• Chapter on Web Processing

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    Intro Steps

  • Introduction 
  • Planning
  • Creating
  • Publishing

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    Creating: Step 2.2 Link Unconnected Files

    Connecting files means creating links. There are two kinds: relative links and absolute links.

    An absolute link includes the full web address of the file. For example, http://www.ceap.wcu.edu/houghton/home.html is an absolute address. So is http://www.whitehouse.gov but www.britannica.com is incomplete and will not work as a web page link.  This absolute address form would be used if the location of the web page to be linked was not in your web folder but somewhere else on the Internet. It always uses http:// at the beginning.

    A relative link only includes the file arrangement within your online web account or local drive web folder. That is, a relative link address would just include a file name within your Web folder. For example, index.html is all that must be typed in for files in this same folder to find the home page. The web browser will automatically build the rest of the full web address when someone clicks the link to your page. 

    The Web folder on your disk now contains many web pages, which all currently contain relative links. Two of them are not linked. They should be linked so that clicking on one makes the other appear.

    Creating Links

    Screen Movie (Video) Description of the Process

    This is a good activity for checking out your headphone sets to see if they pick up audio properly. (Note that the file notebookonline.htm has been changed in the files you were given to notebooktable.html.)

      If using a Macintosh computer, see these screen movies:

    1. Using Netscape Composer to make a link on the computers.html page (Macintosh view)
    2. Make a link back on the notebooktable.html page  (The movie uses an older name for this file, notebookonline.htm, but the process is the same.)

      If using a Windows computer, see these screen movies:

    1. Using Netscape Composer to make a link on the computers.html page (Windows view)
    2. Make a link back on the notebooktable.html page
      3. (The movie uses an older name for this file, notebookonline.htm, but the process is the same.)


      When finished studying with a movie, close the movie player to free up computer memory.

    Text Description of the Process

      The First Link

    Open the file called computers.html which is in your Web folder and open it into Netscape Composer. Under the title of the page, find or type in this line of text if it is not present:
      Online Notebook.
       
    1. Select and highlight this line of text.
    2. Click on the chain link symbol in the icons of the menu bar at the top of the screen.
    3. In the location window, type this file name:
        notebooktable.html
    Next click the OK button. This link is now complete. Save this modified file as computers.html to your disk inside the Web folder on your diskette.
     

      The Return Link

    A link is now needed to return the reader back to the computers.html (your site's course EDEL466 assignment) web page from the notebooktable.html file. Open the file called notebooktable.html which is in your Web folder and open it into Netscape Composer. 
     
    • At the bottom of the web page, after your page author name, delete any return text that is there and type one of these text options:
      Back
       
        or

      Return to Computers in Education Assignments Page.
       

    • Next use the center command in the toolbar if the text is not already centered.
    • Select and highlight this line of text.
    • Click on the chain link symbol in the icons of the menu bar at the top of the screen.
    • In the location window that appears, type the file name:
      computers.html
    Next click the OK button. This link is now complete. Save this modified file as notebooktable.html to your disk inside the Web folder.

    Test the Link(s) of the Files in the Web folder on your computer workstation

    Once a set of links has been created, it is important to test them and see if they were correctly completed. Netscape Navigator is used to display web pages with working links. Netscape Composer allows you to edit the page, but not to test a link.
     
      Testing a File that is Already Open in Netscape Composer
    Suppose that you are currently working on a file in Netscape Composer.
    1. In the menu bar of the Composer screen is what looks like a ship's steering wheel. Click this symbol and your file is automatically copied into Netscape Navigator.
    2. Now click the links on your page to test them.
    3. If one or the other link does not work, return to the Netscape Composer page and check to see that the file name used in the link matches the name of the file on the disk.
       
      Testing a File that is Not Open in Netscape Composer
    Suppose that you just sat down at the computer and wanted to test a file's links that you had been working on yesterday. It is not necessary to first open the file in Composer. However, the steps would be very similar to the already open procedure which was just described above
     
    1. From Netscape Navigator, click on: File in the menu bar; select Open Page; select the file computers.html from the web folder on your disk. When the Online Notebook web page appears, click the link to Online Notebook. 
    2. When the Online Notebook page appears, scroll to the bottom and click the link to Return to the Computers in Education assignments page. This should cause the computers (edel466) page to reappear. If both pages correctly link to each other, this stage is complete.

      3. If one or the other link does not work, return to page to Netscape Composer and check to see that the file name used in the link matches the name of the file on the disk. 
    3. If the notebooktable.html file does not appear, it may be that it is not on your disk. If not, return to chapter one where the online notebook assignment began, and complete the work on copying this file again.

    Multiple Windows Management Review

    With this activity, many windows will be open. The most recently opened window is always on top. Often the top window or windows will cover up a file that you need to click on to work with it. There are several strategies for dealing with this when things get multi-window messy.
    1. In Netscape's menu bar is a way to see a list of all the Netscape windows that are open. Click on Communicator to see the list and drag to your choice.
    2. Or, tile your windows. Re-size each window so that it sits next to the other windows but does not cover any other windows. The more windows that are opened, the more the windows must be re-sized smaller to see all of each window.
    3. Or, overlap your windows. When you overlap, the top window covers must of the underlying window or windows, but a corner of each window beneath can be seen. If a corner can be seen, clicking on it will bring it to the surface.
    4. You can also close windows and reduce the clutter.
      1. To close Win windows, click the X in the upper right of a window.
      2. To close Mac windows, click the white square in the upper left of a window.
    5. Different operating systems also provide unique features. 
      1. On a Win computer, a file can be minimized by clicking the horizontal line in the upper right corner of the window, placing a button for it at the bottom of the page, then click the button to re-open it for use again.
      2. On a Mac computer, clicking the horizontal line "closes the window shade" leaving the window header floating on the surface of the screen. Re-clicking the horizontal line re-opens it to its previous size.
    6. These windows skills all are a part of section one of the basic teacher technology competency skills that were discussed in the last chapter.