WEB DESIGN FOR TEACHERS:

THE BEST TOOL

YOU COULD EVER HAVE
A Course in Web Design for All Users by Richard S. Haase

Some Notes Before You Begin…

1. I’ve designed this course to be easy-to-follow for just about any level of user, but I should
emphasize that because this is a project-based class, what you do each week and what I
check are the same thing. That being said, it is important to follow each of the weekly
workbooks step by step. In addition to completing the requirements appropriately, this will
make the course much easier for you.

2. Whenever you need help, simply use our course website to post a question or comment.
While this course does not have a discussion requirement, I will be checking there every
day to respond to your concerns.

3. If you choose to get some work done while on your lunch break, you will need a way to get
your files home at the end of the day. Because few schools allow teachers to install
software on the local computers, you will not be able to upload your finished pages from
there. I suggest using a USB “Thumb Drive,” which are available at any electronics or office
supply store and are very affordable.
 CHAPTER ONE:
GETTING STARTED 1
While there are a number of web design applications out there (Microsoft FrontPage,
Macromedia Dreamweaver, etc.), we will be using Microsoft Word for this course. While
many people don’t know this, Microsoft Word is a fully functional web page editor, and
because everyone is already comfortable with most of its features, it’s perfect for our purposes
in this class. Because this course is designed for all users, regardless of what software they
have on their computers, I have deliberately chosen to avoid titles that would ask students to
spend any more money on programs.

To publish the files, however, you will need to download and install what is called an FTP
program. This will allow you to access your folder on the web server and “put” your files there.
Believe it or not, a basic website is that simple! You can design your pages in Word, save
them as the right file type, and put them in a folder somewhere the public can access them! I
just wanted to help establish some confidence in those of you who may have worried about
what you were getting into.

CREATING LOCAL WORKSPACE ON YOUR COMPUTER

1. To make sure none of the changes we make ruin our sites while we are learning, we
will save all of our files locally (on our own computers) and publish them as they are
completed. To create a local space for your web site, follow these simple
instructions:

a. Open the My
Documents folder on
your computer.

b. If you are using

Windows XP, your
computer probably
already has a folder
inside the My
Documents folder
called My Web Sites.

Note: You can save your files

anywhere you like, but be sure
to remember where they are
and to keep them together.

Web Design for Teachers 2

c. If so, double click on it. If not, click File at the top of the window, then click New
Æ Folder. Call your new folder My Web Sites, then double-click on it to enter the
folder.

i. When you first enter the My Web Sites folder, it will probably be empty.
To help keep ourselves organized, create a folder by following the same
directions outlined in the last step. Give your folder an easy name to
remember, preferably the name of your site.

Web Design for Teachers 3

ii. This will be the folder you save your files in as you’re working. To “publish”
the file to your site, you’ll only need Windows, which we’ll set up after we
create our first web page.

Web Design for Teachers 4