Internal USGS Access Only

HTML Document Preparation Summary

Validate!: Use an html validation tool. (The explanation of this is covered in the next section.)
Check the Links: Programs such as Xenu (Windows, free), linklint (Unix, free), and webxref (perl, free), can be used to assure that all the links in a document, or a site, are valid.
Keep Download Times Down: According to recent surveys, 70% of US Internet users have access to broadband. Keep file sizes associated with your Web pages to a minimum. Consider using tools to determine download times.
Formatting is not Entirely under your Control: Pages may look different depending on the browser used! Users can control many aspects of the layout (and they should be able to).
Spend more Energy on Content than Appearance: One can spend hours tinkering with small changes in format. HTML is changing quickly and formatting is best done with HTML 4 or html5 and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Try Viewing the Document from lynx or with Graphics Turned Off: This will be a good check on whether your documents will be usable by the visually impaired or by PDA owners. Many of the same characteristics that make a document accessible to the handicapped also make the document accessible to PDAs and the new cellphones with web-browsing capabilities.
Use the Document Checklist: A summary of all the requirements for USGS web pages.

slide 43

"Mastering a Web Site" online course
Created and maintained by Lorna Schmid and David Boldt.
http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/training/webmaster/html_points.html
Last modified: Wed Oct 15 17:15:58 EDT 2003