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This document provides guidelines for coding and formatting Artemis Data Book documents in hypertext markup language (HTML). Please refer to the Writing Style Guide for guidelines on writing style you should use when writing a document for the Artemis Project Web Site. For a more global perspective on the design of web sites, refer to the list of External Web Design Guides in section 9.4.2 of the Artemis Data Book.
Your document might require some variation from this style guide, but please follow these guidelines as closely as you reasonably can. Using this style guide:
This html style guide will change as different situations arise, so be sure to check this document regularly for updates. If you have any questions or concerns, drop a line to the ASI Web Team at <asi-web@asi.org>.
All documents on the ASI Web Site are managed through WebSite Director. This package provides means for tracking a document through a number of editing and approval stages, and through successive revision levels. In addition, WebSite Director also adds standard headers and footers to a document, so a document should only contain the information that goes in the body of the document.
Headers and footers are maintained as templates within WebSite Director, which permits the headers and footers for every document in the Artemis Data Book to be updated by a single change to the template. This assures uniformity of the headers and footers, and makes it much easier for you to maintain the documents.
For example, view the source for this document. In this document, the comments <!-- Everything {above|below} this line came from WebSite Director --> were added at the beginning and end of the HTML code. Everything above and below these comments is added automatically by WebSite Director. The Artemis Data Book (ADB) document template provides an example of this usage.
Many of the "smart" internet publishing packages use a lot of forced formatting (Font sizes and styles, text and link colors, table widths, adjustment of link references for document location, etc.) and browser-specific HTML features. Avoid the use of these packages for documents to be published on the ASI Web Site. It is much easier to maintain documents that do not use unnecessary forced formatting.
The <H2 ALIGN="CENTER"> tag is used for the main document ADB references and title in the standard header template.
Use <H3>, <H4>, and <H5> tags for subheadings in documents. These are normally used with the default left-justify alignment.
Except in cases where some special effect is needed, do not force font sizes or styles. Where a special effect is needed, use relative (+ -) font sizes; mixing of absolute and default fonts may not produce the effect you intended.
If you want to emphasize something in text, don't use all caps. Use Bold or Italic.
The page background will be set to solid white (BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF") by the standard header template. Do not use background images.
Do not specify colors for link text. Leave them set to the user's default.
Forced typefaces are not allowed in the Artemis Data Book unless there is absolutely no other way to achieve a required effect. To date, we have never encountered a need, or excuse, for forcing a typeface.
If listing members of Artemis Society International, include:
For example,
Adam Selene - member, Electronic Communications Technical Committee <adamselene@asi.org>
Use .GIF or .JPG format files. They can either be linked or embedded. Large graphics often work best on low resolution displays if a percentage width specification is used. This will cause the browser to resize the image to fit the screen size. This rule is inappropriate in some situations where the image becomes too distorted by resizing. All graphics files are stored in the Imagery Library. Submit these in advance to obtain URLs for linking.
Do not use HTML tables to present tabular numerical data. Use <PRE></PRE> tags instead and align the data using spaces. This permits the data to be incorporated into spreadsheets, data bases, and word processors with minimal effort.
Where the use of tables is appropriate, either leave the table width at default, or use percentage width specifications. Avoid specifying table widths in pixels, especially for tables wider than 600 pixels, because they will not resize to fit different screen resolutions.
Avoid the use of excessive links embedded within the text of a document, and where embedded links are used, be sure that the context clearly indicates what the link does. If a large number of links is needed, list them in a separate section with an appropriate header such as "Related Documents" and provide enough explanation of each one for the reader to have a good idea of where he is going.
Make links relative to the web server root for documents in the Artemis Project web site. For example, within the Artemis Data Book links generally will start with "/adb/". Don't put in an absolute link starting with "http://wwww.asi.org/" because with an absolute link back to the main Artemis Project web site, mirror sites won't work.
Show phrases Artemis Project and Artemis Data Book in boldface in the text of a paragraph. Don't link to these phrases; the navigation aids in the footer provide sufficient links back to the main parts of the Artemis Project web.
This document is updated from time-to-time to reflect current Artemis Society policy and practice. Please check frequently for updates.
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