"I'd like to do something for the Web." Oh, what a can of worms that can be! "Something for the Web" can range from a freebie-walk-you-through-the-template personal page to a huge web site with hundreds (or thousands) of pages. There are many decisions to be made before code is even written:

What will it be about? - How will you edit it? What is your naming convention? What do you want it to look like? What does it look like on someone else's computer or browser? How will I keep up with it all? - How will anyone find it?

I don't have all the answers but maybe I can share my process.

The hardest part of building a web site for me was selecting the subject. That sounds easy until one actually tries to make a decision. For some, it's easy; they pick out their dominant interest. I went through my interests and tried to pick just one. That proved to be too difficult. Meanwhile, I kept poking around the web, looking for what interested me, how they did it, what I liked and what I didn't like on all kinds of web pages and sites. I finally decided that no matter what the subject was, I wanted to add new information to the web, not just another list of links. I had a tentative design that was just horrible. I dumped it and started over. (It was good for practicing how to write code and helped with finding the editing program. So, it wasn't wasted time.)

I decided on "Cemeteries of Florida" by a very strange process. I discovered "Graveyards of Chicago" and many other cemetery photo sites. I looked for similar sites on Florida and found that there was none. My subject is narrow enough to give me a focus but broad enough to give me material for a huge site!

Before I had narrowed my subject, I was already trying to find a program to write this site with. I tried HTML Assistant Pro '97. I can't remember why I didn't like it because it's been so long since I attempted to use it. I tried Corel WEB.SiteBuilder. It tries to do too much for the user without giving any leeway to do anything else. William LaMartin had demonstrated FrontPage Express which is included with Microsoft Internet Explorer. I like that it is WYSIWYG and that I can edit the HTML code easily. I don't use the tool buttons very much because I don't like giving up that much control to the program.

I was ahead of the game on developing a naming convention. Organizing large numbers of documents with graphics was part of my job for a long time. It was very natural to revive the concepts. I knew that I had to number for growth. I could have used what is called the friendly naming system where actual names are used instead of what amounts to a personal code. But there are too many duplications of names of people and cemeteries, so I went with a code: aa000b00.ccc:

1. aa = two letter code that tells me what level I'm dealing with, main page (cf), cemetery (cm) or photo (cp)
2. 000 = a numeric designator, not necessarily in order of use, gives me up to 999 before I have look for two more letters
3. b = usually an f for figure, could have been p for plate, anything that links with the page of the same number
4. 00 = in conjunction with the figure, tells me how many I have, example: f1, f2, f10, f11 etc., gives me up to 99
5. ccc = simply is the extension, jpg, gif, htm

It sounds complicated and not friendly but in the long run makes a lot of sense. My way is good for me but may not be good for someone with a much smaller site. This method is very flexible and allows for expansion.

I looked at a lot of cemetery photo sites before I decided on the layout of my site. I have used "Graveyards of Chicago" as a pattern because it followed the hierarchical set up that I was used to, didn't rely on thumbnails, gave space to add informational text and created a respectful, instead of spooky, atmosphere. Happily, he didn't mind that I copied some of his code, especially since I had asked permission first.

I got some of my page sets from Website-Designs. There are a huge number of sites on the web that will give you all the graphics that you need (background, buttons, bars, animated gifs, icons) to build a site in exchange for a link to their page. I've used Paint Shop Pro 5.01 to modify existing graphics and create my own page sets. One portion of the process is that you have to tinker with the graphics and colors of text, active/visited/link text. Also, I had to take into consideration how a photo would look against its background. I needed something that was neutral but not stark, which would contrast but not conflict with colors in the photo. I make notes of what I name my creations, sizes of buttons, font name and size for title graphics and buttons and color codes.

Testing is dreary, boring and absolutely necessary. Yep, I had experience in this aspect also! I tested all links repeatedly on my machine before I put it on my hosting server. At that point, I drafted about five or six friends to look at my site with their computers and browsers. I asked them to tell me about their computer type, modem speed, monitor resolution, their opinions of the look, the navigation buttons that I had provided. Try not to take all their advice to heart. If you have thought carefully about your layout from the beginning and have done the best that you know how, it will probably be okay. (For example, one person suggested that I use frames for navigation. I don't know how to use that yet, but maybe in the future, I'll do just that.) However, testing can tell you that some things just will not work and must be redesigned or scrapped.

Maintaining a site starts at the beginning. I have kept a list of all the counties, cemeteries, and photos from the very start. Some of my lists have gotten so large that I have had to split them up! My goal is to include photos from one cemetery per county. At this point I have six counties, 29 cemeteries, and about 750 photos. I use a notebook to keep notes about the elements that I use for each page or set of pages just in case the unspeakable crash happens and I have to reconstruct the whole mess. I may eventually use a maintenance program but, for now, I make upload lists and make notes of changes that I make.

I've just started the process of getting listed with search engines and using meta tags such as "description" and "keywords." So far, I am listed only on Yahoo!. I have joined five web rings that deal with my subject. I distribute business cards with my site information on it to those who are interested. I exchange links with other sites who have the same subject that I would like to be associated with. I also make notes of link exchange requests and search engine listings. It takes time, but I hope that my site will be noticed and maybe even win awards!

Two books that I have used extensively in this process are:

• Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville, published by O'Reilly & Associated, Inc.
• SAMS Teach Yourself Paint Shop Pro 5 in 24 Hours by T. Michael Clark, published by Sams Publishing.

Any web site worth its HTML code is never really finished. But it will reach a stage where it will become presentable. Improvements and additions can continue as long as there are material and time to work on them. u