Activities
How to Plan Your Site

A. Define the Information in your Outline, your Web Plan

Read through the outline you've created. Is the information organized and easy to understand? Keep it simple and to the point. Rewrite any portions that need to be clarified and make sure to pay attention to organization.

B. Define your Target Audience

Take the outline and define your target audience. Does this appeal to them? Will it get your message across? Is it interesting, based on content and developed from exploring what others have done with your topic?

C. Set your Goals and Expectations

Write down your goals and expectations for the Web site. Refer back to these as you develop the Web site and after it is up. Adapt the site to your goals, or adapt your goals to the realities of the Web.

D. Turn your Outline into a Published Page

The next step is to take your outline, save it as a separate file, and turn it into a published page. Use your word processor to bold headlines, add formatting, and indicate where you'd like Links. For instance, indicate a section and write "Link to relevant information", or put in a specific address of a site that is important. Also write down where you'd like to put graphics, or if they are small enough, copy and paste them into the document itself. Print this document out and use it as a visual guide while creating your Web page.

E. Create a Text Only File for the HTML Editor (Or Let a Program Do It For You)

After printing out your published page, save it as a text only document by selecting "Save As" in the file menu of most word processors. Save a new file to work on. Use your printed version to guide you in the look. Use these to compare to your work before entering the next Section. You should now have a Web Plan (the outline), a published page for the way the Web site should look, and a text only file to convert with HTML into a Web site. If you have FrontPage, it will convert the word processor document for you. So all you have to do is create it in Word, and convert it to a page...the real power is in your presentation, the subject of next month's newsletter.