Web-Authoring Basics

This page provides students with a basic outline of the process required to download, revise, and upload web pages associated with Transcriptions courses. For resources on web design, see the related Learning Web-Authoring page.

1. Downloading
2. Revising
3. Uploading

Downloading

To download web pages in order to revise them, you need an FTP ( "file transfer protocol") program which allows you to move files between the remote Transcriptions server and your local disk or hard drive. If you are using a HTML editor like Dreamweaver, chances are that this program will include a "site management" or other feature that includes FTP.

Otherwise, there are common shareware or freeware FTP utilities that you can use. One of the most popular for the PC platform is WS-FTP, which comes in a lite edition (WS-FTP LE) that is free for academic users. You can download it from the following Web site: http://www.ipswitch.com/cgi/download_eval.pl?product=WL-1000. A common FTP program for the Mac platform is Fetch. On-campus computing facilities should have one of these programs installed on all their machines.

After installing or accessing the the FTP program, you need to set it up to connect to the Transcriptions server.

For WS-FTP

Start the program. If the Connect dialogue does not automatically appear, then hit "connect" to see the dialogue. The dialogue has four tabs, only two of which need to be configured.

Under the General tab, set these parameters:

• Host Name/Address = english.ucsb.edu
• UserID = your last name (lower-case)
• Password = your first initial, perm number, last initial (e.g., t1234567a)

Under the Startup tab, set these parameters:

• Initial Remote Host Directory = /transweb/topics/[class project, e.g., infoart]/[project folder, e.g., dylan]
• Initial Local Directory = [the folder on your local hard drive where your project files reside, e.g., c:\html (for your local hard drive) or a:\html (for your floppy disk)]

When you hit "OK," the program should connect to the server and display your local files in a pane at the left of your screen and the remote server files in your project directory in a pane at the right of the screen. (You have to be online, of course.) Select the files you want to transfer in the righthand pane, and then hit the arrow icon that points toward the lefthand pane. You can get more than one file at a time by holding the command key and clicking on each file you wish to download. This will download the files from the Transcriptions server to your disk or local hard drive.

For Fetch

Start the program. A login window will be displayed.

In the login window, set these parameters:

• Host = english.ucsb.edu
• User ID = your last name (lower-case)
• Password = your first initial, perm number, last initial (e.g., t1234567a)
• Directory = /transweb/topics/[class project, e.g., infoart]/[project folder, e.g., dylan]

When you hit "OK," the program should connect to the server and display the files in your project folder directory. Double-click the file name in the file list or select the file and click the "Get" button. You can get more than one file at a time by holding the command key and clicking on each file you wish to download. You will be prompted for the place to save the file(s); use the pop-up menu to find the place you wish to save the file (e.g., your disk or local hard drive) and click the "Save" button.

Revising

Revise the pages to add your content. This is best done with an HTML editor, such as Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Homesite, or Hotmetal. On Transcriptions pages, all revised content must go in the center of the template. In a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) HTML editor, the content appears in a table cell in the middle of the page. If you're working directly with the source code, you should insert all content between the tags <!-- insert page content here --> and <!-- end page content -->.

For resources on web design, see the related Learning Web-Authoring page. Web authoring, of course, involves a learning curve unto itself. But it is well worth learning how to do the basics. Don't worry if the results aren't exactly what you aimed for. We can help you fix things later. While you are revising the files, you can open them locally in your Web browser to see what they look like (by pointing the browser, for example, to c:\html\index.html).

Uploading

After saving your revised files, upload them to the Transcriptions server through the same FTP connection you established to download them.

For WS-FTP

This time select the files you want to transfer in the lefthand pane (your local directory), and then hit the arrow icon that points toward the righthand pane (your project directory on the remote server). This will upload the files to the server.

For Fetch

Click the 'Put' button, select the name of the file(s) from the file list and click "Open" or double-click on the file you would like to upload. This will upload the files to the server. Fetch will let you know how much of the application has successfully been uploaded with a circle graph illustrating percentage completed.

Then open your Web browser and point it to your project directory (e.g., http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/topics/infoart/dylan) to confirm that the revised files have been successfully uploaded.

Index of Resources

1. Overview
2. Guides to Readings in Literature and Information Culture
   1. Bookshelf (Brief descriptions and mini-reviews of works in a variety of media that developers of the Transcriptions project or speakers in its colloquium series have been reading. These are the works that are helping to shape the intellectual direction of the Transcriptions project. The Bookshelf is a searchable database.)
   2. Hypertext Literature (annotated catalogue of representative works of hypertext fiction, poetry, and theory in a variety of media, both offline and online works; includes a guide to the Transcription studio's library of publications by the Eastgate company)
3. Guides to Online Research
   1. Online Research Resources (library catalogues, digital text archives, periodical indices, etc.; includes both general-access and UCSB-only resources)
   2. Online Reference Resources (dictionaries, thesauri, atlases, encyclopedias, etc.)
   3. Online Resources for Writing and Speaking (grammer and style guides, writing tips, advice on oral presentations, etc.)
   4. Evaluating & Citing Online Resources (checklists, exercises, examples, and annotated links; also includes a printable form to use in tracking and evaluating online sites)
4. Guides to Technology in Transcriptions Courses
   1. Web-Authoring Basics (basic outline of the process required to download, revise, and upload web pages associated with Transcriptions courses)
   2. Web-Authoring Resources (design and how-to advice for both beginning and advanced Web authors; includes links to HTML and design style guides, help with images, and examples of good and bad design)
   3. Transcriptions Studio Software (catalogue of the major production tools used by Transcriptions with links to resources and tutorials; covers Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Fireworks, Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, and Allaire's Homesite programs)
   4. How to Post Messages in the Exchange Messaging Environment (step-by-step guide)
   5. How to Use the Web to Add/Edit Content in the Project's Timeline or Linkbase Databases (step-by-step guide)
5. For Instructors and Developers:
   1. Teaching with Information Technology (annotated links to resources and tools for designing courses utilizing IT; also includes example sites)
   2. Developer Resources for Transcriptions Project (Templates for course and topics pages, Photoshop templates for images, Descriptions of web technology used in HTML design, Cascading Style Sheets [CSS], Server Side Includes [SSI], and relevant information)

Page content by Alan Liu and Chris Schedler | Graphic Design by Eric Fehy
Created 11/12/99 | Revised 11/15/99