Faculty Website, PART 2: EDIT


PART 1: Build

PART 2: Edit (pdf version)
1. Edit the Home page
2. Formatting Tips
3. Change Home page picture
4. Edit navigation bar
5. Edit the Course1 page
6. Add or change graphics
7. Edit additional course pages

Part 3: Publish
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PART 2 Edit

InPart 2 you will:

1. Edit the 'mysite' Home page, replacing generic text with your information.
2. Learn how to change the picture on the Home page.
2. Learn how to modify a link on the Home page.
4. Edit the Home page navigation bar
5. Copy the generic 'course1' page
6. Edit the 'course1 page, replacing generic text with your information.
7. Edit the course1 page navigation bar
8. Add a graphic to the course1 page.
9. Edit additional course pages.


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Edit the Home page

1. With Nvu open, on the menu bar click 'File' then 'Open File'. Browse to the index.htm file (your mysite home page).
Make sure you are looking at the Home page (index.htm) in ‘Normal’ view (the Normal view tab is at the bottom of the Nvu window).
2. Select (i.e. left-click and drag the cursor over) the words “Faculty Member name” and type your name. Click Save.
3. The generic Home page contains only bare-bones text, so you can add your own. To enter your department, place the cursor under the word “Department” and type your information.
4. When you have edited the generic text and replaced it with your own, save the page and click the 'Browse' icon on the toolbar, which tells Nvu to open a Web browser and to display the page, so you can see what it will look like when viewed in a Web browser online.

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Tips for formatting text

Nvu has a complete HELP menu and a downloadable User Guide, but here are a few points about editing text on a Web page in Nvu:
• A Web page is an inherently flexible medium; a paper page is static. Design with flexibility in mind. Your Web page will not look exactly like a paper version.
• Site visitors will be using different Web browsers, so do not expect your Web pages to look the same to all users viewing them.
• You should therefore use minimal text-formatting on Web pages.
• If you need to retain precise text formatting but also make a document viewable on the Web, save the document as a .doc or pdf file rather than an htm file (the users will have to open the document in Word or a pdf viewer, so it is less convenient than seeing it directly in the Web browser as with an htm file).
• You can paste text from a Word document onto a Web page in Nvu. It is best to cut and paste sentences and paragraphs rather than the entire document.
• In Nvu, enter text first, then format the text.
• As you enter text in Nvu, it will automatically wrap at the end of a line.
• If you specifically want to end a line and begin a new one, press shift-return at the end of the line.
• To begin a new paragraph, press return. A blank line is inserted before the paragraph.
• To make a heading bold, select the word and choose Heading 1 from the dropdown menu where it says Body text.
• A style sheet controls the font used on all the pages in mysite. The effects of the style sheet aren’t evident in the Normal view in Nvu, so to see how your pages will look to visitors, open them in a Web browser.

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To change picture on home page

If you are satisfied with the large GHC shield appearing on the right of your home page, skip this section and proceed to the next section (‘Editing the navigation bar’).

If you want to add a picture in the right column of the Home page, first prepare the picture in the appropriate format for the Web (a gif, jpeg or png file). You can also locate and download pictures from Google Images. A picture with a white background will look best on the white background of the 'mysite' pages.


1. Put the new picture in the mysite site root directory on your computer.
2. To delete the large Georgia Highlands logo on the right so you can replace it with another picture, click the logo image once and press delete.
3. To insert a new image, place the cursor in the right-hand column and click once. Click the Image icon on the Nvu toolbar. The image dialog box appears.
4. Click 'Choose file', and navigate to the mysitelocal root directory and select the image you want to insert.
5. To make your page more accessible, make sure the 'Alternate text' radio button is selected, and enter the following: “Picture of faculty member.” (Alternate text is read by screen readers used by people who cannot see graphics).
6. Click OK. The picture appears in the right column.
7. When you have finished editing your Home page, click Preview to see how it will appear when viewed in a Web browser, then save the page.


