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HOW TO CREATE YOUR ATPoBtVS
Step 1: Create a text version of your archive. |
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Note: black typeface indicates directions, steps, or notes. A blue typeface line is HTML code, and the red typeface designates words that you'll be replacing with information from your own edited thread. - Solitude1056 STEP 1: Create a text version of your archive Title: TITLE OF FIRST POST IN THREAD The date format (for the sake of non-Americans who put the month/date in different order) should be the month’s name, the numeral day, and the year in four digits. Use the three-letter abbreviation for the month. For instance, instead of writing 05/15/01, write May 15 2001. Once you’ve done the heading, skip a line and start listing the conversations in the thread. Try to end up with text arranged something like the following. This will make adding the HTML code easier. Post #1: AUTHOR OF POSTAnd so on to the end of the thread. (The example shows three paragraphs per post, but there may be more or less. This is just an example - you do not have to force your post into only three paragraphs!) Bear in mind while you edit that this is intended for archives. You may prefer to edit out any shorter off-topic comments, or you may choose to keep them. While there’s plenty of space right now, there may not always be, so judicious editing for length is always a good idea. In some cases you may have several posts from one person in a row. You may choose to edit these posts into a single posting, and designate the different responses by including text such as “In response to...” or “getting back to the original post” to alert readers of the direction of conversation or the main recipient of the poster’s response. return to list of steps STEP 2: Index your archive. Edit out any repetitive words such as “the” whenever possible, which means listing “The Gift” as “Gift.” Include shorthand versions of the titles as well, such as “IWMTLY” or “IWRY.” Since it’s hard to guess how someone may search the archives later, doing a thorough indexing now will save later readers the hassle of trying to figure out whether your thread contains the full-name version of the episodes referenced, or just the short-hand ones. Include the names of all posters in the thread in the keyword list. Don’t include the editor’s name, if not one of the posters, since this is just for keeping straight who did what if there’s confusion about code or text. Once you’ve got all that in place, you’re ready to start adding the html code. If you’ve prepared carefully, this part is actually pretty straightforward. STEP 3: Open Notepad or another generic text-only application. return to list of steps STEP 4: Insert and edit the HTML code for page setup and indexing. <head><title> On the second line, between <title> and </title>, insert the thread title. (The space for your title will have a limit of about 15 words, so you may want to edit the Thread Title if it’s longer. You can use the full title later, in the body of the page.) In the third line, insert your title thread again, inside the quotes. On the fourth line, insert your whole keyword list between the quotes, with commas between each phrase or word. (Don’t worry if it seems to take up a page - it won’t show up on the final product. It’s a little piece of code that exists just for the browser.) For instance, let’s say your thread is called “Spike and His Magnificent Biceps”. The thread discusses Spike, Restless, being a Watcher, Dawn, and mugs that say “I love cross-referencing”, and Rufus, Rowan, Masq, and WiseWoman all participated in the thread. When you’ve added all that in, your text would now look like the following. (The colors are just so you can see what’s been added, and which is the HTML code.) <head><title> Be aware that someone might search for the keyword of “cross” (as in "crucifix"). If you’d put in “cross referencing” without the dash, some search engines would bring up your page even though “cross” is part of a phrase keyword. There’s no need to stress too much about it, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind when setting up your keywords. STEP 5: Insert the HTML code for the page's layout. <body bgcolor="white" link="black" alink="blue" vlink="black"> return to list of steps STEP 6: Insert and edit the HTML code for the page title and information. TITLEThe three changes you’ll make in this section are to enter your thread’s title, the date of the first post, and your name as the editor (if you’re not the original author of the thread). If you had to edit the thread’s title to 15 words or less, this is where you enter the full thread title without worrying about space. Remember that you’ll also need to make sure that the date is in the correct format. So, going on our example thread, your code would look like the following, with red typeface indicating where you've entered the information for your specific archive. <b><font size="4">If the editor is the same as the author, change the line to say “originating author” instead of “editor.” This is very easy - find the line, take out Editor, and put in Author. Our example thread would then have the following line instead. Originating Author: Rufus return to list of steps STEP 7: Insert and edit the HTML code for a link. <tr><td colspan="2"><font size="2">This is a <a href="http://www.URL.htm" target="_new">continuation</a> of a character analysis on Masq's ATPoBtVS pages.</p></td></tr>The important code in that line is <a href="http://www.URL.htm" target="_new">. Replace http://www.URL.htm with the web address (URL) of your intended webpage. Replace the rest of the sentence with your summary, and select a keyword (noun) from your summary to be the link to your intended site. Place <a href="http://www.URL.htm" target="_new"> directly before your keyword, and </a> directly after it. For instance, if your Archive about Spike and His Magnificent Biceps relates to an essay on the flat-earth theory and morality, your summary link may look like the following. <tr><td colspan="2"><font size="2">This thread is a discussion of an essay on the ATPoBtVS pages about morality and the flat-earth theory. To read it, click <a href="http://www.URL.htm"target="_new">here</a>.</p></td></tr> return to list of steps STEP 8: Insert and edit the HTML code for the archive itself. </table><table> STEP 8: a. Insert and edit the HTML code to the first posting in the thread. <tr> <td width="15%" valign="top" align="left">This may look very difficult, but it’s not. Simply replace AUTHOR NAME with the name of the person posting. Then replace PARAGRAPH 1 with the first paragraph, and replace PARAGRAPH 2 with the person’s second paragraph. STEP 8: b. Change HTML code if a post has only one paragraph. PARAGRAPH 1 STEP 8: c. Add more paragraphs for longer posts in a thread. </p><p>When you get to the last paragraph, use the very last line in this step’s code. The important note to check is that the line above, </p>< p> is between every paragraph. Then the very last line, </p></font></td>< tr>, goes at the end of this section. return to list of steps STEP 8: d. Attach a "new subject title" line to a post. <tr> <td width="15%" valign="top" align="left">In case that’s all greek to you, the lines added are these: <br><i>So if the subject’s been changed on this post in the thread, add this line and replace NEW SUBJECT with the new message title. Add this code to any posting that has a new subject. STEP 8: e. Insert the HTML code to change colors for alternating posts. <tr> <td width="15%" valign="top" align="left">The actual change is in this single line of code, <font size="2" color="blue">. Adding color="blue" makes the line change to blue instead of black. If you’re checking your work later and notice the colors aren’t alternating properly, or a post isn’t one color all the way through, this is where to look in the code. STEP 8: f. Add the rest of the posts in the thread, continuing with HTML code. return to list of steps STEP 9: Insert the HTML code for the page conclusion. <tr> <td width="15%" valign="top" align="left"> STEP 10: Save your file as an "htm" file. year month date # _ name . htmFor example, a file would be saved as 010515A_SO.htm, and if there's a second archive that started the same day, that file would be 010515B_SO.htm, the third would be 010515C_SO.htm, and so on. return to list of steps STEP 11: Test your file in a browser. STEP 12: Email your file as an attachment. STEP 13: Notify Masquerade that the archive has been transferred. STEP 14: Treat yourself to chocolate as a reward! |
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