Chapter 7 -Planning your Site

Now that you have acquired the correct skills, set up a host, and know how to upload your files - you are ready to start planning your site. I will start with listing what you need.

What do you need?

Index: The first thing that you need is your index. As its name suggests, this page is the starting point to go to all of your pages. Most hosts require this page to be “index.html", although some require it to be something different, like “main.html”. When you type in the URL for your site, this is the page that will open. Next, you have to decide on a navigation structure.

Navigation Structure

Your navigation structure is how your content pages will be linked together. I will list the different types, and their pros and cons.

Tree: This is the most popular, and most efficient, type of navigation. It is awesome for large sites, and is easy way to organize information. The only con is that it requires a lot of separate index pages, to link to different topics in each topic. This is an example of what it looks like.

This is the type of layout I use.

Slideshow: Like it’s name implies, this navigation type is like a slideshow. This leads you forward and back, from page to page. Some cons are that it only works for small sites. Here is an example.

This works well for photo albums. Go to my slideshow creator to make a slideshow.

Table of Contents: This is a large number of pages, all connected to an index page. It is nice for a collection of miscellaneous articles, or for a small site. Here is what it might look like.

This might be good for a homepage, or a portfolio.

These are the main types of navigation. There may be variations, but they all share the same principals. Now that you have figured out the type of navigation your site will use, you need to review your audience.

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