Cameron University
Web Guidelines

12/05/95

General Guidelines
Technical Guidelines
Glossary of WWW Terms

University General Guidelines
for Constructing Home Pages

	Spelling and grammar must be correct.
	Text and graphics must fit on the screen (text should not run off the right side of the page or have inappropriately placed breaks in text.
	Be considerate in selecting the font size for your text. Make certain that it is easily readable on your background selection. Be considerate of your background and check it out on two or three other monitors to verify that your home page looks good on any client, not just the one you are using for development.
	DO NOT create a link to a non-existent address. The link may be listed, but do not allow it to be a selectable option until you have the link available for access.
	Be concise with links - provide a good descriptive of the link. This will help clients avoid wasting their time if the topic is of no interest.
	Do not create excessive links just to be creating them.
	Sharing graphics within the departments and schools is highly recommended. Always provide an alternate (ALT) reference for all graphics. This will accommodate non-graphical browsers.
	Keep information current and accurate. Pages not updated within one year will be deleted from the system. Personal home pages of faculty and staff will be deleted by Computer Services upon termination.
	CU seal background should be used for all official home pages. Backgrounds for personal home pages are the developers choice.
	Use the file name index.html to refer to your starting HTML file. References to any level of the CU web server will default to the HTML file index.html.
	The file name extension .html must be used for all HyperText Markup Language (HTML) files.
	Unix is case sensitive. In creating file names, use lower case characters for file references.
	All home pages must have an e-mail field to the maintainer of the page.
	Use descriptive titles for your home page. This is a must for the INDEX option we have implemented. For example: <TITLE>Jane Doe's Home Page </TITLE>

As the various home pages are created, it is important that individuals and units not present information as official University policy unless it has been approved through existing channels. For example, it would be inappropriate for a professor to write a course description and put it in a personal home page if that description was not the same as the one approved by the University administration and Regents.

The current approval structure of the university will include electronic information. Specifically, the department chairs are responsible for departmental home page content, deans for school home pages, and unit heads for their areas of responsibility. Approval for the University home page will be through the President or his designee. In any of the cases, the unit heads may choose to appoint a committee to make recommendations.

The top 10 informational items faculty suggest for personal home page are:

A template for developing faculty home pages will be available during the Spring 1996 semester.

An excellent source for HTML programming guides:

http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Data_Formats/HTML/Guides

Please contact Julie Duncan (ext. 2285 or julied@cameron.edu) or Debbie Goode (ext. 2255 or debbieg@cameron.edu) with questions concerning home page development.

	Use the file name index.html to refer to your starting HTML file. References to any level of the CU web server will default to the HTML file index.html.
	Use the file name extension .html not .htm for HTML files.
	Unix and Windows95 are case sensitive. In creating file names use lower case characters for file references.
	Do not create a link that does not currently exist. Items that are not available may be listed on your page but not selectable.
	At the bottom of the page have a mailto field referencing the maintainer of the page. Page maintained by <a href=mailto:your_account_name@cameron.edu> Your_Name,</a>Your_Title,Your_Department.
	Use descriptive field references. Descriptive references are needed for the INDEX option. The Index button on the University home page is created by using the TITLE field of all the index.html files. Instead of: <TITLE>My Home Page</TITLE> use: <TITLE>Jamie Smith's Home Page</TITLE> Be sure that the first letter of your title is a capital and avoid a space in the first position of your title.
	When using graphics use an ALT reference for non-graphical users. <IMG SRC=/image/whatever.jpg WIDTH=588 HEIGHT=170 ALT="Welcome to Jamie Smith's Home Page">

IMAGES DIRECTORY

An images directory should exist in the school/department directory area. This directory should contain graphics that are common to school/department area. For example: to access the liberal arts graphics use:

<IMG SRC="/academic/liberal_arts/images/file.gif">

The directory images exists at the top level of the web server tree. The directory contains common university graphics. In your HTML to use the default Cameron University background use:

<BODY BACKGROUND ="/images/seal.jpg">

BUTTON BAR

To use the common clickable button bar graphic as seen on the main university pages use the reference:

<A HREF="/cgi-bin/imagemap/buttonbar">

<IMG SRC="/images/buttonbar.gif" ISMAP ALT=" "></A>

STAFF/FACULTY/STUDENT WEB PAGES

For staff/faculty/students to set up their web page a directory public_html must be created in their home directories. Create an index.html for the home page. Access by the web server to the user's account must also be set up.

To set up the public_html directory and web server access to your directory do the following:

1. Login to your account on the HP9000.

2. At the system prompt type: MakePublicHtml

Additional e-mail instructions are then sent to the user.

To refer to your home page in the public_html directory use a reference such as: