An introduction to
building a web site for law

A tutorial using AustLII’s resources and software

Graham Greenleaf and Russell Allen, AustLII This version 27 November 2001. Thanks to everyone at AustLII for creating the software and other resources used in this Tutorial.

Contents

1. Building simple web pages *

1.1. Introduction *

1.1.1. Aims of the tutorial *

1.1.2. Choose your tutorial project topic *

1.1.3. Resources *

1.1.4. Conventions in this guide *

1.2. Writing a simple page in raw HTML *

1.2.1. Type a simple HTML file (a ‘hello world’ file) using a text editor *

1.2.2. Add one link *

1.2.3. Save your document *

1.2.4. Open Netscape Navigator to browse your document *

1.3. First steps in using a HTML editor (Netscape Composer editor) *

1.3.1. Open a new page to edit [File | New Document | Blank] *

1.3.2. Give the page a title to go in the title bar [Format | Page Title] *

1.3.3. Save the file [File | Save] *

1.4. Adding a heading, list of resources etc *

1.4.1. Add and format a heading and an introduction *

1.4.2. Erasing mistakes *

1.4.3. Add a list of web resources that you wish to link *

1.4.4. Add lines *

1.4.5. View the page in the browser *

1.4.6. View the HTML source from the browser [View | Page Source] *

1.4.7. Go back to the editor [Communicator | Netscape Composer: your file name] *

1.5. Adding hypertext links *

1.5.1. Links to other pages on the web *

1.5.2. View and test the links in the browser *

1.5.3. Fixing faulty links [Remove Link] *

1.5.4. Repeat the link process for the other items in your list *

1.5.5. Links to another page of yours [Choose file ...] *

1.5.6. View and test the links in the browser *

1.5.7. View the HTML source in the editor [View | View Document Source] *

1.6. Copy HTML from other sources [© permitting] *

1.6.1. Copy a relevant section of an Act *

1.6.2. Paste the section into your page *

1.6.3. Test that the links to AustLII work *

1.7. Adding links to locations within a page (targets) *

1.7.1. Make the heading of your section a target *

1.7.2. Make the heading of your list a target *

1.7.3. Create a table of contents and link each item to its target *

1.7.4. Test that the links to targets work *

1.7.5. View the HTML source in the editor [View | Page Source] *

1.8. Adding e-mail links *

1.8.1. Send mail to yourself *

2. Adding automated links, stored searches, and graphics *

2.1. Automating links to AustLII (UserMark) *

2.1.1. Browse to UserMark and read the instructions *

2.1.2. Type some text containing legislation references into UserMark *

2.1.3. Insert the marked-up text into your page *

2.1.4. An example of using UserMark over a whole page *

2.1.5. Find a plain text legal document on the web and mark it up [optional] *

2.2. Creating index/search facilities using AustLII’s indexes *

2.2.1. Link your tutorial page to the most relevant AustLII index page *

2.2.2. Use ‘Add a Link’ to submit a link to that AustLII index page *

2.2.3. What happens next? *

2.3. Adding stored search links *

2.3.1. Stored searches over AustLII *

2.3.2. Stored searches over part of AustLII *

2.3.3. Stored searches over other search engines *

2.3.4. Choose another search engine or index *

2.3.5. The value of all this - automated links and stored searches *

2.4. Using your own templates *

2.5. Simple images *

2.5.1. Using 'cut and paste' with Netscape Composer *

2.5.2. Using the 'Insert Image' icon *

2.5.3. Sources of graphic elements *

2.6. Editing source files *

2.7 Tables *

3. Going public - Allowing others to browse and search your pages *

3.1. Publishing your pages onto the web *

3.1.1. Publishing your pages onto the web *

3.1.2. Your web server, user name and password *

3.1.3. Setting the publishing defaults *

3.1.4. Publishing your pages to the web server *

3.1.5. Testing your web page *

How to prevent pages being browsed (the index.html page) - for information only *

4. Advanced Techniques and Features *

4.1 Translating your page into other languages *

4.2 Checking your web pages for bad links and bad HTML *

4.3 The META tag: Controlling how others index your page *

4.3.1. Insert a META tag in your page *

4.4. Adding a search box — Google Integration *

4.5. Converting word processing documents automatically (RTFtoHTML) *

4.5.1. RTFtoHTML User Guide *

4.5.2. Creating a document using heading levels *

4.5.3. Using a pre-existing word-processing document *

4.5.4. Alternative - without a pre-existing word-processing document *

4.5.5. Cleaning up converted documents *

4.5.6. Using RTFtoHTML to create multi-page web documents automatically *

4.5.7. Other RTF to HTML features *

 

1. Building simple web pages

1.1. Introduction

1.1.1. Aims of the tutorial

The purpose of this tutorial is to provide an introduction to building small web sites with a strong emphasis on legal content, for those who have little experience in doing so - it is an introductory course, as it says. With the focus on legal materials comes an emphasis on text - only the most basic aspects of dealing with graphical elements are covered, as most law is conveyed through text.

The tutorial covers the basics of building a simple personal home page, law firm page or page for a university law course. It deals with the basics of HTML, and how it can be created using Netscape Composer. It then covers how various AustLII resources can be used to automated the creation of hypertext links to AustLII legislation, create indexes to legal materials on the web, and search the tutorial web pages.

1.1.2. Choose your tutorial project topic

For the rest of this Tutorial, you need to choose an area of law on which to develop a small HTML application. If it is an area of law with some Australian legislation which is on AustLII, that will make it possible to use the automated links from inferencing dialogues to AustLII databases that are covered later. Otherwise, any legislation can be used - but it is easier if you can find a copy on the web.

1.1.3. Resources

Some valuable resources which are referred to elsewhere in this Tutorial are:

• NCSA A Beginner's Guide to HTML (includes additional references at the end)

• Howstuffworks.com's How a Web Page Works

• RTFtoHTML - the standard program for converting word processing files to HML (Now a commercial product for US$39).

• Yahoo's HTML pages (standards, editors etc)

• You can find other tools and resources to help you build web pages in AustLII's WorldLaw index at World Law >> Categories >> Subjects >> Computerisation of Law >> Web Tools

There are innumerable ‘beginner’s guide to HTML/the web/the internet’ books at any bookstore. Choice is a matter of personal taste, but it is worth buying one.

1.1.4. Conventions in this guide

This Guide refers to the Netscape Composer editor in Netscape Communicator 4.5. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has equivalent functionality.

The contents of square brackets [ ] are instructions for menu selections in Netscape Composer e.g. ‘[File | New Document | Blank]’ means go to ‘File’ menu item, choose ‘New Document’ from the menu list, then choose ‘Blank’ from the pop-up menu.

Icons (e.g. ) are those used in Netscape Composer. Most of the icons displayed are only available in the editor, not the Netscape Navigator browser.

To ‘select’ text is to mark it with the mouse so that it appears black on screen.

Items in underlined italics in explanations of commands and addresses are items for which you must substitute your own account names or file names.

1.2. Writing a simple page in raw HTML

Refer to NCSA A Beginner's Guide to HTML.

1.2.1. Type a simple HTML file (a ‘hello world’ file) using a text editor

First read 'Tags explained' (Beginner's Guide to HTML) for a basic idea of what tags do in HTML documents.

Use a simple text editor such as Notepad (part of Microsoft Windows) to type a modified version of the Minimal HTML Document (Beginner's Guide to HTML) by changing the text so that it refers to some topic in which you are interested.

Alternatively, instead of re-typing, you can cut and paste it into your text editor and make alterations to the text to create your own version. Here is the minimal document from the Beginner's Guide to HTML:

<html>

<head>

<TITLE>A Simple HTML Example</TITLE>

</head>

<body>

<H1>HTML is Easy To Learn</H1>

<P>Welcome to the world of HTML.

This is the first paragraph. While short it is

still a paragraph!</P>

<P>And this is the second paragraph.</P>

</body>

</html>

Important: After you have created a couple of minimal HTML documents, you should read the full explanation of Markup Tags (Beginner's Guide to HTML), in order to understand all the tags you can use and what they do. It is surprisingly short and easy to understand, so don't avoid it!

1.2.2. Add one link

Type in one hypertext link - for example, it can be a link to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (http://www.law.cornell.edu/), AustLII’s front page (http://www.austlii.edu.au/), the WorldLaw home page ( http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/) or it can be to some other URL (universal resource locater) of which you are aware. See Linking (Beginner's Guide to HTML) to understand the <A HREF: ....> tag.

A link to AustLII will look like

<A HREF="http://www.austlii.edu.au"> AustLII </A>

1.2.3. Save your document

Now save your document, with .htm as a file suffix. Please also use some version of your own surname as filenames (e.g. greenlea.htm). This will avoid you overwriting other student's files when you publish you files onto the Internet, and make it much easier to identify files and ‘clean up’ disk space when needed. Filenames are normally not case-sensitive, except on Unix files servers - which is what we will use in this Tutorial.

If you use a word processor (not a simple text editor) save your file as ‘Text only’ . If you use a word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word), specify that your file should be saved as ‘text only’. HTML browsers like Netscape Navigator can’t read Word files. Always save word processor files of HTML as ‘text only’.

1.2.4. Open Netscape Navigator to browse your document

After opening Netscape Navigator, use [File | Open file in browser] to locate your file and open it to view. Check that the link works.

Congrats! You have created your first page of HTML from scratch. Now to do it a faster and easier way ...

1.3. First steps in using a HTML editor (Netscape Composer editor)

There are numerous HTML editing programs ('editors') available which enable you to create and edit web pages in a WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') fashion - see Yahoo's HTML Editors page.

This Tutorial uses Netscape Composer 4.5 (but there has been little change in subsequent versions). Internet Explorer has similar features.

1.3.1. Open a new page to edit [File | New Document | Blank]

This will change you from the browser to the editor, and open a new blank page.

In the editor, opens a new file to edit.

1.3.2. Give the page a title to go in the title bar [Format | Page Title]

In the ‘Page Properties’ box that appears, complete the ‘Title:’ box with the proper title of your page (e.g. ‘Jane’s FOI Page’, ‘Construction Law Central’ - as distinct from a file name such as ‘JBRADSH1.HTM’). You can complete the ‘Author:’ box if you like. Click OK when finished.

1.3.3. Save the file [File | Save]

Give your file a name with a ‘.htm’ suffix (e.g. ‘construct.htm’, ‘foi_home.htm’) and save the file . If you are using a shared 'guest' account, it may be best to use your own surname as a file name.

1.4. Adding a heading, list of resources etc

1.4.1. Add and format a heading and an introduction

At the top of your page, type a heading for the page (it can be the same as your title bar heading, or different), followed by a brief paragraph explaining the purpose of the page.

You can select the size and character format for your text, and even the colour (use this very sparingly!).

You can centre or otherwise align your heading and introduction.

1.4.2. Erasing mistakes

If you make a formatting mistake with text, select the text and apply Clear All Styles to it. This also works when too much text is included in linked text (below).

1.4.3. Add a list of web resources that you wish to link

Type a list of the names of other web pages that you would like list on your page. For example, for a privacy law page (which happens to be a special interest of the author), the list might include:

• Privacy Law & Policy Reporter

• Privacy Act 1998 (Cth)

• NSW Privacy Committee

• Commonwealth Privacy Commissioner

Put a heading on the list, explaining what it is. Select the items in the list (not the heading) and make it a bullet list or a numbered list .

1.4.4. Add lines

Add a line to the bottom of your page, or wherever else you think it looks appropriate (use sparingly).

1.4.5. View the page in the browser

View your file in the browser . If you haven’t previously saved the file, you will be asked to.

1.4.6. View the HTML source from the browser [View | Page Source]

In the browser, [View | Page Source] displays the raw HTML source. You can’t edit it here.

1.4.7. Go back to the editor [Communicator | Netscape Composer: your file name]

From the browser, the Window menu item will list ‘Netscape Composer: your file name’ as one of the options.

1.5. Adding hypertext links

1.5.1. Links to other pages on the web

Browse to the web page of the first resource in your list (e.g. ‘Privacy Law & Policy Reporter’). Copy the URL of the page (e.g. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/PLPR/ )from the ‘Location:’ or ‘Netsite:’ box at the top of the screen, by selecting the text of the URL and using [Edit | Copy].

Go back to your page in the editor, select the link text (e.g. ‘Privacy Law & Policy Reporter’), and create the link using .

The ‘Format’ window appears. Paste the URL into the ‘Link to / Link to a page location or file name:’ box. OK when finished.

1.5.2. View and test the links in the browser

Go the browser and test that your link works . 'Edit and test' repeatedly.

1.5.3. Fixing faulty links [Remove Link]

If there is something wrong with the link, select the link text, and click on the link icon to open the ‘Format’ box again, and click on the [Remove Link] button. Paste in a new URL if there is one. OK when completed.

1.5.4. Repeat the link process for the other items in your list

Do as many as you feel like until you are confident.

1.5.5. Links to another page of yours [Choose file ...]

You previously created a HTML file called ‘MYSURNAME.HTM’. Type something like ‘A link to my test file’ into your page, then select it and click on the link icon to open the ‘Format’ box. Type ‘MYSURNAME.HTM’ in the ‘Link to / Link to a page location or file name:’ box. OK to finish.

Alternatively, click on the [Choose file ...] button, and then select the file name of your test file. OK to finish.

1.5.6. View and test the links in the browser

Go the browser and test that your link works.

