This list of answers is intended to address frequently-asked-questions regarding web publishing. If your question is not answered here, please email lisa@ig.utexas.edu or kevin@ig.utexas.edu.

This FAQ list last updated February 1999.

CONTENTS

• 1.0 UTIG Website Overview
  • 1.1 General information on UTIG's website.
  • 1.2 How do I access my webpage?
    • A) from a PC
    • B) from a Mac
    • C) from a UNIX machine
  • 1.3 How much disk space am I allowed to use?
  • 1.4 What can I put on my webpage?
• 2.0 Text Software available at UTIG
  • 2.1 What software is available to develop the text of a webpage?
  • 2.2 How do I put my paper/thesis on-line?
  • 2.3 What about copy-right complications?
• 3.0 Graphics at UTIG
  • 3.1 What file type of images do I need for my page? Gif's or JPEGs.
  • 3.2 What software is available to produce GIF and JPEG images for a webpage?
  • 3.3 How do I convert a PostScript file to a GIF or JPEG?
  • 3.4 How do I scan an image?
  • 3.5 How do I capture an image from someone else's webpage? Place your mouse over the image. Hold down the right-most button and select "Save Image As..." Then save the image as a GIF or JPEG to your web folder.
  • 3.6 Miscellaneous comments on creating images. save image at scale for display.
• 4.0 Additional help
  • 4.1 How can I create animated gifs?
• 5.0 Miscellaneous comments
  • 5.1 Common link problems
  • 5.2 Making your web page searchable
  • 5.3 Changing the style (color, underlining, etc.) of links

• 1.0 UTIG Website Overview
  • 1.1 General information on UTIG's website.
    UTIG's WWW URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is:
    http://www.ig.utexas.edu
    It resides in the Web folder on UTIG's PC server, ignite. Within the Web folder are various other folders and files, including folders on research, staff, and students. The Computer Adminstration Group and the Web Administration Group have full access to the entire Web folder. Individual UTIG employees and students only have access to their personal folders and perhaps some research folders. Individual folders within the staff and students folders are given the name of the user (e.g., kevin or markw). Within the individual folder is the user's main webpage, titled 'user.htm') (e.g., kevin.htm or markw.htm). Do NOT change this file's name as this is how the UTIG page links to your page. You may modify this page however you want and/or link off this page to other documents.
  • 1.2 How do I access my webpage? You must have an account on ignite. Currently, this is different from a UNIX account on the Sun system. Please see Kevin (Room 224) for an account. If you need to access any of the research pages, please see Kevin about it.
    • A) from a PC
      Log into a PC (control-alt-delete, your user name and password).
      Open the icon 'My Computer.' Open the folder home on 'Ignite' - you should now see the Web folder. Within the Web folder are the research, staff and students folders.
    • B) from a Mac
      Under the apple on the top menu bar, select:
      chooser -> appleshare -> ignite
      Enter your PC user name and password. A box of folders will appear - scroll down to Web. The web folder should appear on your desktop. In that folder are the research, staff, and students folder. Your personal folder is in either the staff or students folder.
    • C) from a UNIX machine
      cd /home/ignite/Web
      (Note the capital 'W' on 'Web')
      In here you'll find the research, staff and students folders (or directories).
  • 1.3 How much disk space am I allowed to use?
    Disk space is currently limited to 10 Megabytes. Please see Kevin (Room 224) if you need more.
  • 1.4 What can I put on my webpage?
    You may put professional and personal items on your webpage. No profanity or other such material is permitted. Remember, your page is reflects back on UTIG's page.
• 2.0 Text Software available at UTIG
  • 2.1 What software is available to develop the text of a webpage?
    Frontpage - available on Mac or PC
    MS Word - upper version saves to html
    Netscape Composer option - can be used on UNIX machines
    
