Website Authoring Resources

Welcome to the Teachers.Net Website Authoring Resources. We've listed a few of our favorite HTML, CGI, and website management resources. Some of the resources are specifially targeted to the novice programmer, others are exhaustive treatises on advanced programming topics. We hope that you'll find all of them useful, as we try to move you quickly from novice to expert web page programmer!

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RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR NEW PROGRAMMERS

At Teachers.Net we have reviewed a lot of web authoring resources. Some were good, others were indispensable. We consider the following resources essential for new web programmers.

The Teachers.Net Website Manual.
A handy guide targeted at beginning web authors. It explains elementary principles for setting up your website and indexes the most useful tools for creating your own website.
Kevin Werbach's Bare Bones Guide to HTML.
The ultimate desktop reference for web page authoring. Useful for authors of all skill levels. Download it to your desktop as source code, then make a bookmark to the web page on your dektop in your browser. Then print the pages out and keep them handy - you'll quickly find yourself relying on it less and less!
Wade's Web Tutorials.
An excellent place to begin your journey into the study of HTML. This tutorial does a great job of showing you what each html tag does. You may want to download the source for the main tutorial and save it on your desktop and bookmark it. That way you can have lightning-fast access to a handy "cookbook" of HTML tags.
Adam Engst's Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh and Internet Starter Kit for Windows (also available in print from Hayden Books).
This book is essential reading if you want to get a well-rounded understanding of the entire Internet. It will take you from a newbie to low level guru in no time flat! It doesn't cover web authoring, but if you want to really understand the Internet, you should read this one cover to cover.

WEB MARKUP LANGUAGE

Kevin Werbach's Bare Bones Guide to HTML.
The ultimate desktop reference for web page authoring. Download it to your desktop as source code, then make a bookmark to the web page on your dektop in your browser. Then print the pages out and keep them handy - you'll quickly find yourself relying on it less and less!
Netscape's Comprehensive website for web authors
HTML Quick Reference Guide
(another) HTML Quick Reference Guide - a handy guide with visual examples of all the major markup tags.
Neli's Homepage - has some good links to starting web documents, and one advertised as helpful for those creating web pages in a foreign language.
The WWW.W3.ORG HTML information page.
For a comprehensive list of HTML elements see http://www.sandia.gov/sci_compute/html_ref.html

STYLE GUIDES

NCSA Server's Style Guide Page.

Composing Good HTML by James "Eric" Tilton (Willamette U)
Style Guide for Online Hypertext by Tim Berners-Lee (W3)
NCSA HTML Style Sheet
Style Guide for Online Hypertext by Alan Richmond (NASA GSFC)
Elements of HTML Style by Jonathan Cohen
Gareth Rees' style guide
Web Authoring Style Guide - doesn't seem to work.
The HTML Manual of Style (just the preface and TOC) by Larry Aronson.
The Ten Commandments of HTML FAQ

Bad Style Page - a collection of DONTs for HTML.
The HyperTerrorist Checklist of WWWeb Design Errors

Top 10 Things NOT to do on a Web Page

From Grass Roots to Corporate Image - The Maturation of the Web by Christine A. Quinn

Style Guide for NRAO Home Pages
A Basic HTML Style Guide for HEASARC at GSFC.
Style Guides for WebStars at GSFC.
The AstroWeb Consortium has a standard HTML Interchange Format
Design Considerations
Why the web sucks, II by C J Silverio.
Top Ten Ways To Improve Your Home Page & Top Ten Ways To Tell If You Have A Sucky Home Page by Jeffrey M. Glover
Why is the Web So Boring? A Call for Better Interactive Design by Stovin Hayter
Overview of hypertext design theory is an excellent summary of the design issues addressed by many of the style guides.
An HTML 2.0 Pattern Language
A Field Guide to Home Pages by D.C. Denison
Tom's Tips for Web Designers is about graphic images, such as backgrounds and buttons.

Tutorial on Graphics Techniques at the Spider's Web.

Some whys and caveats of HTML
Yale Center for Advanced Instructional Media's (C/AIM) WWW Style Manual by Patrick J. Lynch
HTML Design Guide includes information on HTML, HTML+, HTML 3, and Netscape Extensions.
Thoughts on Web style by jorn, also a few references
What is good hypertext writing? by Jutta Degener
Driving a Newspaper On the Data Highway by Melinda McAdams
Create Your Audience: The pros and cons of Web writing by Rob Jellinghaus
Why I Like the Web by Kristen Ankiewicz gives an artist's perspective - including HTML style.
An article by Jim Hurley on meaningful Anchor Text is here
The TuLiP Project is an online, hypertext project dealing with many facets of Web design. It's more than a style guide or checklist of do's and don'ts for creating Web pages. We delve into the concepts underlying the Web and show how they can be used to design effective Web sites.
Pointers on how to create business web pages that work by J&E Copywriting
Constructing Your Web Site

JAVASCRIPT RESOURCES

JAVA PROGRAMMING

CGI PROGRAMMING

VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) RESOURCES

MIDI, AUDIO, AND VIDEO PLUG-INS

MISCELLANEOUS PLUG-INS

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