UIC Home Page University Library Home Page University Library STAFF Pages

Templates and Instructions

Parts of a Web Page

Each Library Web pages is made up of three parts. These are:

  1. Banner graphic and dropdown menus
  2. Actual Web page content, which is kept in a separate .txt (text) file;
  3. Footer file

Additionally, an .shtml file brings them all together to look like one web page. The .shtml file is called a "shell" file because, aside from any distinguishing template information such as the name of the department, there's no actual information contained in the .shtml file.

Getting Started

When you are ready to build your new webpages, you must first let WOC know. At that time, we will revise your directory structure to prepare for the new process. When we are done, we will notify you that you may begin.

All Library Web pages are stored in the directory /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/depts/lib/ on the tigger server.

At this point, if you look at your directories, you'll note that we have built /txt directories inside your /resources and /services directories. (We've also built /archive directories in each one -- more about them later.) Inside each of the /txt directories are files with the same names as your Web .shtml pages, as in filename.txt -- so, for example, in your /services directory, if you have a page called hours.shtml, you should have a parallel file at services/txt/hours.txt

Making a Page

Downloading template files

The two files you will edit include:

Editing the .shtml file

  1. Using your html or text editor, open up yourpage.shtml
  2. IMMEDIATELY SAVE YOUR FILE WITH A DIFFERENT NAME by selecting 'Save As' and choosing a single, lowercase name. Follow it with .shtml
  3. Edit the <meta> text in the <head> area. The meta text is important because it is indexed and aids in searching the web pages. In all cases, edit the text within the brackets [ ] and remove the brackets.
    4. <title>[UNIQUE PAGE TITLE]: [YOUR DEPARTMENT/UNIT]: UIC University Library</title>
    Try to select a page title that is brief and not already in use on the Library's Web site. The Department/Unit section is optional; use it if you feel it would help users navigate within your department's/unit's pages. An informative title tag is important because it's what appears in the bar at the top of the browser whenever someone goes to your page, and it's what appears in the bookmarks list whenever someone bookmarks your page. It should also match whatever the name of your page appears to be in the main text-- what's in the <h1> tags.
    <meta name="Author" content="CREATOR: [YOUR NAME]">
    Enter the name of the person who originally created the content of the page. Once this is entered the first time, it is NEVER changed again.
    <meta name="Author" content="REVISED BY: [FUTURE EDITORS]">
    Enter the name of the person who revises the page later on. This name changes every time a different person works on the page.
    <meta name="Publisher" content="[YOUR DEPARTMENT/UNIT]">
    This is where the name of your department or unit goes.
    <meta name="description" content="[BRIEF ONE LINE DESCRIPTION OF THE PAGE]">
    Enter content describing your web page in this section. A brief sentence, containing the name of your department and a very brief description of the page content, will do.
    <meta name="keywords" content="[UNIQUE KEYWORDS]">
    Enter a few keywords describing the content of your web page. This should not be a sentence; just some important terms about the content.
    <meta name="date" content="[TODAY'S DATE]">
    Enter the date when the page content was first created. This date does NOT change and is NEVER updated.
  4. Edit the text in the <h1> tags.
    5. <h1>[UNIQUE PAGE TITLE - MUST MATCH FIRST PART OF TITLE ABOVE]</h1>
    This is the title of the page and should match the text that appears before the first colon in the <title> tags.
  5. Edit the .txt include files in the <body> area. This is important to ensure that your content is pulled into the page and displayed on screen when someone visits your page. These include:
    6. <!--#include virtual="txt/[YOURPAGE].txt" -->
    This appears in two places--where the actual page content will appear, and where the revision date appears

Editing the .txt file

  1. Using your html or text editor, open up yourpage.txt
  2. IMMEDIATELY SAVE YOUR FILE WITH A DIFFERENT NAME by selecting 'Save As' and typing the same filename as for the .shtml file. Follow it with .txt
  3. At this point, write the content of your file. Please note: Do not use any <h1> top level headings; the <h1> heading is reserved for the .shtml file.

< Back to the Style Guide Index

STAFF PAGES HOME

University Library
University of Illinois at Chicago
801 S. Morgan, M/C 234
Chicago, Illinois 60607 USA
Administration: 312-996-2716