Introductory Workshops

1. Studio
2. Network
• Bookmarks
• NT Network
• Exchange Server
3. Software
   • Databases
   • Graphics & Text
   • Web Authoring

These quarterly workshops introduce Transcriptions RAs, associates, affiliates, and interested members of the department to our studio, network, and software.

Studio

The Transcriptions Studio is configured following our Paradigm for Humanities Web Design Studio. The studio is a dual-use facility where computing work occurs on high-end personal computers and ancillary equipment stationed at one end of the room while meetings and small classes can occupy a seminar table at the other end. Currently, equipment consists of six 450Mhz PCs with large monitors, a laptop, a scanner, a black-and-white printer, a color printer, and a multimedia projector. Plans call for the addition of another 4-6 PCs in the future.

Network

The Studio computers run Windows 98 and are networked to a dedicated Windows NT server running Microsoft's Backoffice suite. Besides providing Web access, the Backoffice suite allows for collaborative sharing of files and networking through the Exchange Server messaging environment–a medium for threaded discussions and other permission-controlled collaborative forums.

Bookmarks

Our home on the web is http://english.ucsb.edu/transcriptions. You can find the homepage and other project-related pages in the bookmarks file in Netscape. The bookmark file on each of the studio machines is a single, common file in the "Server Shared" resource. This means that you can add, rearrange, delete bookmarks on any machine and have the results show up on all machines. There is an official part of the bookmark file for Transcriptions and then an unofficial part for individual users.

NT Network

We can share files (both from client to server and client to client) as well as print from any machine. Each of our studio machines (English-1, English-2, English-3, etc.) is logged on by default under the name "studiouser#" (where "#" is the number of the machine). They all share the common password of "studiouser98." So if you have to reboot or relog on the English-2 machine, for example, you would use "studiouser2" and "studio98." The exception is the English-1 machine, which logs on with the numberless username of "studiouser." Log on instructions are pasted to each machine.

At the top of the desktop screen of each machine you'll find the following icons: "My Documents," "Temp," "Eng-# Shared," (for each computer), "Laptop1 Shared" and "ENGLISH NT Server." "My Documents" is the default folder on the local machine where Windows puts content. "Temp" is a directory into which people's personal desktop debris is periodically swept; it can also be used for any temporary purpose. The "Eng-# Shared" and "Laptop1" folders are so-called "peer-to-peer" shared folders. If you are on the English-1 machine, for example, you will have a physical folder on your desktop called "Eng-1 Shared." But you will also have read/write access to the equivalent folder on all the other machines in the studio. So you can move any file to your shared folder for other machines to copy or whatever. The "ENGLISHNT Server" shared folder is your access to the branch of shared resources on the server.

As a Transcriptions member, you can also log on under your individual account to gain more privileges on the system (while retaining the privileges of studiouser#). PLEASE remember, however, to log off and log on again as "studiouser#" when you are done. The rationale for differentiating between general studio users and Transcriptions users is as follows. A studiouser is anyone who has physical access to the studio (which will be a widening pool as time passes). Anything kept in a shared folder to which "studiouser#" has read/write/delete access is therefore insecure and not private. As a Transcriptions user logged on under your individual username and password, you will have access to extra shared folders. One is named "TransWeb": the root of the Transcriptions Web branch. The "transcriptions" directory is actually an alias for the directory on the server named"TransWeb." Files in this directory, and any subdirectory created in it, can be read by anyone but only written or changed by users in the Transcriptions group.

Exchange Server

In addition to the shared folders on the server, there are also shared "public" folders in the Exchange Server. Transcriptions members (and any student in our courses that we approve in the future) can have access to the Exchange Server messaging environment irrespective of whether they have an actual NT account giving them read/write access to actual directories or files on the physical server. This is all at first glance confusing. The best way to think of it is as follows: the NT account allows you to create, revise, or delete files on the server much as you would on your personal computer. "Exchange Server," is a messaging application like E-mail (but with extra power) that runs on top of NT. It allows people with Exchange Server accounts to post and respond to files in the messaging environment whether or not they have access to the underlying system environment. Exchange Server folders, in other words, are like the folders you keep in Pine. NT folders are like the actual directories on your personal machine.

You can access your Exchange Server space through the Microsoft Outlook or Inbox icon on each studio machine, provided you log on under your individual account. This allows you to set permissions on private folders you create in the Exchange. You can also access the Exchange Server through any web browser at http: english.ucsb.edu/exchange/. Follow the instructions in the illustrated on-line manual for students using the Exchange Server in classes. Our shared discussion space on the Exchange Server is organized into the following "public folders":

1) Transcriptions (General)
2) Transcriptions Resource Library
3) Transcriptions Tasks in Progress
4) Transcriptions Web Design

The General folder is for general discussion. The Resource Library folder will be a repository for common course materials. The Tasks in Progress folder serves as a central register of ongoing tasks, who is in charge of a task, and what progress is being made. The folder will also allow people working on a task to solicit help from others. The Web Design folder is for discussion of our Web site.

