Computers in the Classroom

Judy Arzt, Ph.D., Saint Joseph College, CT

jarzt@sjc.edu

Notes for Starting a Website Using Tables

Creating your Homepage

Open Microsoft Word. Use File, and select, New. From the options offered on the far side of the screen, look for the New option, and select Blank Web Page.
From the toolbar menu of option, go to Table menu, and from the drop-down options from under this menu, select, Insert. From the selections offered, select Table. Then, enter 2 columns and 15 rows. A table will appear on the page.
Place the cursor in the 1st row, 2nd column. Type the heading for your website, using a phrase such as The Website of …. Insert your name, to replace the ellipsis. You can change the font style, size, and color later to add more interest to your heading. If you would like to center the heading in the cell, select the text and center it, using the centering button. The 1st row, 1st column can be used to insert a clip art or a photo of yourself. This step can be done later.
Now move your cursor to the 2nd row, 1st column, and type: Software Evaluations. Move your cursor to the 3rd row, 2nd column, and type the name of one of the software programs you are evaluating. Now, move the cursor to the 4th row, 2nd column, and type the name of the other software program that you are evaluating.
Place the cursor in the 5th row, 1st column, and type: Software Lesson Plan. Move the cursor to the 6th row, 2nd column, and type in the name of the software program for your lesson plan.
Place the cursor in the 7th row, 1st column, and type PowerPoint. Later you will fill in the 8th row, 2nd column with a name for your PowerPoint display. For now, type in the cell for the 8th row, 2nd column, Coming Soon. Move the cursor to the 9^th row, 2^nd column, and type in again, Coming Soon.
Place the cursor in the 10th row, 1st column, and type Web Quest Project. In the 11th row, 2nd column, type Coming Soon.
Place the cursor in the 11^th row, 1^st column, and type Recommended Websites. In the 12 row, 2^nd column, type, Websites for Teachers, and in the 13 row, 2^nd column type, Websites for Students.
Place the cursor in the 15th row, and merge cells, by highlighting both columns in this row, and selecting from the Table drop-down menu, “Merge Cells. Now, select Center to center the text to be typed. Type: © (for copyright) and your name. Then use the | character found over the enter key and accessed by using the shift key. After you type the |, type: last revised and today’s date. Type another | and after it, type email: and then your email address. It is customary to keep this information in the bottom row of a web page in Arial, 8 point or 9 point. If you like, change the font size now.
To save your homepage, go to the file menu, and select Save As. On the Save As menu, look for the option, Save In, and use the drop down box to access the drive for saving your work. It is essential to save all of your files for your Website in one file folder. We will create that folder now. Note that there is a yellow file folder icon on the Save As screen. Select this option. A screen will appear asking you to name the folder. Call the folder: Website. Now name your file, Index. You also need to change the Save As Type file feature—use the drop-down feature and select .htm; html as the file type. (All the web pages you will create must be saved with this file extension.) It is critical that you name your homepage Index and save it on the correct drive in the folder you just created and use the proper file extension. If you do not, your site will not upload to the Internet for display there. Remember to give all of your files short, one word names. Do not use spaces in naming your files.

Creating Templates for Your Software Reviews and Lesson Plan Files

If Microsoft Word is not opened, open it now. Select from the File menu, New and then select Blank Web Page as your option.
Go to the table menu, and select Insert, Table, and create a table with 2 columns and 4 rows.
In the 1st row, 2nd column, type your header, such as “The Website of …,” or copy and paste the one you created on your homepage.
In the 2nd row, 2nd column, type the name of the software program you are reviewing. Consider something to the effect: Software Review of ….
Go to the 2nd to last column on the page, and merge the cells (see directions above). Put centering on. Use Arial 8 or 9 point as your font. Type a line that looks similar to this one: Homepage | Review of …. | Lesson Plan for …. | PowerPoint of … | Internet Project of … Your line will be centered on the page. Now go to the last row, and merge cells and put on centering if it is not already on. Type your customary bottom line: @ your name | Last revised: 2/?/06.
Save your file by going to the File menu, selecting Save As, and accessing the drive where you want to save your web page files. Be sure to then access the folder that you made called Website. You must save all of your web files in this folder. It is critical to use a filename with no spaces and to keep your file name as short as possible, with no more than 8 characters recommended. (Remember: Never use spaces in naming your webpage files!) For example, an appropriate file name for a review of Decision, Decision: The Constitution, might simply be: Constit. Remember to use the Save as type: feature for saving the file as a htm;html format.
We are now going to use the file you just created to make another file, saving you time later so you don’t have to redo steps 1-6 when creating your files for your second software review and your lesson plan. Change the name of the title of the software in column the 2nd row. Type in the name of the second software program you evaluated. Now go to File, Save As, and select your drive where you are saving your web page files and select the Website folder created on that drive. Type in an appropriate filename for this webpage using the instructions given above for naming web files. Once you type in the name, you will now have three files saved in the website folder on the designated drive.
Now let’s make the template for your software review. Go to the second row, and replace the text there with the title, Software Lesson for …. We will save this file in the designated drive, in the website folder, with an appropriate one word file name, such as Les_Cons, using the example of the software program, Decision, Decision: the Constitution, as presented above. Note, “les” will help you remember that the file is a lesson plan, and the first 4 letters of the program will help you remember the name of the software program. You now have 4 files in your website folder.

We will copy and paste the actual text into these templates once you complete each project.

Making Hyperlinks

Return to your homepage, which might already be opened but hidden from displaying on the screen. Look at the bottom of the computer screen to see if you have a file listed there as Index. If so, click on it to bring it to the forefront on the screen. If the file is not opened, open it.
Highlight on the Index file, the name of the software for the first review. (You already typed in the text when creating your homepage.) Go to the Insert menu on the toolbar. Then look in your designated drive, Website folder for the filename of the corresponding software review. Select it from the list, being sure to select the option that does NOT have a yellow file folder or a ~ next to it. You do not want the hyperlink to go to anything put the exact file, which will have an Internet icon next to it, which shows a W for Microsoft and the Internet Globe symbol. The file will show the file extension htm or html next to the name. Be very careful throughout the semester when creating hyperlinks to select the correct file from your website folder; caution: students invariably select the wrong file!
Now return to your homepage, which is still open. (If necessary, look for the filename at the bottom of the screen named Index if the file is not displayed on the screen.) Make your link to the second software review, using the steps outlined here. Return to your homepage and make the link to the software lesson plan.
Resave your Index page. You are all set for now for developing the skeleton for your website. We will copy and paste the software reviews and lesson plans into the templates that have been made once the work has been created.
If you like, you can also insert the hyperlinks for the text you typed at the bottom of your pages. That is, you can link together the skeleton templates of your reviews and lesson plan. You can also copy and paste links from one file to another if you do not want to keep using the insert hyperlink feature to make new links in each file. (A demo will be provided in class.)
Remember to always change the last revised dates on all of your files when you finish an editing session. This is another vital step that students often forget.

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