Web Page Templates

Introduction

This directory contains templates for web pages to be used on the HTML Writers Guild's website. Note that these are not public domain, general use web page templates, and cannot be used for anything besides official HTML Writers Guild pages without the written permission of the Guild's Executive Committee.

These pages are designed to comply with the HTML 4.01 specification, as well as using features of CSS2 and CSS1 to provide stylistic enhancements. The styles are designed to degrade gracefully in browsers which do not fully (or even partially) implement CSS; the appearance will not be the same, but the information will be conveyed just as well.

List of Templates

The following template is currently available:

• template-2.4.html (source code)

The following link will always point to the "current" template, regardless of filename or version number.

• current.html (source code)

General Instructions

To use the template, simply copy it into an editor, and make adjustments to the source code as described below:

1. Edit the comments in the header so that they reflect who you are, what the page is, and when it was last updated. Use your administrative address for the maintainer address.

   <!-- TITLE A Web Page at HWG.Org          -->
   <!-- MAINTAINER your-addr@hwg.org         -->
   <!-- UPDATED 12 August      1998          -->
   

2. Jump ahead to the first '##' using your editor's search-ahead function. This will bring you to the page title. Enter the title of the page, and leave the '- the HTML Writers Guild' part in place. (This means you don't need to include the Guild's name in the page title otherwise, in most cases.)

       <!-- ## Title -->
       <TITLE>
         A Web Page at HWG.Org
         - The HTML Writers Guild
       </TITLE>
   

3. Go on to the next '##'. This will bring you to the locator bar, which lets visitors know where they are in the Guild's site. This will conform to the directory structure in pretty much every case. You need to edit the URLs here as well as the text; the first one, though, will always be the link to the Guild's homepage, so leave that one alone. The final entry will not be a link, but the 'short name' of this page (which may not be the full title). Use 'short names' wherever possible; 'Services', 'Resources' 'FAQs', 'Servers', 'Guild Operations', and so on. If you need to delete or add a level, you can. (The 'ntervening level' HTML text is 11 lines long, if that helps with editing.)

             <TD
                 VALIGN=TOP
                 BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC"
                 CLASS="locbar">
   
               <!-- ## Intervening Level(s) -->
   
               <A HREF="/resources/"
                 >Resources</A>
   
             </TD>
             <TD
                 VALIGN=TOP
                 BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC"
                 CLASS="locbar">
      
               <!-- ## Current page, short name -->
   
               A Page at HWG.org
   
             </TD>
   

4. The next '##' after 'Current page, short name' will bring you to the CONTENT section. This, of course, is where you want to put the body of your page -- after you set the title of course. Use the same title as before (sans the '- The HTML Writers Guild', usually).

   <!-- ######### BEGIN CONTENT ################## -->
   
   <H1>
     <!-- ## title -->
     A Web Page at HWG.Org
   </H1>
   
   <P>
     Hi! This is a web page at HWG.Org!
   </P>
   
   <!-- ######### END CONTENT ################## -->
   

5. Once you get past the '## END OF CONTENT ##' comment above, the next '##' you come to will be the maintainer. As above, set this to be your administrative address; delete the 'kynn' address (unless you're me).

          <!-- ## maintainer -->
   
             This page is maintained by
             <A HREF="mailto:your-addr@hwg.org"
                TITLE="Email the maintainer"
                CLASS="mailto"
                            >your-addr@hwg.org</a>.
   

6. Next, you need to indicate when the page was last updated. The Guild style is to use "DD Monthname YYYY', e.g., 10 January 1999, not Jan. 10, '99 or anything else.

           <!-- ## last updated -->
   
             Last updated on 12 August    1998.
   

7. Very short pages only. Some Guild pages are incredibly short in length, and thus you have a huge menubar on the left side, and a little bit of text or a list of links on the right, and it looks bad. In general, these pages should be made longer or eliminated by combining them with other pages.

   However, that may not be advisable in all cases. If a short page must exist, then you can truncate the left hand side menu bar at one predefined point. (Don't truncate either before or after this location; only at the place listed.)

   Line 115 of the template is the point where you may truncate (search for 'cut here' for another way to find it); delete the 48 lines of HTML that follow it to cut the menu bar in half.

   ...
                 </TH>
               </TR>
   
               <!-- Can be cut here (48 lines) -->
   
               <TR>
                 <TH ALIGN="center"
                     CLASS="navbutton">
   ...
   

8. End of instructions. Your page should now conform to the template.

Special Features

Full details coming soon -- things like documenting that DTs are in sans-serif, that external links should be class "external" and email links should be class "mailto", TITLE should be used whenever possible, and you can make submit/reset buttons match the navbar by using class "submit".