TRAINING AND LEARNING WITH COMPUTERS

Interoffice memo

DATE: August 24, 2010

TO: Dan Hurley, CEO

FROM: Pam Bolton, Training Coordinator

SUBJECT: Training Package – How To Create A Website

Attached find the training module on “How To Create A Website”, and under separate cover, a power point presentation. The training package will include:

· An overview of the training module in a power point presentation to be utilized for:

o Customer sales

o In-house needs

· The training module, customizable to customer needs. covering 3 days:

o Instruction

o Practical application

o Optional – The material will contain information, with references, but it will outside the scope of this training. Sales could potentially utilize for additional training days.

· A prerequisite for this training package is the required completion of the training materials for Expression Web 3 (Expression).

· An optional 5 day course available.

Here is the outline of the training module:

Day 1

· Purpose or reason for a website

· How to present a website on the internet

· Create and register a domain name

Day 2

· Create a website layout and design, and a website site map

· Development of a Privacy Statement

Day 3

· Choose software that work for you

· Troubleshoot – test links

· Conclusion: Future Maintenance & Additional sources of information

· A prerequisite for this training package, completion is required of the training materials for Expression Web 3 (Expression).

I have scheduled the board room August 24 at 2pm to give an overview of this training material in a power point presentation. Our Sales, Information Technology, and Human Resource departments will assess the material to ensure it meets their needs. If any other departments need to be present, please let me know.

How To Create A Website

Day 1

Purpose or Reason for the Website

The purpose for a website will be either business or personal. Think about the goals you want to accomplish with a website.

Optional. For a business website, the planning would include a plethora of information – audience, marketing, product/store, blog, forums, chats, email, etc. A business website would surpass the time allotment for three days training.

How to Present a Website on the Internet

Presenting a website on the internet can be through a web hosting service and turning your pc into a web server. Web host services are optional, see below. “Turning your pc into a web server takes more time to set up, it has the advantages of being free and more flexible than other solutions.” (Host Your Own Website)

Our computers in this lab provide access to emulate this functionality.

Optional. There are many web hosting services. “Best 10 Web Hosting Sites” provided an analysis of several web hosting services (WebHosting Choice). This site also provided me with the criteria on what and how to base my choices for a web host service – price, setup, domain, disk space, data transfer, and other qualifiers. Available at a nominal fee, a web hosting service is an organization/company that for a fee:

· Can provide domain name resolution

· Can provide space on a server (lease or own) called data center

· Can provide web interface or control center to manage the server

· Can provide support

· Can provide web development

· Can provide additional services like email

Create and Register a Domain Name

Important! Pay particular attention to your ‘name’ as there are organizations and laws governing your domain name.

Optional. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is “a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers”. (ICANN). “Domain Name Tutorials” (Heng) provides assistance in every aspect of domain names and those questions you wouldn’t think to ask. Copyright laws play a large consideration, especially if it is for a business and Brad Templeton explains many aspects (Templeton, Brief Intro to Copyright).

Day 2

Create Layout, Design and Site Map

As I’ve always said, “One can change anything when using a computer, it is not set in stone.”

This is one of the most time consuming and important aspects, so don’t be in a hurry. Utilizing the graph paper, create a site map, like the following example (Cope):

Using the above to personalize your site map and the following layout and design, ask yourself some questions:

· One page or more

· What do I want to include or not include

· What graphics could I use

· Is it easy to read, navigate and find

· is there consistency in my design

· Revise layout until ready to proceed

Again on graph paper, setup how you want each page to look; here is an example (Brunt, Outfront):

Optional. The software, Visio, can be utilized to do your site map or layout and design, rather than graph paper.

Web Developers are available for a fee and can provide the services of layout, design, site map and integration to your web host service.

Need ideas? Use some of your favorite websites or the following to assist in your design:

· integrated articles and challenges peoples were having and presented solutions (Site Point)

· lots of design and layout options (Website Design)

· tips and tricks for website layout (websiteGear)

· or a video to watch (How to make your own website template design)

Development of a Privacy Statement

The privacy statement is an area, not necessarily a law or policy, but it is a ‘best practice’. Please consider this list of information to be included in a privacy statement, but do not consider it as all inclusive:

· legal name

· site name

· contact information

· if you collect information, what are you doing to do with it?

· A slew of technological areas, examples: cookies, ip address

Homework. Draft a privacy statement. Again, check out your favorite websites or use the following for examples:

· “Templetons.com Privacy Policy” http://www.templetons.com/etc/privacy.html (Templeton, Privacy Statement)

· “Build Your Website” http://www.build-your-website.co.uk/Privacy-Policy.htm (Privacy Statement)

· “Thomas Brunt’s Outfront Privacy” http://www.outfront.net/privacy.htm (Brunt, Privacy)

· “websiteGear Privacy Policy” http://www.websitegear.com/about/privacy.asp (Privacy Policy)

· The government has to meet certain guidelines when doing any web publishing. Here is their requirement:

o ”All federal public websites* must comply with existing laws and directives that address the need to protect the privacy of the American people when they interact with their government. “ (WebContent.gov)

Day 3

Software

When making a decision of which software to use, don’t forget to look to the future of your website. The software may be confusing initially. Here are some examples of software available to create your website:

· Adobe Dreamweaver – most popular

· Composer

· Expression Web (Front Page) – free to students

· Trellian - free

· WordPress

· Visio Studio (graphic aspect) – free to students

Expression Web 3 is installed on your computer. Utilize Expression to:

· Create standards-based page layout, using CSS

· Create page layout from your design

Optional. Do you want to utilize forms, drop-down menus, etc.?

Troubleshoot – Test Links

At this point, please make a backup of all your hard work.

Troubleshoot – test, test, test!

Ask friends and family to take a test drive and check:

· Their first impressions

· Visual -- text, color, graphics, etc.

· Ability to navigate between items/pages

· Does site meet your expectations

Conclusion

Future Maintenance

The future of your website should contain regular ‘best practice’ maintenance, as for any computer.

· daily backups

· monthly and quarterly renovations

· Website looking tired – spruce it up with additional pages, change colors, adding graphics, and just about anything you need or want

· Research and play at hosting your own website

Optional. Depending on time constraints and computer knowledge, initially utilizing a web host service is a very inexpensive option. “Godaddy.com” provides a step by step how to test your website (Getting Started with Windows Shared Hosting).

Additional Sources of Information. Find references to other sources for different aspects of a website.

Software is one of the crucial aspects of your website.

Web Design Software Reviews, Consumer Search, November 2008 (Consumer)

Small business options:

Get a free website and more, Microsoft Office Live Small Business (Build your website, Choose a domain, and Add email) (Get a free website)

Online tools and services to help you build your business, Microsoft Business for Small & Midsize Companies (Online tools and services to help you build your business)

Web hosting options:

Grow your hosting business, Microsoft Hosting (Grow your hosting business)

Microsoft Web Hosting (Microsoft Web Hosting)

Web applications:

ASP.NET is a web application framework (Web Development with Power, Productivity and Speed)

Web developers:

Build a Website Today! (Build a Website Today!)

Web design, banner ad design, color, creativity, inspiration, design and layout, graphic design, fonts, graphics, logo design, and typography (Web design +)

Have fun creating your very own website!

Work Cited

Brunt, Thomas. Outfront. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/design/layout.htm>.

—. Privacy. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.outfront.net/privacy.htm>.

Build a Website Today! N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.buildyoursite.com/>.

Consumer, Search. Web Design Software Reviews. November 2008. 11 August 2010. Web. <. http://websitesetupguide.com>.

Cope, Stephen. Build Your Website. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.build-your-website.co.uk/website-layout.htm>.

Expression, Microsoft. Learning Expression Web. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/cc197140.aspx>.

Get a free website. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-us/>.

Getting Started with Windows Shared Hosting. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://help.godaddy.com/article/1370>.

Grow your hosting business. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.microsoft.com/hosting/en/us/default.aspx>.

Heng, Christopher. thesitewizard.com. 10 July 2010. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.thesitewizard.com/domain/index.shtml>.

Host Your Own Website. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.wikihow.com/Host-Your-Own-Website-for-Free and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYbskmfJVYs>.

How to make your own website template design. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpjGaQ4f5X8>.

ICANN. 31 March 2010. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.icann.org>.

Microsoft Web Hosting. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://microsoftwebhosting.net/>.

Online tools and services to help you build your business. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-us/products/officelivesmallbusiness/default.aspx>.

Privacy Statement. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.build-your-website.co.uk/Privacy-Policy.htm>.

Site Point. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://articles.sitepoint.com/category/design-and-layout>.

Templeton, Brad. Brief Intro to Copyright. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html>.

—. Privacy Statement. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.templetons.com/etc/privacy.html>.

Web design +. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://websitetips.com/design/>.

Web Development with Power, Productivity and Speed. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.asp.net>.

WebContent.gov. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/>.

WebHosting Choice. 11 August 2010. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.webhostingchoice.com>.

Website Design. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADFA_en&q=website+design&revid=502500094&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=h1dgTKH7CI32tgOHkIWqCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CD8QsAQwAw>.

websiteGear. N.d. 11 August 2010. Web. <http://content.websitegear.com/article/layout.htm;>.