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Why Organize?
Your Website will get out of hand fast if you
don't organize your pages. I know because I've
tried to design Websites without organizing.
It was all fun until I had to find a page to
make changes later. Quickly, I realized that
a site without organization can become very
cluttered and discouraging.
Your site will be more operable and pleasing
to work with in the future if you'll take a
couple of extra minutes when saving your pages
to organize your files.
File Cabinet Method
Think of your "Open" box or "Save File" box
as a file cabinet. It contains all the files
that you yourself save to your hard drive. When
you first start designing your Website, it
will seem easy to keep up with all your files.
You may only have 3-5 pages to begin with, but
as you add pages, it will become more and
more difficult to remember what's what in your
files.
It's extremely important to organize your
"file cabinet" from the beginning -- so start
now.
First and foremost, your Homepage or main
page should be called "index". You will find
that most Internet sites have an "index" page,
which is normally their starting page. The
index page outlines your site and gives
direction and description to your visitors.
Once you have your index page, you'll start
designing other pages for your site. The
examples below demonstrate my site's layout
of categories. The bigger your site, the
more categories will play a role in your
"file cabinet".
Files Located in the First Level of My
"Open" or "Save" Box:
(Asterisk represents yellow file folder.)
*Articles
*Fun
*Learn
*Resources
*Subscribe
*index.htm
Notice that the "Articles" folder is an
opening for many different article files.
Instead of saving all articles that I
write onto the same file level as my index
page or home page, I place them all in the
"articles" folder. This helps me to identify
my articles right away.
Files Located in the Articles section of My
"Open" or "Save" Box:
*101
*7-marketing-methods
*competition
*folders
*headlines
*internet
*introduction
*referrals
*search-engines
*table-dangers
*top-10-tips
*index.htm
Okay. Each file in this section contains an
article except the index.htm page. You're
probably wondering why I have an index page
in this section also. The index page in
this section is the "main" page for my articles.
This page outlines the article section by having
each article categorized and a link to each
article page.
I build an index page for each section that
will have multiple pages. Another way to
illustrate this is to think of a store catalog
being suddenly transferred to the Internet.
You'll have a homepage, categories, and
probably sub categories. From the home page,
you'll have a link to a catalog page with
categories such as "Clothing". Under the
"Clothing" section, you'll have a link to
a "Men's Clothing", "Women's Clothing",
"Children's Clothing", etc. Get the
idea?
Here's what the basic "Open" or "Save" box
on three different levels may look like for
an Internet catalog...
First Level:
*Catalog
*Contact Information
*Order Information
*Special Orders
*What's New?
*index.htm
Second Level (Under Catalog Folder):
*Auto
*Bedding
*Clothing
*Electronics
*Gardening
*Home Repairs
*Infants
*Jewelry
*Sporting Goods
*Toys
*index.htm
Third Level (Under Clothing Folder):
*Women
*Men
*Children
*Infants
*Lingerie
*index.htm
You can see how organizing this catalog on
the Internet offers simplicity and sensibility.
Organizing your folders in this manner will
do the same for your Website.
Just remember, each time you make a new Web
page and save the page or "file" to your hard
drive, stop for a moment and ask yourself,
"Where will I remember to search for this page
later if changes are necessary." Then you can
save each page sensibly and make your Web design
life a lot easier later!
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