To edit a link on the Home page

The Home page contains 3 links under the 'Links' heading. You can select each link you don't need, and delete it, or you can make new links.

1. Open the 'index.htm page if it is not already open. To make a new link under the 'Links' heading on your Home page, type a word or phrase that visitors to the page will click to go to another page or Website.
2. You will need the Web address (the URL) visitors go to when they click the new link. The easiest way to get the correct URL is go to the site you are linking to and copy the page URL from the browser's address area.
3. On your Home page, select the word visitors click to go to the URL.
4. On the Composition toolbar, click the 'Link' button. The 'Link Properties' window opens.
5. Enter the full URL of the page in the box. Be sure to include everything in the URL, including the 'http://' part.
Make sure that the check box 'URL is relative to page location' is cleared (you may have no option).
6. Save your work.


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Edit the navigation bar

In this section, you will edit the generic 'course1' links supplied in the generic course 1 page navigation bar, replacing the generic course names with the actual names of your courses.

If you look at this version of this site , you see that each course name on the navigation bar serves to link to a course syllabus -see: http://www.highlands.edu/academics/divisions/smpe/math/tpavluscenco/index.htm.

Users navigate to the course pages by clicking the appropriate link on the navigation bar, which appears on all site pages.

If you teach four courses and you need a separate page for each, edit each course title on the navigation bars on each page. The generic navigation bar has links to four courses: If you need fewer, delete the course links you don’t need. In 'Part 3: Publish', you will turn the titles into working links, but for now you are just type your course names.

1. To edit the home page navigation bar, if your Home page is not already open, on the Nvu menu bar click 'File' then 'Open File'. Browse to index.htm in Nvu and locate the navigation bar. The navigation bar uses a 1x5 table for the course links. If you need to link to more than four courses, you can add another column to the 1x5 table.

2. Select the word COURSE1 in the navigation bar and replace it (i.e. type over the word) with the name of your course.
3. Edit the other links and replace them with your course names.
4. Select and delete any course title you don’t need.
5. Save your changes and close the index.htm file.

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Copy the course1 page

You will need a generic 'course1' page for each course you want on your site. You can either copy the course1 file you have, or request additional copies. If you obtain additional copies, save the copies to the 'mysite' root directory (i.e. the folder on your computer where all the other site files are located).

To copy the 'course1' file:
1. On your computer, navigate to the 'mysite' root directory (the folder where all the site files are).
2. Open the mysite root directory.
3. Right-click on the 'course1.htm' file, hold down the mouse button and choose 'copy'.
4. Place the cursor anywhere within the site root directory, right-click and choose 'paste'.
5. Locate the 'course1.htm copy' file, right-click on the file and choose rename.
6. Rename the file according to which of your courses you will use the file for (i.e. math1111.htm, math1113.htm).
Follow these steps for each course page you need. Remember to rename each copy you make (small case, no spaces).

 

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Edit the course1 page

The generic ‘course1’ page contains bare-bones information you can modify. Some things on the course1 page you will probably want to keep (i.e. Financial Aid policy, etc.). In this section, you will edit the information .

• Edit the Table of Contents
Notice in the picture below that on the right side of each course page there are 'Table of Contents' links that the user clicks to a section of the syllabus further down on the page (for example, 'Course Objectives', 'Grading System', etc).

You can delete any or all of the links in the table of contents that you don't need.
To delete a heading or link, select it and press delete. You can delete all the links if you like. You can also add links to the list. You may want to add links to additional tests or PowerPoint presenations, for example (see: http://www.highlands.edu/academics/divisions/smpe/math/tpavluscenco/math1111.htm

• Edit the syllabus
1. Using NVU, on the menu bar click 'File' then 'Open file' and browse to open the course1.htm file from the mysite site root directory on your computer.
The 'course1' page opens.