  • 2.2 How do I put my paper/thesis on-line?
    Some of the upper versions of MS Word will save directly to html. You can imbed your figures within the Word file and it will save them as GIF images (numbered consecutively).
    OR
    You can save the document as a PDF, using Adobe Acrobat. UTIG has copies of this software on machines xxx.
  • 2.3 What about copy-right complications?
    If it is your thesis, you own the copy-right. If it is an article that has been submitted, is accepted, or is published in a journal, you must find out what that journal's views are on web-publishing articles. For instance, currently, Scientific American does NOT permit authors to place their articles on the web.
• 3.0 Graphics at UTIG
  • 3.1 What file type of images do I need for my page?
    GIF's or JPEGs.
  • 3.2 What software is available to produce GIF and JPEG images for a webpage?
    On the PC:
    • CorelDraw (exports as GIF or JPEG)
    • Adobe Illustrator (saves as EPS and exports as GIF or JPEG)

    On the Mac:

    • Canvas
    • Adobe Illustrator

    For UNIX:

    • IslandDraw - creates an IslandDraw file which can be saved as a PostScript file.
  • 3.3 How do I convert a PostScript file to a GIF or JPEG?
    (Note: When ftping GIF or JPEG files, be sure to set 'binary')
    In UNIX:
    • Run imagetool to save as a JPEG
      OR
      
    • Run snapshot to save as a raster file and then use xv (or a Mac program) to convert to GIF or JPEG

    On the Mac:

    • Canvas5 will open PostScript, GIF, etc.
    • GraphicConverter will open raster files, etc. but not PostScript
    • GifConverter will open a variety of files but not PostScript

    On the PC:

    • CorelDraw will open PostScript and export to JPEG or GIF?
    • Adobe Illustrator will open PostScript and save to EPS or export to JPEG and GIF.
  • 3.4 How do I scan an image?
    There is a scanner attached to a Mac in the workroom next to Room 126 (copy room). Available software includes: DeskScan (for images/photo) and OmniPage (for text). DeskScan saves the image as TIFF. Tiff can be opened by various graphics softwares, including: GraphicConverter on the Mac.
  • 3.5 How do I capture an image from someone else's webpage?
    Place your mouse over the image. Hold down the right-most button and select "Save Image As..." Then save the image as a GIF or JPEG to your web folder.
  • 3.6 Miscellaneous comments on creating images.
    • Save the original (e.g. PostScript) image at the scale for display.
    • If you want the viewer to be able to click on a smaller version of the image to get the large image, it's best to save 2 images, a small and a large. Physically small GIF and JPEG images are smaller in disk-size (i.e. bytes) and are quicker to load.
• 4.0 Additional help
  • 4.1 How can I create animated gifs?
    Check out: http://home.clara.net/lilli/gifs.htm
• 5.0 Miscellaneous comments
  • 5.1 Common link problems
    • When someone links from my page to a different site, it still shows the UTIG frame at the left.
      In the html code, you must add the phrase target="_top" to the link. For example:
      <a href="http://www.geo.utexas.edu/" target="_top">http://www.geo.utexas.edu</a>
      In the FrontPage editor this can be done interactively:  When establishing a link for the first time or editing it afterwards in the hyperlink dialog box, there will be a "target frame" button near the lower right corner.  Choose "whole page", and you'll be all set.
      
  • 5.2 Making your web page searchable
    Make sure your page title is short and descriptive - this is what is displayed first when someone does a search with keywords on our web page.  Make sure that important key words are included somewhere on your web page. You might even add two lines at the top of your html file that contain a description and keywords listing. For example, for the PLATES Project, we have:
    

    <meta name="description" content="Plate Tectonic Reconstructions at UTIG.">
    <meta name="keywords" content="plate tectonics, reconstruction, tectonics, geology, geophysics>>

  • 5.3 Changing the style (color, underlining, etc.) of links
    You can set the link colors in the body statement:
    <body link="#330099" vlink="#CC9999">
    where vlink refers to 'visited link.' Or you can set up a style sheet. The one below causes the link to be blue with no underline. When the mouse hovers over it, an underline appears. When the link has been visited, it turns purple.
    <STYLE TYPE="text/css">
        A:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
        A:hover {color:blue; text-decoration:underline}
        A:visited {color:purple}
    </STYLE>