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About the Web Guide
OmniUpdate @ De Anza
Web News and Tips
Web Site Publishing Process
Creating Your Web Site
Using Your Web Account
Web Site Template
Accessibility Standards
Web Development Software
Definitions
Getting a Listserv
Appropriate Use
Web Team
Report Broken Links
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Web Publishing Guide
Creating Your Web Site
This section is designed to help you develop Web sites
that are easy to maintain and use, as well as project a positive image of De
Anza College. It contains important information you need to know before you
begin your Web project. See helpful hints for additional
information.
A. Directory Structure
Please keep your content in sub-directories named according to the list below.
A general principal to follow is to group similar items into their own directories.
All directory and file names must be lowercase.
- Images—Put all GIF and JPEG files—any images for your Web site—in
a directory named images.
- Media—If your site contains any type of audio, video, Shockwave, Flash,
or other multimedia files, they should go in the media directory.
- PDF—Adobe PDF files should go in a pdf directory.
B. Naming Files
- All directory, HTML, image and multimedia file names should be short (try
to limit to 20 characters) and lowercase (i.e., campustree.jpg).
No spaces or special characters are allowed, although underscores and dashes
are acceptable. We recommend avoiding the use of underscores because they
make links appear to have spaces in them (i.e., my_page.html).
This can confuse Web site visitors who write down a Web address and try to
type it in later. The De Anza server is case-sensitive; if you use mixed
case
file names, problems can occur. It's better to be consistent so no one has
to remember which letters are capitalized.
- Name your files so they are descriptive and easy to understand. Remember,
people as well
as computers read file names. On the Web, your file names become URLs. The
easier your URL is to remember, the easier it is for people to find your
site
and tell others about it!
- Your site's home page should always be named index.html. This will allow
the Web
server to send the appropriate page even when the user knows only part of
the URL.
Example:
If a user enters this URL into their Web browser:
http://www.deanza.edu/library
They will be taken to this page:
http://www.deanza.edu/library/index.html
If "index.html" doesn't
exist because the site owner named the home page "home.html" (or
any other name), the user will see a list of files in your directory instead
of your home page.
C. Visual Appearance
We encourage you to develop a site that is creative and stimulates visual
interest.
We also encourage the use of design elements that will establish a thread of
continuity throughout the De Anza Web site. It is important to make it easy
for a visitor to recognize that he or she is exploring a site that is part
of
De Anza College. To accomplish this goal, we ask that you use the Web
site template to create your site.
- All content must maintain the positive image and reputation of De Anza College.
- Designs and images must not display any illegal or unauthorized copyrighted
material.
- A consistent look and feel should be maintained throughout your site.
- The official De Anza College logo must be placed in the upper left-hand
corner of the Web page. You may download the logo for
use in your digital and print publications. The logo is copyrighted and may
not be altered except to resize it to fit your publication. If you scale the
logo, the proportions must be the same as the original version (i.e., do not
stretch it). JPEG files can be reduced, but cannot be enlarged without degrading
the quality of the image.
- When a person views any Web page on the De Anza College Web site, he or
she should immediately be able to answer these questions:
- Is this the De Anza College Web site?
- What is the page title?
- Where is the local navigation?
- Where is the global navigation?
- Design your pages to be viewed correctly at a screen resolution of 800x600.
If a visitor to your site will need to scroll down the page to answer any
of the questions in #5 above, the design needs to be modified.
D. Navigation
- To enable visitors to find information easily, each site must contain an
organized navigation structure appropriate for its size and scope. This navigation
should allow the visitor to return to your site's home page from any page
within your site and should be placed in a consistent location on each page.
The navigation structure is part of the
Web site template. If you use the template, you don't need to worry about
this. Your site's navigation should:
- Tell people what is available on the site
- Help them quickly get to the parts they want
- Make it easy to request additional information
- Every page should contain the following elements:
- An e-mail link to the site owner
- A last updated message (This will automatically be generated if you
are using our template.)
- A navigation component linking back to the De Anza's home page. (This
is included in our site template.)
- The name, address and phone number of De Anza College. (This is included
in the template.)
- If you would like assistance in making sure that your navigation scheme
is user-friendly, please contact the Web
Team.
E. Content
- The content of each site is created and owned by the department or individual
who has requested the site, or who is responsible for that area of the college,
unless other arrangements are made in advance with the Web
content developer.
- All hyperlinks must be functioning.
- A Web page, including all images, should total no more than 50K in order
to accommodate users with slower connections and older equipment. Many HTML
editing programs can tell you the total size of your page.
- All development tools, technologies and programming languages used on the
De Anza Web site are subject to review by the college Web coordinator.
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