Comparing pages & screens

Recognizing elements of effective screen design

Writing prose to suit the Web

Organizing multiple pages

Writing faster

Additional Resources

With a little planning beforehand, you can save yourself some time when creating a set of Web pages.  Two possible strategies are to create a template and to use style sheets.

If you're going to create a set of Web pages, think about creating a template first.  Make basic decisions about text, space, and graphics; identify the organizational pattern you want to use; then create a template that you can use repeatedly.  (Click here to see the template I used for this set of pages.  It will open in a new browser window.)

If you're using Netscape Composer, you can work from the template you made.

1. Click on "File" from the Main Menu and choose "New."
2. Choose "Page from Template" from the options that will appear when you choose "New."

You will be prompted to choose a template.  (Look for the one your created.)  When you save the file, it will prompt you to give it a new name, so you won't lose your template.

Style sheets save you time by letting you set things such as font styles, link colors, and page colors once.  You create a file with that information, and then link each page to it.  This way, you don't have to set preferences each time you create a page, or change preferences on each page if you change your mind.

Despite their promise, style sheets can be tricky because they may work well in Netscape but not Explorer, or vice-versa.  If you want to consider style sheets as an option, look at a tutorial such as C/Net's Get Started with Cascading Style Sheets.

If you can think of other ways to save time, please share them with me.  I could add them to this page.