Software Databases

Transcriptions is using the FileMaker Pro database program to develop an online timeline of events and a large set of related links. These databases are accessible through the Web to all users, who can search by any combination of fields--URL, site title, description, author, date, etc. In addition, search forms can be created that pre-filter the database in order to focus on a specific topic or keyword. (See, for example, the Postmodernism Linkbase and Postmodernism Timeline.) Search results include complete link information and annotation. As a Transcriptions member, you will also be able to edit Filemaker databases online. Transcriptions participants--as well as students working on assignments in courses--are able to add, revise, or delete records via their Web browser (see the illustrated guide to online editing of the database.)

Graphics & Text

For basic graphics and text design, you can use the Fireworks program loaded on all the machines. This provides drawing and paint palettes to produce graphic effects (like dropshadows and glows), layer editing, and exporting files in png, jpeg, and gif formats. For more advanced design, the English 4 machine also offers Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The scanner computer is on the NT network, but the file sharing feature only works in one direction. You can scan an image or text, using OmniPage Pro or Deskscan, and save the file in any of the shared folders on the other studio machines or on the shared folders on the server (all accessible from icons on the scanner computer), but the other machines cannot reciprocally access folders on the scanner computer.

Web Authoring

On each studio machine, you'll find a "guide to web tools" with brief descriptions of the web authoring software installed on that computer. The choices range from basic "assistants" and "wizards" included with Microsoft Word and Netscape, to the intermediate HotMetal editor, which allows authoring in three different views (source-code, WYSIWYG, and a hybrid view with icons representing tags), to the advanced Dreamweaver program, which allows authoring in both WYSIWYG and source-code views; automates the creation of cascading style sheets, dynamic HTML, Javascript behaviors, and animation effects; and includes site-management capability for complex sites, including a"library" of page elements that can be revised on all affected pages at once.

If possible, Transcriptions members should upload pages through Dreamweaver so that we can take advantage of the "check-in/check-out" feature. You can create a "site definition" in Dreamweaver that connects by local/network between your local directory and the functional TransWeb site. You can also connect by FTP directly to the TransWeb site.

In Dreamweaver, choose "open site" or "define site" from the file menu. This opens a dialogue with settings organized into four categories. The first three are the only ones that need to be set:

1. Local Info:

• Set the site name to "Transcriptions (your userid)"
• Set the Local Root Folder to the local directory where your files are. This can also be an A: drive or the Zip drive.
• Set HTTP Address to the root page of the site on the server: "http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/"
• Check the box for "caching" of pages (which speeds up site management)

2. Web Server Info:

• Choose Local/Network from the dropdown list for transport method
• Set Remote Folder as \\ENGLISHNT\TransWeb\

3. Check In/Check Out:

• Enable check in/check out
• If you also enable the Check In Files When Opening option, Dreamweaver will try before opening a local file that is checked-in to download the latest copy of that file from the server. If it can't download the version from the server, it will inform you that the local file is presently read-only. (You can right-click on the local file in the site list and choose to negate its read-only status, but of course that nullifies the whole check in/check out system--which makes local files read-only when they are checked in to the server, and server files read-only when they are checked-out to a client machine.)
• Fill in the check-out name with your userid. This will show other users who has checked out a file from the server (in case you forget to check it back in and no one else can revise the file).

To connect by FTP from a local directory to Transcriptions follow the instructions above to define the site "Transcriptions (your userid)," but under Web Server Info follow these instructions:

• Choose FTP from the dropdown list
• Set FTP Host to "english.ucsb.edu"
• Set Host Directory to "/TransWeb/" [this is the literal name of a virtual directory on the server; to a Web browser, the directory appears to be /transcriptions]
• Set Login to your userid
• Leave the Password slot blank (it will prompt you for a password when you want to upload something)

Once you have defined your site, then open the site and you will see a list of the local files on the right. You can press "connect" to see the server files on the left. To upload a file or files, select them on the right and press either "check in" or "put." To download files from the server, select them on the left and press either "check out" or "get." Please be sure to "check out" or otherwise download the most recent copy of a file from TransWeb onto TransMir before revising a file.

Of course, if you are sure that no one else has worked on the file you are working on since you last uploaded it, then you can bypass the entire check-in/check-out ritual. In this case, you can use any FTP client to upload (whether from the studio or from home). For that matter, if you log in on a studio machine as yourself, you can copy files directly from the local machine to the server.

One guideline to follow: try to upload to the server only the files you know you have revised rather than, out of convenience, selecting for transfer all the files in a directory (or, most dangerous of all, the entire site). Using Dreamweaver with the check in/check out feature forces one to download the server's current copy of a file before editing it, but using other FTP methods does not. And even with Dreamweaver's version-control method, it is in general bad technique to upload more than the minimum number of files needed to effect a change. Most FTP programs, including WS-FTP and the FTP module in Dreamweaver, allow you to click on the header at the top of the "date" column to sort a file directory by date of last modification. This is an easy way to identify which files you have just revised and need to upload.

If you mount a page somewhere and then later decide to move it elsewhere, by all means do so from inside Dreamweaver. If you rename a page in Dreamweaver so that the directory changes, Dreamweaver will automatically check every page in the site and alter links to reflect the new location of the page in question. (You have to have defined the site, as per above, for this to be possible.)

This page created by Chris Schedler for the Transcriptions Team, 6/18/99 (revised 9/24/99)