Overview
Session 1
- Updating your website
- News, Images, Menus, Events
- Membership Management
- Where to get help
Session 2
- Review of Session 1 & Questions
- advanced Website & Membership Management
Objectives are to provide….
Websites and Communications for all levels of the sport
- National, State, Local levels
- Ability for non-technical specialists to update information
- Total control over all aspects of the site
- Complete ownership of each site by each organisation
National Database
- Clubs, Officials, Umpires, Scorers
- Player Stats (to be implemented 1Q 2004)
Each Club/State has their own identity
Design objectives of MyWebsite
- Each site has it’s own unique name and “look”
- If a person has the skills to use Microsoft Word or Excel, they have the skills to maintain the site
- Any piece of information should only be “touched” once
- No need to remove old news and move to an archive section
Complete control by users over:
- Text, Images, Menus, Calendar, Results, Downloadable files
HTML experience not required
- But can be of use if you are a web techie
Website Construction
Choose a design that you like
- Only done once – can easily be changed
Add some text
- This could be a news items
Add some photographs
Setup the menu
Other tasks
- Put an Excel spreadsheet or Word document onto the site
- Setup an Event
image library
No need to size or format images on the PC
- Although uploading a 6 Mega Pixel file is time consuming and may timeout if you have a slow line
Adding to the image library
- Uploads the image to the web server
- Re sizes to the correct size if the image is too large in either direction
- Creates a thumbnail
- Adds a Caption, Full Description, Photographer information to the database
- Optionally links it to an event
- Makes it available to all other websites
- Can only be updated from the site that added the image
Navigation (Menus)
Once a site gets to a certain size, the Navigation becomes extremely important
Editing the menus is done online
- Ability to modify any level of menus
Also allows automatic generation of a Site Map
Can link to:
- Other pages within the site
- Lower level menus (I.e. menus, within menus for large sites)
- Files on the website (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets)
- Web “Services” – Programs on the server that are available to all sites – e.g. National News, Searches, Calendar, etc
Compact Menu – e.g. Edit Site Settings
Full Page Menu – for Large Sites
Full Page Menu – with introduction
Calendar
A shared national calendar of events
Each site only shows events relevant to their organisation
Different displays, and links to download to a PC with compatible software
- Outlook, Express, other late model email clients
How to design & construct your website
Draw a hierarchical diagram of your site
- Initially limit it to about 10 pages
- Think about how it will be in 10 years time, and allow for that now
- E.g. Some information is fairly static, e.g. Constitution, while others are repetitive
- Look at other large sporting sites
Create the lower level pages and work you way up
- Design from the top down, but construct from the bottom up”
Don’t get too ambitious
- If you have more than 10 pages, you are too ambitious
- Launch the site with just the 10 pages after a week, don’t have a 3 month development process (it will never be finished!)
Don’t form a committee
Don’t put “Under Construction” – just leave it off
If it isn't right the first time – you can always change it
A Question of Style
The “Style Sheet” is a central location for all the font colours, sizes, etc
- Provides a consistent look to the site
- Allows you to easily change the look of the entire site
MS Word & the online Editor can override the Style Sheet
Do:
- Use the standard text in the editor
- Use the Styles in the editor
- Use the “Clean Code” in the editor when you cut/paste from MS Word
Suggest that you Don’t
- Use Size in the editor
- Use Font, if you do then only for headings an never for normal text
- Use Font colours for normal text – only for headings
- You might change the template that you are using and it will look all wrong
- Use background text colour