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FAQ - Creating Web Pages


Student Web Pages

Where are my web pages?
Short Answer: On your U: drive in the www folder (U:\initial\username\www)
Detail: Each Olin student is given several megabytes of disk storage space in their "network folder" (commonly called "the U drive").
Your network folder can be accessed in multiple ways:
(see Getting Started for more info on accessing and editing your pages)
--Local Computers: M:\ (shortcut to u:\initial\username\)
--Remote via FTP or via browser -- see Remote Access to Files for detail
Web space and a sample starting page is automatically generated for all students stored at u:\username\www sub-folder of the network folder. You DO NOT need to request web space. Visitors can access the web pages via the uniform resource locator (URL) in this format: http://students.olin.wustl.edu/~username.
SAMPLE: A student named John Smith with username smithjo would use the URL: http://students.olin.wustl.edu/~smithjo

IMPORTANT--Be sure to retain the name default.htm or the page will not display without the full address and filename.

How can people view my page?
Visitors can access the web pages at any time if you provide your username. Combine your user name with the uniform resource locator (URL) in this format: http://students.olin.wustl.edu/~username

As an alternative, you can request to be added to the appropriate student (undergrad, grad/doctoral) list by completing the Show My Page form.

Are there guidelines I should know about?
Remember that you are using University resources and should abide by the University's Code of Conduct. Further, we remind you that it is unethical to use the University's resources for commercial gain. This includes selling ad space on your pages.

Web use is discussed in Washington University's Computer Use Policy as well as in Olin's Student Computing Handbook. Specific guidelines for Web are also available for Student Web Pages

Regarding Copyrights
If you intend to post some content (graphics and/or text) on your page that you did not create, make sure that you receive permission to do so from the owner of the copyright on that work. If the copyright owner refuses to allow you to use their graphic on your site, respect their decision and find some other way to accomplish your design goal. Using a copyrighted image without permission is illegal, and the university has been threatened with legal action a number of times over this sort of thing.

For more in-depth information about copyrights and the Net, see The Copyright Website (or just do a search on your favorite search engine): Note: Some designers do make collections of images and animations available that are freely downloadable without the need for permission to be granted. You may copy such images freely and use them on your own pages. Do abide by the authors' rules, though - some artists request that you provide them with credit via a link on your page.

Your Own Web Pages

Getting Started
Modify the default.htm file to add text, graphics, photos, or links to other pages and sites. Create link pages as desired. You don't have to be a web designer or know html programming to accomplish this (although it wouldn't hurt to know at least a little bit about html before you venture into the land of html authoring tools). NEW! Available Fall 2000, we have created a "web starter" application that will create a web page for you. Read the instructions and create a simple web page without knowing a thing!
IMPORTANT--Be sure to retain the name default.htm or the page will not display without the full address and filename.

You can edit your pages one of several ways: You have four megabytes of space in your folder to do with as you will. An alternate use for the space could be as a storage area for your papers & presentations so you don't have to carry a disk around. NOTE, however, that you should store things you want kept private in your main directory, not your WWW subdirectory; others can see the contents of your WWW subdirectory.

What editing tools should I use to edit web pages?
For editing HTML, we recommend using a text processor (see HTML editor recommendations) that makes it easier to write raw HTML rather than a WYSIWYG (or "what-you-see-is-what-you-get") editor; those editors generally produce messy HTML. You're better off (especially in the beginning) learning true HTML -- which isn't hard -- to understand basic HTML before relying on Web authoring software. That way, you know just what you can do, how you can do it, and how to resolve any problems you encounter.
opinion--web skills are currently in high demand and even a little knowledge could prove beneficial.

If you opt to use one of the many available visual editors or authoring tools, look for something that is made especially for web pages and that will let you view the html code so you can troubleshoot. (see visual editor recommendations)

Where can I learn more?

References and Tutorials

Many on-line references and tutorials are available, see some of our favorites in the list below.

Tips and Hints

There is such a thing as badly written HTML! Once you start getting comfortable with the basics, check out our HTML Tips page, which shows you some common mistakes to avoid and has some advice on page construction.

View Source

Finally, one of the best ways to learn HTML is to see how other people write their pages. Find a page you like and use your browser's View Source command to see the HTML source code behind it. It's a great way to (legally) steal ideas on how to make your pages better!