Tech Tips for BHSEC Students

Dreamweaver is your classic WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get). A WYSIWYG user does not need to know how code works because s/he can simply use the program’s interface (buttons and tools) to do all the formatting. A WYSIWYG is like making web pages with MS Word. In an editor, you work only with the code. The best way to teach web design is with an editor, but as your code gets more complicated a WYSIWYG is more efficient. Bhsec owns a few copies of Dreamweaver. All the macs in the music department have it, the yearbook pc in the CTO has it, and so does my computer. As you can see, it’s somewhat hard to come by in Bhsec. For this reason, I install kompoZer for many of the staff who need to do webdesign. KompoZer is open source and works on osx/win/linux.

General points to remember:

1. Don’t reveal email addresses. This is a sure way to get lots of spam.
2. Watch your relative links. IOW, <link href=”../bhsec_stylesheet.css”> will only work if this css file *really* is in the directory above the current one. (Double dots mean the directory above.) You could also use static links (ie http://www.bard.edu/bhsec/yadayada/bhsec_stylesheet.css”) but this is generally poor practice because if any folder name is changed, in the path above the file, all the static links will break.
3. Make use of our pre-defined format styles found in our css file so that the look and feel will be consistent across the bhsec website. In kompoZer, switch to the Html Tags view (tab at the bottom) to enable the css pulldown on the top left.
4. Think about how to make it easier for the faculty to change the the content of their webpages without having to deal with code. For example use inc files for the content (just one idea). But also maybe make a form (in php) to edit their content.