Dreamweaver manage sites function (and even then, not a good idea) –Changing file & folder names will mean that you have to change any link to that file or anything in that folder. Not fun! DO NOT move files once you have used them in your website, unless you are using the Dreamweaver manage sites function (and even then, not a good idea) –This is like renaming things—doing so will mean that you have to change any link to that file or anything in that folder, plus any link to this file. Also not fun. Always check your website on someone else’s computer (and not logged in via your account on the school computers) to make sure it is not linking to something on your hard drive or h drive

6. Names & Titles Each page should have a file name & a title, and these are not (and should not be) the same thing –File name: what you save it as –Title: this is the name of the page (like the title of a paper, not what the file name is of the paper when you save it). This will: appear in title bar of web browser be what people see when they bookmark your page be used to “judge” your page by search engines So, your title should be descriptive, concise (no more ~60 characters), & relevant

7. Have Fun & Good Luck! Don’t forget the Dreamweaver Tutorial—it’s a great resource on how to publish your site! http://www.student.gsu.edu/%7Eahatter1/DreamweaverTutorial/i ndex.htm http://www.student.gsu.edu/%7Eahatter1/DreamweaverTutorial/i ndex.htm Also, make sure you fully read and understand Williams & Tollet Chapter 3-4. This will greatly help and save much heartache.