Guide for editing student web pages

Page Structure

The student web pages are laid out with a hierarchial structure:

Main Heading <h2>

Do not alter the main heading of the page as this corresponds with a navigation item.

Sub Heading <h3>

Sub Section Heading <h4>

To create sub-headings in Contribute select Heading 3, Heading 4 etc from the Style menu.

Users skim read web pages by reading the headings. Headers should be ordered properly e.g. h4 following h3 etc. Do not skip skip levels e.g. jumping from h2 to h4.

Do not use headings tags for font effects such as making the text bold.

Lists

Users like lists as they are easier to read. There are two main kinds of list:

1. Ordered list <ol>

• Bulleted list <ul>

To create a list in Contribute highlight the text you wish to turn in to a list and click the button on the toolbar for either bulleted or ordered.

You can change the style of your list by right clicking on it and selecting List Properties. This will allow you to change an Ordered list from 1,2,3 to a,b,c for example.

Links

The colours and styling of hyperlinks are defined in the style sheet. When creating a hyperlink you do not need to change the colour of the text or underline it. This occurs automatically.

Navigation Bars

Do not edit the navigation at the top of the page or the left hand column. If you need to make edits to these contact the web team. Only update the content of the central column.

Date stamp

You do not need to edit the date at the bottom of the page. This will update automatically on save if you use Contribute or Dreamweaver to edit the page.

Metadata

What is Metadata

Metadata is information about information. It is used to describe the information held within a web page or other document.

Why should I create Metadata

Metadata helps search engines find your pages. Search engines can also use what is contained in your metadata when listing your pages in the search results page.

All pages on the student web site have had metadata added to them. In Contribute to view the metadata select Format > Keywords & Description

If you are uploading Word Documents or PDF files to the site you should also add metadata to these documents.

Metadata in Microsoft Office

Most people just think of Metadata as being connected with web documents. However Office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) can also contain metadata. To insert metadata in Office documents:

• Select File > Properties from the menu bar
• Select the Summary tab

The fields you should complete are:

• Title
• Subject
• Author
• Keywords (separated by commas)

If you put Office documents on the web search engines can use what is contained within the document properties. For example the title is used by search engines when listing your document. If no document title was entered the search engine would just use the file name which may not be of any use to users.

Metadata in PDF Files

PDF Files can also contain Metadata. If you are converting to PDF from Word any metadata in your Word document will be exported to the PDF. To insert metadata in PDF documents:

• Select File > Document Properties from the menu bar
• Select the Description tab

The fields you should complete are:

• Title
• Subject
• Author
• Keywords (separated by commas, no spaces)

Last Updated: 31 January, 2006
Edited by: Customer Service Development