WEBMASTERS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
Members present: John
Chandler, Martin Fettman, Tom Harmon, Charlie Kerlee, Jill Lenz, Mary Pridgen, Linda
Tarnoff, Sallie Varner
Sallie Varner, Chair, began
the meeting at
I. Old Business
Redesign -- Our final page design was presented to the Executive Council by Mary Pridgen and approved. It was posted Wednesday morning, 10/8. It was noted that the “In the News” column shifts to the right after the caduceus disappears and fly out menus appear. Sallie will work in Photoshop on matching the width of the caduceus to the fly out menus to avoid the shift. Jill will run the page through some HTML and accessibility validators and pass on any errors and fixes to Sallie. Once validated, the accessibility logo with link to incorporated accessibility features will be added to the center bottom of the page.
II. New Business
1. Questions
from Linda Tarnoff -- At the bottom of the pages, where it shows the accessible
picture, is that picture still to be there?
How should the bottom of each web page be set up? Yes, the accessibility
picture should be at the bottom. Please refer to the Top Level or Minor Level
template of the CVMBS Web Style Guide at http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/webmaster/templates/
2. Newly
redesigned OT web page at http://www.cahs.colostate.edu/ot/
by Craig Spooner was announced on the CSU
Web Administrators listserv for feedback.
Per Craig, the design of the site relies almost entirely on style sheets
without the use of layout tables, and many features were included to make the
content accessible to users running non_standards_compliant browsers, or
browsers with JavaScript or style sheet support disabled. The site has been tested for compatibility and
visual consistency in IE/Win 4, 5.0, 5.5, and 6, Mozilla/Win 1.4, Opera/Win
7.11, Netscape/Win 6.2, 7.0, and 7.1, and even Netscape/Win 4.7 and 4.8
(although support for this browser is somewhat spotty!). On the Mac, it has been checked and verified
in IE 5.2 and Safari 1.0.
One feature Craig points out is the ability to tab through the main navigation
menu.
It was built using XHTML and Cascading Style Sheet Positioning (CSS_P), with
full compliance to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards. The use of CSS_P
over more commonly used layout tables is important because it separates the
content from its visual appearance, making information on the site easily
available to all users, regardless of the technology used to display it.
Special attention was paid to the site's accessibility, including the extensive
use of equivalent text for all images, table captions and summaries, skip links
for text_only browsers, and keyboard access for all links, including the
hierarchical navigation menus.
Feedback for Craig Spooner, the OT Department's Instructional Designer and Web
Manager included the following comments:
· Appealing mix of graphics and text.
· Like the rotating photos on the home page each time page is refreshed.
· Clean logo with green bar nicely sets top apart from main content.
· Top area on home page with rotating photos a little large in height.
· Second level fly outs under top navigation bar are annoying in general. For example, if you mouse over “Your Resources” and then intend to move your mouse to “Current Students” and you move *diagonally* left instead of straight down and left, the menu changes.
· Good consistent, professional look of photos.
· High quality, current staff pictures. Wish ours were current instead of using badge pictures taken the first day of employment.
· Although pictures are generally larger, they are not super huge and the high quality of the photos allows for the larger size.
· Found two typos on http://www.cahs.colostate.edu/ot/department.htm. In the first sentence, the word “of” is repeated and in the 3rd bullet point, the word “toward” is misspelled in the last occurrence of that word.
· Appreciate the Photoshop work of selecting each person out of their backgrounds for all the photos on the home page.
· Like how the page resizes the layout nicely for different browser window sizes, especially full screen.
·
Took a peek at the code to see CSS Position attributes
such as “float left”. Agreed our next redesign should incorporate CSS-P. Appreciated
all the comments for other/future designers reference in the code. Noticed the
use of a library item for the repeating info in the footers of all pages.
3. From Jill -- Announcement of new software versions
a.
Dreamweaver MX 2004.
Since the Dean’s Office purchased Dreamweaver 4.0 and maintenance for
the Webmasters a couple of years ago, two new versions of Dreamweaver have been
released, MX and MX2004. Webmasters interested in moving to either of these
versions may contact Jill Lenz, however there is not full College support for
these new versions yet. CTSS offered MX training this fall however, the
Dreamweaver workshops taught by Jill in
b.
Photoshop CS is the latest version after 7.0. Although
the version was just announced and is not due to release until November, CSU
Software Cellar will begin taking orders on October 23. Remember that it’s
cheaper to buy a new license through the Software Cellar for $157.50 vs. the
complete box version with CD and manual for just under $300. Network Services
will have one master installation CD purchased by the Dean’s Office so you don’t
have to buy your own. John Chandler who is still using 6.0 expects to switch
directly to CS, skipping 7.0 – this is a good idea. Jill will showcase the new
features of CS at the next meeting.
4. Question
from John Chandler regarding FTP for colleagues outside the University. How are
other folks in the College distributing large image files back and forth to
those not associated with the University? Marty Fettman suggests asking them if
they have an FTP to log into instead of vice versa. Tom Harmon recommended
changing the password to your T or U drive to let an outsider FTP in, then
remember to change your password after they no longer need access. For within
the University, but not in the College, they can get an eID first then access
to College resources. Another idea would be the ability to activate a guest
password for 24 hours only then automatically disable it. John Chandler mentioned
the EM Center uses a write protected file server. When outsiders need in, he
activates access for 10 minutes then disables. Charlie Kerlee also uses write
and delete protection for the CATS Lab directory of the T drive as this allows
others in the College to get files, but not put or erase files. Jill mentioned
she is having an FTP workshop this Thursday, October 16 from
The next meeting will be held
on Tuesday, Tuesday, November 11,
Minutes submitted by Jill Lenz.
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