Creating a Stanford Website
Disclaimer: There is no guarantee that these directions are completely accurate or that they will work. Let me know if they are unclear or incorrect so that I can fix them for you and other people. If there are things that should be added, let me know as well. I will not make your website for you, but if you have specific questions, I am willing to help you (polisci students) out - just send me an email or stop by and see me.
Stanford supplies everyone with a SUNet ID with space on their servers. This space can be used to set up a website or to store files so that you can access them from other locations.
Software to Install:
From ITSS, http://www.stanford.edu/dept/itss/ess/pc/pc.html,
download PC Leland (if you don’t have it) and PC-AFS. Install both,
following the instructions from the site where you downloaded the software.
There is also a mac version of most of these programs. The page is available at: http://www.stanford.edu/group/itss/ess/mac/mac.html
AFS is a program that will allow you to easily access your server space. It is also a secure connection, which means that your password and files are much less likely to get stolen than if you use a normal FTP program. If have an older version of Windows, you won’t be able to use AFS. In this case, you’ll want to download an FTP program (like WS_FTP which is installed in the computer lab, but WS_FTP is not a secure program). A secure FTP program, SecureFX, is available from Stanford at the above website.
If you choose to use FTP, ITSS has some instructions which may be helpful at: http://acomp.stanford.edu/acpubs/Docs/set_webspace/pc.html
Mounting the drive (gaining access to your server space):
Once PC-Leland and AFS are installed, right click on the PC Leland icon in
the task bar at the lower right corner of the screen and choose “mount”,
and then “user”. Then enter your SUNet ID. A new window should
open with a drive letter (probably z). You can now save stuff here like you
would in any other folder.
You may have to repeat this mounting procedure to have access to your drive in the future. If you go to My Computer and the drive isn’t listed, mount the drive again. If the drive is listed, but the icon has a red x on it, then right click on the icon, and select disconnect. Then remount the drive.
If you are using an FTP program, you won’t be mounting a drive. Instead, you should create a folder on your computer where you want to store all of your web files so that you can upload them later.
Putting files up on the server:
In this new window you’ve opened (new drive), open the WWW folder. If
there isn’t one, create one. If you had to create your own, it is possible
that the security settings may be automatically set in such a way that you
won’t be able to see your pages over the internet. If this happens,
let me know, and I can show you how to change them.
You can create other folders besides the WWW folder to save other documents in if you want to be able to access them from more than one computer (using AFS or FTP). This way you don’t have to email things to yourself all the time to access them.
Everything saved in the WWW folder or any subfolders will be accessible over the internet. Your main web page should be called index.html (or index.htm). This way, when someone goes to your site (http://www.stanford.edu/~yourSUNetID), this will be the page that automatically comes up.
Any additional files (additional web pages, pictures, word documents, pdf files) that you want to link to should be saved in this folder as well. It is best to save files without spaces in the file name. All web pages must end in the extension .html or .htm (yes, there are exceptions to this, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, just stick with either .html or .htm – it doesn’t matter which you use).
Anything saved in this folder is now accessible over the web. You can access files by typing the above address followed by the name of the saved file. For example, if you saved a file in this folder called mypaper.doc, then you could get to it over the web by http://www.stanford.edu/~yourSUNetID/mypaper.doc. Even if you don’t link to a file saved in this folder, it can still be accessed by typing the file name as above, and it is possible that other people may be able to get to the file as well.
Note: Putting files in the WWW folder means that they are live (they can be seen over the web as they are). If you are working on changes to a file, then you may want to save the file somewhere on your own computer until it is ready to be put on the web. Then copy it over to the WWW folder.
If you are using FTP, then you should save all your files in a folder on your computer and them upload them when you are ready to put them on the web.
Editing Files (for the beginner):
The easiest and most familiar program to use if you don’t know HTML
is Word. To create a new web page, go to the File menu ? New ? Blank Web Page.
You can also just open up a normal document and later “Save as”
a web page. Just make sure the file ends in the extension .html or .htm once
it has been saved.
Almost any formatting that you can do to a normal word document you can also do to a webpage.
To add a link to another file or page:
Highlight the text that you want to show up as a link on the page. Then
click on the icon in the tool bar that looks like a world with an infinity
sign on it. You can also do this by going to Insert menu ? Hyperlink (or
hitting ctrl+k). Select the Existing file option of the left side of the
window. Then go to the WWW folder where you have the main page saved and
select the file you want to link to.
It is generally best to have files on your website in pdf format (instead of Word .doc format), but you can put up .doc files as well. There is a free utility (I’ve never tried it) to create pdf’s at: http://www.pdf995.com/ Adobe will also let you create 5 for free at: http://createpdf.adobe.com Once you have selected the file, just click ok, and the link should show up on your page.
To link to another website:
Same as above, except there is an address field in the insert hyperlink
window where you can type the web address, including the http://
To add a link to another place on the same page:
First, put the cursor on the page in the place that you want to link to.
For example, if you have a section at the bottom of the page called Teaching
Experience, and you want to create a link at the top of the page that will
take you to the bottom of the page, put the cursor in from of the heading
for Teaching Experience. Then go to the Insert menu ? Bookmark. Give the
location a name (in this example, you could name it teaching). Make sure
the hidden bookmark box is checked, then click the Add button.
Then go to the text that you want to turn into a link (in this example, probably the words teaching experience somewhere near the top of the page) and highlight the text. Click on the hyperlink icon (or ctrl+k or Insert menu ? hyperlink) and then on the left side of the dialog window, click on the option that says “Place in this document” and then the place should appear under the bookmarks section. Select the name of the bookmark you want, and then click OK. You now have your link.
To remove a link from some text:
Highlight the text that is a link, click on the hyperlink icon (or ctrl+k
or Insert menu ? hyperlink), and then there is a remove link button near
the bottom right side of the dialog box. Click it and the text will remain,
but no longer be linked.
To change background, font, colors, etc:
Most things can be changed the same way they would be in any Word document.
To change the background color, go to the Format menu ? background and then
pick a color. Fonts, font sizes, alignment, font color, spacing, etc. can
all be changed as normal.
To add a picture:
Go to the insert menu ? picture. Choose “from file” and choose
the file. You can right click on the picture, choose properties and then
edit the size and such.
Once you have made changes, just make sure to save the file again, and the changes will be updated when you (or anyone else) goes to view your page over the web (you may have to hit refresh or reload the page to see the changes take affect).