Wisconsin Biographies
Project FAQ's
Back to the Wisconsin Biographies Home Page
Q. I don't have any web space available. Can I still
be a County Coordinator?
A. Yes. There
are a number of servers on the web that provide small amounts of
free
web space. See
the item entitled "Free Web Space" below.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. How do I get my biographies on the Wisconsin
Biographies Page?
A. You don't. Your biographies need to be
kept with your county page on your server.
Contact: Linda Pingel
Q. Why do I have to use text files? Won't the
biographies need to be in html format?
A. You don't have to use the text format.
Some people prefer text because it's easier
to create. There
are pros and cons for Text or HTML, it is up to the county
coordinator to decide
which will work best for them.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. Can new biographies be typed directly into e-mail?
A. Yes, however, please be aware that there are
some pitfalls associated with typing
biographies directly into an
e-mail. Not the least of which will be improperly
formatted biographies.
That means someone has to do a lot more work to make the
biography work on the
web. The other reason is simpler; if you save each
biography
as a separate file, you will
only have to type it once.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. Why do I have to leave a message on the Bio-L
mailing list when I add new
biographies?
A. So both the State Coordinator and the
Assistant Coordinator have the information
on all new biographies.
The State coordinator maintains a list of biographies and
a biographies archive.
The Assistant Coordinator is responsible for maintaining
the names index.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. I already have a large number of biographies as
html documents. Do you expect
me to convert the
all to text files?
A. We understand the amount of time and effort
that has gone into typing all those bios;
Therefore, if you are building
a County Biographies site from a pre-existing html
library, go ahead and use
what you have. This does however significantly
increase
the workload of the state
coordinator. New sites with no pre-existing html
library
should adopt the text file
format.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. Is there a standard way to name the biographies?
A. Not really. Al long as the file is in
the correct format (DOS text) and has the ".txt"
extension, it should be just
fine. If you use Windows95 to create your biography
files, a good way to name them
is to use the full name of the subject in lower case
without any spaces or
punctuation. For example: Enos T. Taylor would becomes
enosttaylor.txt. This is not a
requirement, just a good idea. If you use Windows
3.1x, you could abbreviate the name
like ettaylor.txt. Once the file is uploaded to
your server, you can then rename it
to a more descriptive name if you wish.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. I don't know a thing about creating web pages but
I am willing to learn. Can
someone help me get
started?
A. Absolutely! You can contact Linda Pingel
for some pointers. There is also a sample
page you can modify and
use. See the section below entitled "HTML Sources".
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. Does my county page have to look just like the
sample page?
A. Not at all. In fact, we encourage you to
be creative with your web page. Make it
your own creation. Keep
in mind, however, that a lot of graphics on a page make it
look nicer, but can make
it painfully slow when loading.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. Where can I find those neat buttons and
backgrounds for my web page?
A. There are many web sites that have graphics
collections available for download.
Check the links in the
"Graphics"
section below. Or, if you are adventuresome,
you can create them yourself.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. How do I get my page and biographies on my server?
A. You will have to upload them using an FTP
program.
Contact:
Linda Pingel
Q. How should I organize my biographies?
A. There are no set rules on storing your
biographies. Here are some rough guidelines
though: Keep backup copies of
all your biographies on your local PC just in case.
You can keep your
biographies in a sub directory on the server, just make
sure the
hyper links are correct.
Once you have established a system for naming and storing
your bios, stay with it!
Contact:
Linda Pingel
There are a number of sources available that offer free web space where you can keep your county page. No attempt will be made here to give instructions for using these sites. Please visit each site and see what they have to offer. Some of these sites provide a suite of tools that help make managing your page much easier.
Free WWW sites:
Rootsweb
There are hundreds of sites on the web offering instruction on using HTML and creating web pages. Here are a couple of good ones:
The NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML
HTML
Tutorials by John C. Gilson
So You Want to Make a Web Page
There is no better way to kill a web page than to load it with graphics. Graphics download slowly from the host server and an impatient user will often hit the STOP or BACK button instead of waiting for a large graphic file to download. Many very successful web pages contain no graphics at all. The creative use of color, and a clean, well thought out page layout are the real keys to any page. However, very few of us design web pages this way. We all like to be individuals and our web pages usually reflect this. There are a few things you can do to make graphics a little easier to live with. Use small meaningful graphics on your web pages. A small graphics used as a Hyper Link carries more meaning than does a photo of the family pet. Try to use GIF files whenever possible. If you must use large graphics, use an interlaced GIF so the user isn't stuck waiting for each graphic to load completely. Remember, the purpose of a graphic is to get and keep a visitor's attention.
Here are some places to get really nice graphics for your page:
Gifpile
Genealogy Graphics
Harry
the Cat - Animated Gifs
Carla's Graphic and Web
Designs
Nutmeg
Creations
Graphics
by Barbara
Copyright © 2001 Linda
Pingel.
All rights reserved.
For problems or questions regarding this web, contact Linda
Pingel.