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Creating a Module - Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum Series

Start Page | Navigation | Templates | Concept | Organizing the Page Sequence | Visibility

THIS DOCUMENTATION IS IN PROGRESS. CHECK THIS PAGE OFTEN.
Updated Feb. 16, 2004

Start Page

Your start page is called "title.htm" inside of a folder called "module##" inside of the "meec" folder on the Tech Alive webserver. This is based on the template "MEEC Title Page". It has already been created for you.

The page "title.htm" should have the Module Title, an introductory paragraph, bulleted list, image, and/or animation. The content for this page should approximately fill one screen area.

Navigation

The module content is accessed in a linear fashion. The pages will be linked sequentially. The Module Title page has a vertical bulleted list that will eventually have all the page titles and links. Keep this list updated as you add new pages.

There is also a horizontal menu at the bottom of the module body pages. DO NOT EDIT these links yet. They'll be updated when your module is completed.

Templates for This Series

1. MEEC Title Page (for the module title page "title.htm")
2. MEEC Body Page (for pages after the title page)
3. MEEC Glossary Page with repeatable glossary entries.
4. Use the MEEC Body Page for End Credits and Bibliography.
5. Author Resource Web Elements are located in Choose > AuthorResource.htm.
   • Rich Content Buttons
   • Bullets
   • Arrows
   • Subscripts and Superscripts

Concept

Conceptualize your website by thinking about the overall goal and the goal or activity of each page. Expect to have about 2-6 elements per body page--text blocks, images, animation, web links, and interactivity. If the page has more than 3 elements, draw a layout storyboard. Body pages start with a 3x3 table for layout. Split and merge table cells to organize the layout. Use left-center-right alignment on images and text to refine the layout. The final content per page should fill approximately one screen.

Organizing the Page Sequence

1. Design your module on paper first.
2. List each page with a unique page title.
3. Creating new pages and linking to pages are independent and can be done separately.
4. If you are sure of your page order, you can select the "Next" arrow and and Link > Create New Page...
5. If you are not sure of your page order, do the linking later. Create new pages while in "browser" mode without creating a link first.
6. To locate unlinked pages later, do "Choose" in "browser" mode to see your module directory listing.
7. When creating a new page, select the right template. They are indicated by green icons in the Templates folder. If you don't see them, do "Refresh Templates".
8. Type your unique Page Title in for the title, eg, "Watershed Concepts".
9. Your new page will appear in Edit mode. Type the same Page Title in the top display area.

Visibility

You can enhance the visibility of your website to users and search engines by adding keywords to the HTML header information.

Keywords and Description: Enhance the search visibility of each page by doing Format > Keywords and Description.... Add keywords that are specific to that page. None of this information displays for visitors. It is scripted within "meta" tags in the header of the HTML code, and can be read by external search engines.

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