2. Locate the heading COURSE1>Syllabus and Course outline, select the text COURSE1 and replace it with the name of the course for which this will be the syllabus and outline page.
3. Locate the heading “CRN.” Place the cursor after the word and click the mouse button to position the cursor, and type the appropriate CRN number.
4. Repeat this for the Semester heading.
5. Locate the “Course Description” heading. Place the cursor after the word “Description” and press enter. You can now enter the course description or paste it from a Word or other word processing program document.
6. Repeat for the other headings.
7. Save your work.

Edit the navigation bar

Now you have edited the contents of the course1 page, you need to edit the course titles in the navigation bar, as you did on the Home page.

1. With the course page you were editing in the previous section still open, select the word COURSE1 in the navigation bar and replace it (i.e. type over the word) with the name of your course.
2. Edit the other titles in the navigation bar (as needed) and replace them with the appropriate course names.

• Change the file name

You also need to change the name of the file you are working on from ‘course1.htm’ to reflect the new name of the course page (for example,: 'math1101.htm').

1. With the modified course1 page open in Nvu (the same page you have been editing in this section), go to File > Save as… The File Save as dialog box opens.
2. In the Save as field, change the ‘course1’ file name (just the name, not the ‘htm’ part) to the new name of the course. When naming files, it is best to use small case, to abbreviate, and avoid leaving spaces in the name.
3. Click save.

• Change the page name
Now you can change the name of the page itself so that it will be the same as the name you entered on the navigation bar. Note that you are not changing the file name (you already did that), you are just changing the page name.

1. With the course page you were just editing still open, locate the ‘Format’ pull down menu on the Nvu toolbar and select 'Page Title and Properties'. The 'General information' dialog box opens.
2. In the Title box, enter the new name of the page to reflect the new title.
3. Save your changes.
4. To see how the new page will look to users, click the Browse icon on the Nvu toolbar to open a Web browser. You will see that the text is now displayed in the Verdana typeface, which makes it easy to read and consistent with every page on their site.

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Add or change graphics

You can add a picture on the course page. The picture can be any size, but it will fit best in the right column on the course page (under the navigation links in the right column) if it is about 200 pixels wide. The column expands to fit larger pictures. You can put any picture you like on the in the body of any page.

1. Your picture must be in a format for the Web (gif, jpeg or png).
2. Save your picture in the mysite root directory.
3. In Nvu, click 'File' then 'Open File' and browse to the page on which you want to add or change a graphic .

4. If you are adding a picture in the right column of a course page, place the cursor on the line after the last link.
5 . On the Nvu toolbar, select Insert > Image from the pulldown menu.
6 . In the dialog box, where it says “Choose file,” navigate to the picture you want to insert on your computer (it should be in the mysite root directory).
7 . In the Alternate text field, type “faculty member picture” (or the text that will used by screen readers for low-vision site users when they visit the page and encounter your graphic).
8 . Click OK, and save the page.
9 . Check the page in a Web browser.

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9. Edit additional course pages

You have now edited the navigation bar and page contents for the 'mysite' Home page and for one course page. If all you need are the Home page and one course page, you can proceed to the next section ‘Publishing the site' to make the links work and to publish your site.

If you need more than one course page, you need to edit the generic course pages in the same way you edited the page in the section above.

Here are the steps for each new course page you need: Follow the steps for each course, etc, and remeber to use the correct course name!

1. In NVU, open the new course page.
2. Change the 'COURSE>Syllabus and Course outline' name at the top of the page.
3. Edit the page contents.
4. Edit the navigation bar, replacing the generic COURSE2 word with the current course name.
5. Change the name of the page.
Locate the ‘Format’ pull down menu on the Nvu toolbar and select Page Title and Properties. In the Title box, enter the new name of the page to reflect the new title.
6. Change the name of the file from ‘course2.htm’ to the new name of the course page and save it.

Check the new pages by opening them in a Web browser.
Finally, remember that you must edit all the course names in the navigation bar on each new course page.

Now you are ready to make the words in the navigation bars link to the appropriate courses, and after you check that everything works in a browser, you will publish your pages. To do this, proceed to Part 3: Publishing the site.

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