The CWU templates were constructed to allocate editable areas
where departments would be able to update their content. The homepage has
2 editable areas, which include the left menu links
and the main content area. However, there will be times when you need
to start a new page or edit an existing pages' department title, page name, or some
other uneditable region.
If you are using Dreamweaver, follow the steps below to learn how to update these
uneditable regions by altering the template properties. If you are not using Dreamweaver,
you will need to follow another method to update these areas. Please contact Jesse
Days at daysj@cwu.edu if you need assistance.
To access these areas, first open up your homepage (index.html) in Dreamweaver.
(Get help on how to open a file in
Dreamweaver.) Then go to Modify —> Template Properties...
A dialog box will appear that looks like the image below. Let's discuss each Name
and Value property individually.
(1) DefaultHeader - This option will allow you to bypass the default
homepage header. For example, most of the department homepages have a standard beige header as shown
below. Some departments, however, would prefer more text-heavy content on their homepage.
DefaultHeader by default is set to true. If you set this value to false,
it will delete the main homepage header and allow you more space on the page.
(2) HasLeftMenu - This option is asking whether or not you would like a
left menu area. It is set to true by default. Notice that when you
highlight this option, you are offered two checkboxes as shown below. You may uncheck the
first checkbox if you do not want this left menu area.
If you choose to get rid of this left menu area by unchecking this box, you will then
see another window appear that looks like the one below. Click on the text that says
LeftMenuRegion to highlight it. The bottom of the window will then display a drop down
box labeled "Move Content to New Region." From the drop down menu, choose Nowhere.
What you are doing is telling Dreamweaver that you no longer want the left menu and that the
information that is currently there can be deleted. NOTE: This action will
delete your left menu links and once you close the document you will not be able to restore them.
(3-12) amenu_item#_link and amenu_item#_name -
These fields correspond to the top menu links. By default, these links will be CWU Home,
Admissions, Academic Programs, Alumni/Friends, Life at Central, and Administration.
The CWU Home link will always appear on your pages. However, if you would like
to change these links to something specific to your department you may do so. Notice that there
are up to five amenu_item#_link and amenu_item#_name
variables for you to alter. The URL will be the value for the first link will be entered in
amenu_item1_link. Then you will need to enter the name of the link in
amenu_item1_name. If you do not need all five links, just leave these values blank.
IMPORTANT: If you wish to alter these links, you will need to consider the length
of the link names in relation to user monitor resolutions. For example, let's say I alter
these main 5 links as shown below. My computer monitor's resolution is set to 1024 x 768.
So this looks pretty good.
But what if my resolution was set to a smaller resolution, 800 x 600. Then my links
would look like the image below. Try to make link names as short as possible if you plan
to alter these main 5 links. If it is not possible, consider using your left menu
area for main navigation.
Good rule to follow: For each link, try limiting the link to
a max of 14 characters, including spaces. This should ensure that your links will
always display nicely.
(13-22) bmenu_item#_link and bmenu_item#_name -
Just as there were top menu links that you could alter, there are also optional bottom links.
By default these values are left blank. They work the same way as your top links work: by entering
both a URL and the name for the link. You may enter up to 5 bottom menu links.
IMPORTANT: Again, monitor resolution should be considered when
adding bottom menu links. If your homepage is has a lot of textual content, the page is stretched down.
If stretched too far, the user may miss these links because they would have to scroll down
to see them. See examples below.
Viewing this page with a 1024 x 768 monitor:
Viewing this page with a 800 x 600 monitor:
Good rule to follow: For each link, try limiting the link to
a max of 14 characters, including spaces. This should ensure that your links will
always display nicely.
(23) dept_homepage -
This value will be the CWU homepage address by default. This option will allow you to change
your homepage left menu title address. This field is only activated in conjunction with
the page_name property, which will be discussed below.
(24) dept_name - The value for this property will display
as the main beige header on your homepage. Usually you want this to be your department
name.
(25) dept_title - The value for dept_title will display in the title bar of
your browser. This is the number one thing that search engines look at so it should have
the complete and official department title.
(26) desccontent - The description content is referring to a meta
tag that will be inserted at the top of your Web page's code. The value should be one descriptive sentence
on what this Web page is about. The user will not actually see this
code but it helps search engines to find your page.
For the Student Health and Counseling Center, we could write:
This is the homepage for the CWU Student Health and Counseling Center.
(27) kwcontent - This value will be inserted into a second meta tag
used to help search engines. It stands for "keyword content." Again, this isn't anything
that the user would see on your Web page. Think about what words someone
would type into Google or Yahoo to find your Web page. For the Student Health and Counseling
Center, we could enter:
student, health, counseling, center, cwu, students, help, counsel, central
Notice that I have separated each word with a comma. This ensures that
users can type in any combination of these words to help find the
page. Also, note that capitalization does not matter but plural does.
Do not exceed 20 keywords, as it will not help you.
(28) page_image - This property will hold the filename of the main
homepage image. In this case, our picture for the Student Health and Counseling
Center is called "Wellington.jpg"
(29) page_image_alt - This property will hold the alt
attribute for the main page image. "Alt" stands for alternative text description. Insert
one descriptive sentence that describes this main image. This sentence will appear when
you hover your mouse cursor over the image. Go ahead and give it a try on the above image and
see what you get.
Because a blind user will use a talking browser to hear
this alternative text description, it is important to put some thought into
your description. Imagine you were blind and the contents of a page were being read to you and
out of nowhere you heard "students." Wouldn't it make more sense to you if the alt
read "Picture of CWU students in front of Barge Hall."
(30) page_name - For most departments, you will want to
leave this property blank if it is your main homepage. However, some departments may choose to
use a Level Two (homepage appearance) for a lower tier page. If this is the case, page_name
will be the name of the page you are on. This also means that the heading above the left menu
will then go back to the dept_homepage address listed.
Let's say we want to create a page called Contact Us off of the Student Health and Counseling
Center but we want the page to visually look like the homepage. We would enter the following values
into the template properties:
- dept_homepage: index.html
- This value will hold a Web address or URL of where the Back to
link should go. In most cases this will be the department homepage - index.html
- dept_name: SHCC
- The value entered for this property will display in the title bar of your browser,
and also as the text in the Back to link.
- page_name: Contact Us
- This value will appear as the main beige page header.
