GEO 565
Have No Fear! Web Page Help is Here!

Creating an HTML document

Let's talk about some of the resources that you can use to convert your project into a professional-looking HTML document and have it published on the World Wide Web. Consider buying or borrowing an HTML book. Click here (Amazon.com) for a description of one that I highly recommend. You could also take a look at the OSU Central Web Services Guide (oregonstate.edu/cws/webtrain/best-practices).

A very simple way of creating an HTML document is to use an HTML document template. All you need to do is to load the template, type in the paragraphs and then save the document as an HTML file. After saving the file, you can view the file with a web browser such as Netscape. Here is a simple HTML template that you can use to create your first HTML document. You can open this document and then save the file onto a local drive, so that you can add and modify it using a text or HTML editor. Using a simple HTML template like this will not bring out the artistic talent in you though. If you want to make your document much more attractive, you will have to be creative and know a bit more about HTML. To get up to speed on HTML please refer to the the College of Forestry online tutorial, as well as the Central Web Services Guide, or the recommended book on HTML.

There are several methods for coding your project in HTML. First, you may be tempted to just write your project in a popular word processor such as Microsoft Word, and then "Save As HTML". This is NOT recommended. Be forewarned that Microsoft Word writes very ugly and unnecessarily complicated HTML that is extremely hard to edit. Better yet you can use a text editor to help you create the HTML file from scratch, or use a web editor such as Dreamweaver. Or you can use web site "helpers" such as Wordpress.com or Google Sites.

Either way, you will be able to produce way cool documents to post on the Internet.

Capture And Display of Graphic Images

A picture is worth a thousand words! You should consider using many graphic images to convey information about your analysis and results.

Capturing screen images in Windows applications is possible simply by pushing the Print Screen key that is located next to the F12 key on the top row of the keyboard. In Windows XP it is [shift key]Print Screen. This captures the entire screen as an image to the Clipboard. On the Macintosh in OS 9.x use Shift-AppleKey-3 to get the same result. In Mac OS X use the Grab utility. Once you have your screen image you may then go to a graphics program and paste the image from the Clipboard to the program.

Some of the more popular graphics programs include Canvas, Lview Pro and Paint Shop Pro. One of the advantages of using a graphics program to handle your screen capture is that you can edit and manipulate the image to your liking before saving it.

Here is a simple example of how to capture an image from ArcMap on a Windows machine.

  1. Open ArcMap.
  2. Display a Map Document.
  3. Press Print Screen key on the keyboard.
  4. Open Paint Shop Pro.
  5. Select Edit and then Paste, you will see the whole screen capture pasted on the window.
  6. Now you may edit the image by cropping, resizing, flipping, rotating, adding text and changing color, etc.

Incorporating graphic images into your HTML document will enhance the quality and appeal of your web page.

Making Your Web Page Accessible to the World

Now that you know how to create HTML documents, incorporating snazzy images, you are ready to create an HTML version of your GEO 565 project. When you have your HTML files and images ready, you can upload them to a World Wide Web server. Every OSU student has a personal account on ONID and can therefore follow these instructions (www.onid.orst.edu/docs/use/web.shtml) to upload their pages. If you have an account elsewhere that provides you with access to a web server, you can use that instead.

http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/gis/page_help.html

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