Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS)
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS)

Institute of Advanced Studies, The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra ACT 0200

Coombsweb Web Publishing
Standards & Guidelines

Page Standards

Please send any suggestions or comments to Helen Walker (helen@coombs.anu.edu.au)

Use <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> command to provide WHITE background colour for pages with the Corporate Information. You may wish to use BGCOLOR command to generate other colours which will provide the sense of place and overall uniformity to the collection of pages you are placing online.
The command <IMG ALT="ANU crest" SRC="/images/crest.gif"></A> is used to declare the ANU logo.
Remember to provide the name of the appropriate Division/Department, followed by the name of the Research School to which you belong, followed by the reference to the IAS and a hypertext to the official Web-entry point to the ANU. The end of the header is indicated by a horizontal line generated by a single HR tag.

Example:
ANU crest
Department of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS)
Institute of Advanced Studies,
The Australian National University, (ANU) Canberra ACT 0200
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keep the description of the page (which is entered as a <H1>) the same as the name entered in the <TITLE> area. Make it as descriptive as possible for two reasons
- it is saved as bookmarks
- it is used as a link description by search programs on ANU and international site/links catalogues
Use the <H1> </H1> tags only once per page.
If required include a short table of contents to give users a quick glance of what is on the page.

Ensure the document has a 'Last updated:' area at the bottom of the page. Users will then know the date when the web page was last modified.

Example:
Last updated 30 May 1996.
Ensure the document has a 'Page Maintainer: (together with the email address)' area at the bottom of the page. Users will then know the person responsible for corrections/updates to the web page in question. For additional details see section on Coombsweb Feedback Address.

Example:
Page Maintainer: Helen Walker (helen@coombs.anu.edu.au)
Ensure the document has a relevant 'Copyright:' statement at the bottom of the page. You may wish to make it more or less restrictive than the sentence provided on this page. While it is not 100% effective, if may help to discourage indiscriminate copying/dissemination of your materials and will be useful in any action, formal or otherwise, against the plagiarists.
Remember to state explicitly the URL of your document. An URL of the web page is useful for when the document is printed and should be used on all Coombsweb Server web pages and entered as the last line.

Example:
URL http://coombs.anu.edu.au/Standards/description.html
The last line of your document should provide hypertext links back to the Coombsweb home page and two of the School's Virtual Libraries:

Example:
[Asian Studies WWW VL] [Coombsweb Home Page] [Soc. Sciences WWW VL]

For an exact layout of the footer please refer to the Coombsweb Web Page Template

Coombsweb Web page should not be longer than three to six screens. This limit is recommended for two reasons:
- to economise on download time and be user friendly to those using slow connections
- to facilitate quick and efficient response to Search programs
If the document is longer than a screen or two, consider adding a short table of contents in front of it.

Each official Coombsweb page will have the ANU logo and full name at the top. This requirement is waived for personal pages with private or information unrelated to work.
Each Home Page will usually have some identifying feature (eg logo, background colour) and this may be carried through on all follow-on pages (eg scaled down logo in top RH corner of each page). But if possible, in a fashion that does not demand extra image downloads.
Table of contents (with hyperlinks) on Home Pages are recommended to simplify navigation.
An active index (with hyperlinks) or search facility is recommended to reference all web pages of large documents eg books, large manuals or reference materials.

Always acknowledge/identify the author of the publication and provide the necessary details (name, postal address, contact numbers, email address etc). This helps to attribute the online materials and generate positive publicity for the person who collected and published materials in question. For additional details see section on Coombsweb Feedback Address.
In electronic publishing it is very important to use plain English: cut out the waffle.
Always carefully proof-read your text before publishing it online. Spelling mistakes or even innocent typing errors are highly embarrassing, while factual errors or misleading information can be lethal to the reputation of both the Author and Maintainer alike.
Remember a picture is worth a thousand words, but it may take 100 times as long to download. If you make a link to a page with a large (say more than 20Kb) picture, (eg. a map, a diagram) indicate in the annotation to the link, the size of the referenced picture.
In presentation of your materials avoid over-complex or fancy formats. Your task is to provide information of the highest posssible quality and not to act as a stage designer for a surrealist show.

Each Division and School using Coombsweb Server, should allocate a specific alias address to be used for suggestions and comments users wish to make on the Corporate Information's layout, design, content, bugs etc. This address should be general (i.e. it should not be a personal email addres of any particular person) so that its use can be freely allocated to whoever is currently responsible for a given group of corporate documents.

Example:
signature alias as used by the maintainer of the pages with RSPAS Corporate Information:
rspas-www@coombs.anu.edu.au
The webmaster@coombs.anu.edu.au address should be used as a default on Coombsweb web pages not maintained by a particular group. Currently it is linked to an email address of the System's Programmer (IT Services Section, RSSS) in charge of the coombs.anu.edu.au machine.
Allocation of the group/function specific alias address should be arranged with Coombsweb Chief Editor.

Last updated: 11 June 1998

Page Maintainer: Helen Walker (helen@coombs.anu.edu.au)

URL http://coombs.anu.edu.au/Standards/standards.html