To complete the major assignments for this course, you will need to activate, set up, and use your CSU web space. This web space is provided to all CSU students as a part of ITP Choice. If you are already using your CSU email account, your web space is also already available. If you have not already activated your CSU email/web space, you should complete the form available at the Hub now.
Software
Important: DO NOT use Microsoft Word to create any document that you plan to move to the Web. Word's "Save as Webpage" feature produces bloated, broken HTML files that will not function properly. If you want spell checking and other text editing features (and you should), use Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage.
FrontPage is part of the software package included with your technology fee. If you would like to use it, you will need to go to the Hub to have FrontPage installed on your laptop. Unfortunately, Frontpage is a limited program that does not adequately support XHTML and style sheets (CSS), which we will use in this class.
Fortunately, the machines in our classroom give us access to Adobe Dreamweaver, an industry-standard Web design and maintenance tool. You will learn to use a few basic Dreamweaver functions as a part of our class.
The following directions refer to Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. (A separate study guide explains Cascading Style Sheets.)
Setting up your site on your flash drive
Insert your drive into the lab computer. Using the Finder, navigate to your flash drive. Create the following folders and subfolders:
- CMS 3710
- 3710
- experiments
- project2
- quizzes
- Offline files
- 3710
Next, open Dreamweaver. Complete the following steps to create a new site:
- Select "Sites > New Site"
- In the window that opens, name the site "YourLastName web site" and leave the second box blank. Select "Next."
- Select "No, I do not want to use server technology...." Select "Next."
- Select "Edit local copies on my machine...."
Click the folder icon to the right of the text box near the bottom of this window. Navigate to the "CMS 3710" folder on your flash drive. Click "Choose" and then "Next." - Change the "Access" drop-down menu to "FTP." In the boxes that appear, fill in the following:
- Host: student.claytonstate.net
- Host directory: [leave blank]
- Login: [use the first part of your csu email address]
- Password: [leave blank]
Important: DO NOT fill in the blank that automatically saves your password. If you save your password on the lab machine, you increase the chances that someone will mistakenly erase or change your web site. Instead, leave the password field blank so that Dreamweaver will prompt you for your password when you connect to your remote site.
- Select "No, do not enable check in and check out...."
- Select "Done" and "Done."
You have now successfully created a user account on this computer that will make it easy to edit your CSU site. When you are done, the folders--displayed in green in Dreamweaver's "Files" panel--should look similar to the graphic below. (Ignore the three files below the "quizzes" folder for now.)
The next step will be to create your home page for the course. This process is detailed on the Project 1 directions page.