Bradley University : HTML Document Style Guide

Official Web Site Development Guide

This document outlines how official Bradley pages should be written to provide for a consistent look and feel throughout all of Bradley's pages. For specific HTML formatting conventions, view the source of this document. In addition, this document offers policies governing official pages linked to the Bradley University home page.

General information about the process.

There is a template you may use as a guide for creating official departmental pages.

Once your page is complete, you must submit a request to have your college or department page linked to Bradley's official site. The Division of University Relations is responsible for policy regarding "official" page development and submission approval. Upon approval, the files will be moved to the official Bradley Web server. You may contact Kath Conver at x2242 if you have any questions about appropriate style and/or content as you are developing your web page.

The university is in the process of appointing page managers for all colleges and departments. They will be responsible for content and development of official pages. A list of the page managers will be published here when it is complete.

All official pages must have the centered Bradley wordmark.

The Bradley wordmark is our indication that what follows is officially sanctioned material. No "unofficial" pages will be permitted to carry the Bradley wordmark. Only the lead page must carry the wordmark.

If the official page is located on lydia, then the server side include:

may be used to automatically insert the current official logo and logotype.

Just enter the above line in the document being created and leave the rest to us. If the official page is not located on lydia, then the offical wordmark may be obtained from http://www.bradley.edu/images/Wordmark.gif .

Keep "BU" or "Bradley University" in the title.

The title of your document should always begin with "BU : " or "Bradley University : ". The remainder of the title does not need to be the hierarchical path of the current page, but it can be if it is not too cumbersome. For example, while both "BU : Resources : Student" and "BU : Student Resources" are acceptable titles, the latter is much more readable. Titles should uniquely identify your web pages.

Don't skip around with headers.

Pages should use a level 1 header for their main title, then a level 2 for the major sections or subheading, level 3... you get the idea. The level 5 header as fine print, and level 6 is generally illegible.

Be careful when using Netscape's special HTML extensions.

Being a Netscape-using campus ourselves, we do tend to cater our presentation to the Netscape crowd. This is perfectly OK, and you should feel free to use the various extensions to HTML that Netscape supports. However, you should always pay attention to how the resulting page looks in other browsers. In some cases you may want to sacrifice a little Netscape pizzazz so you don't end up with Mosaic garbage. And don't forget about our lynx users; make certain the pages are functional for text only browsers.

Use good judgment with IMG ALT tags.

In most cases you should specify an ALT field for your images to describe (as briefly as humanly possible) what the image is. This keeps the lynx users from becoming annoyed with not knowing what is on the page. Always put this description in square brackets to set it apart from regular text, like this: [Peoria Skyline] (mixed capitalization is easier on the eyes). On the other hand, if the image is of no particular consequence, use ALT="" so that the lynx users don't have to be bothered with it.

Be kind to modem users.

A modem user with a 14.4k baud rate will receive text and images at the rate of about one kilobyte per second. So, try to keep your text content under about 10k per page and make your inline images small (we suggest keeping them under 70k). By all means, offer the full-size, full-color original images, but warn the reader of the size before he or she clicks and begins downloading. Separate large collections of images into individual "walls." Use JPEGs for large photographs, if it does not result in visual quality loss. If you use GIFs, we suggest interlacing them.

Do not sign your initials unless the text of the page was entirely your own creation.

For the majority of Bradley's pages, no initials should be added. If you do choose to sign your initials and link them to your home page, make a small disclaimer at the top of your home page notifying the reader that he or she has ventured into unofficial territory.

Date your pages.

Keeping your web pages up-to-date is a very important part of web-authoring. We suggest using the following block of HTML and server side includes: to automatically include the Last Update of your file:

<I>Last update:   </I>

Which will automatically print:

Last update: 21-Jun-00

The server-side includes can only be used on lydia. Those not on lydia should include a similar format for Last Update, and change the Last Update field by hand whenever the web-page is changed.

Navigation bars.

The navigation bar that can be found at the bottom of many of Bradley's Web pages can be included to make it easier for the viewers of your page to go back to other important pages on Bradley's site. On lydia, this is easy to do with server side includes. To use the navigation bar on lydia, include:

Those not on lydia will have to use the full HTML: