COPY OF EMAIL
TO: TESL II
FROM: ROGER THOMPSON <rthompso@english.ufl.edu>
SUBJECT: Miniactivity 9--Reader friendly homepages

Tesl2ers Here are some more easy things you can do to make your homepages look nice and be more reader friendly. When you have tried these things out, return this message with a note of where I should look to see what you did. All of these things can be done with the simple click of the mouse using your Netscape Gold or Netscape Communicator

1. Lines. Put the cursor where you want the line and push the line button in your editing tool bar at the top. If you click on the line to "select" it, you can then push the "properties" button on the tool bar or the "properties" word at the top and then specify the width of the line, shadowing, length of the bar, etc. Try some experiments. The lines above and below the "Tman's Tesol Page" title were created with experimentation with centering, lengths, widths etc.

2. Tables. Tables are sometimes useful for displaying schedules, data, pictures, links, columns, or whatever your imagination desires. Look at our class syllabus linked through Tman's Place for an example. Do make a table simply click on the button that looks like a window with 4 panes in your editing tool bar. You'll have to think out in advance what the table will look like so you can specify the right number of squares. As you type inside the squares, they automatically size themselves. Experiment a bit and you'll see how to make it work best for you. Note that you can specify the width of the borders, the color for the background, and other things. The background color only shows in cells that have content. (I had to put a . in the empty cells of our schedule so the color would appear). Remember, you can always change things by selecting the table and then pushing "properties".

3. Targets. A handy way to help readers move around your page, especially those who have been to your page before and want to find something fast without scrolling, is to create an index line to appear in the opening screen. That is done in the same way a creating links. In your editing screen, scroll down the text to spots of interest (usually section heading). Highlight a key word with the mouse then push the target button (it looks like a tire with a colored stick poking out the rim). It will then ask you what to call the link. Call it something simple but unique (ie don't call two targets the same thing). Once you have specified the targets, go back to the top and type out the index. Look at Tman's Tesol Page for one way to format it. After you have typed out the index, go back and highlight each entry in the index and click on the link button (the chain). You will see the names of the targets you created listed in a little box. Simple select (click on) the name and the name with the proper coding will appear in the link name box.

To create a "back to top", so just the opposite. Select a word or picture at the top of the page and make it into a target. Then scroll through your text and type in "top" or "return to top" or whatever at the end of the different sections. Then highlight these and create a link to the target you selected at the top. Save, reload your browser and try things out to be sure everything works.

A reminder, when in the editor, it you want single spacing when you push the enter key, simply push shift while you push enter, otherwise you get double space. This is handy to know for titles, boxes in tables, etc.

Now, wasn't that easy?
Happy Homepaging
Tman
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