Successful Web Publishing: Some Hints

1) Always give the first screen of your web site (or a new directory) the file name index.html

2) Never use capital letters, slashes, hyphens, spaces or periods in the names of your web files (except for the period before the extension .html). This prevents your having to remember exactly what letters and symbols you used in your file name, and  minimizes the chances of misnamed links.

3) Always use the extension .html for your web files.

4) Always save all the files you are linking on your web site together in the same place on your computer (a piece of removable media, the same folder in My Documents, the Desktop, etc.). Then you can preview your links easily. You also need to save the graphics files (.jpg, .jpeg, & .gif) and Office files (.doc, .xls, for example) that you want to link to on your web site in exactly the same place as your .html files.

5) Write down the names of files as you create them. As you will be linking from one document to another, you will always need to know the name of the document to which you are linking. It is very easy to forget the names of documents you have just created.

If you forget where you have saved a particular file (and it happens to all of us), you can then search for the file by name on your computer. To avoid accidental errors when creating your links, use the Choose File button to choose the file to which you want to link

6) Remember that if you use the Edit Page command in Netscape Composer to edit your index.html page, Netscape will try to rename your page with your log-in name. Always use the Save As command as soon as you download the file to rename the page index.html

7) If you are using Netscape Composer, the icon in the corner of the Netscape window indicates that you are in Edit mode. Never, ever, simultaneously edit two versions of the same page. (For example, if you have two pages open, both with the same file name, and both with the Edit icon in the corner, you are heading for trouble.) The same caveat applies when you use Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage.

8) If you are editing your web pages while you have Secure Shell open, always click the refresh symbol on the local side of the screen before you transfer your files to your web page. This ensures that you are always transferring the most recent version of the file you have created

9) If a page isn't "working," or your changes don't appear when you browse the web:

• always check that you have actually remembered to transfer the file to your public_html directory
• always check that you have transferred the file successfully to your public_html directory. All the files that you want to appear on your web site have to reside in your public_html directory.
• always check that you refreshed the Secure Shell window before you transferred your files

10) To access your mason web site in a browser, type in the address line:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~yourusername (your mason log-in name)

If you need a refresher on creating and editing web pages, go to:
Create Web Pages with Netscape & Composer
written by Professor Virginia Montecino