1.5.7. View the HTML source in the editor [View | View Document Source]

View the source so that you can understand the HTML tags for links. Note in particular the differences between the content of the tags for pages elsewhere on the web (‘absolute addresses’), and your own pages in the same directory (‘relative addresses’) where the full URL does not have to be specified.

1.6. Copy HTML from other sources [© permitting]

1.6.1. Copy a relevant section of an Act

Browse to a section of an Act relevant to your page. Make sure you choose a section that has some hypertext links in it.

Choose [File|Edit Page] to open this page in the editor. Select the text of the section (or part of it that includes hypertext links), and use to copy it.

IMPORTANT: You must remember that you can only copy documents, or substantial parts thereof - including the underlying HTML markup - if you have the author’s permission to do so, or if your actions clearly come within the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Do not ignore copyright considerations. If in doubt, ask for advice.

AustLII’s HTML is copyright. For the purposes of this tutorial, you may use small selections of legislation and case law on AustLII, including HTML.

1.6.2. Paste the section into your page

Go back to your page in the editor, and insert the cursor somewhere above the list of resources you have created (this assists with a later exercise). Paste the section you have copied onto your page using . It will appear as text with all its hypertext links to AustLII intact.

1.6.3. Test that the links to AustLII work

Use the browser to test that the links from the section on your page go to AustLII.

1.7. Adding links to locations within a page (targets)

It is possible to link to specific locations within a page, if those locations are marked as ‘targets’. This is very useful for creating small tables of contents within your own pages, and to allow others to link to specific locations within your pages. It is mainly useful within relatively long pages that you do not wish to break up, but within which you wish to allow some internal navigation. See for example this tutorial page, or one of the High Court Bulletins on AustLII (e.g. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/hca/bulletin/hcab9703.html)

See Links to Specific Sections (and following) in the Beginner's Guide to HTML.

1.7.1. Make the heading of your section a target

Select the title of your section, and use the target icon to call up the ‘Target’ window. The ‘Enter a name for this target:’ box will suggest the text you selected as the name. Edit the text in that box so that it just contains one string of text (e.g. ‘s7’ or ‘T(I)As7’). OK to confirm. Use underscores to increase readability if necessary.

1.7.2. Make the heading of your list a target

Select the heading of your list of links , and use the target icon to call up the ‘Target’ window. The ‘Enter a name for this target:’ box will suggest the text you selected as the name. Edit the text in that box so that it just contains one string of text (e.g. ‘Privacy_links’ or ‘links’).

1.7.3. Create a table of contents and link each item to its target

At the top of your page, create a table of contents for your page, for example:

Contents of this page -

Telecommunications (Interception) Act 1987 s7
Privacy links

Select each item in your list in turn, and use the link icon to open the ‘Format’ window. The targets you have created will appear under ‘Link to a named target under specified document (optional):’ Select the appropriate target then OK to confirm. Repeat the process for each link.

1.7.4. Test that the links to targets work

Use the browser to test that the links from your table of contents items go to your targets. Use the ‘Back’ icon to check how you go back to the table of contents.

1.7.5. View the HTML source in the editor [View | Page Source]

View the source so that you can understand the HTML tags for targets, and the tags for links to targets within a file.

1.8. Adding e-mail links

Well placed e-mail links can add some useful interactivity to your pages.

1.8.1. Send mail to yourself

If you have your own e-mail address, allow users of your page to send feedback direct to you. At the bottom of your file, or in some other sensible place, type some text like ‘Send comments to [INSERT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS]’. Mark the text, and use the link icon to create the link. In the ‘Link to a page location or local file’ box, type ‘mailto:[INSERT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS]’. OK to confirm. Check that the link does open a mail window to send mail to the correct address. The address that you link to should look like 'mailto:graham@austlii.edu.au' and the way it appears on the page should look like graham@austlii.edu.au.

See Mailto (Beginner's Guide to HTML) for more information.

2. Adding automated links, stored searches, and graphics

2.1. Automating links to AustLII (UserMark)

AustLII’s ‘UserMark’ (or ‘AustLII Automated Markup for Users’) tool allows you to automate links to AustLII’s legislation and High Court decisions from your own web pages no matter where they are located. UserMark is still being extended to provide automated links to other case law as well, and improved in other ways.

The point of UserMark is that it can save you a great deal of time and effort in creating web resources with lots of references to legislation and cases. Get the citations right, and the hypertext links will follow automatically ... most of the time.

2.1.1. Browse to UserMark and read the instructions

There is a link to UserMark from the bottom of the front page of AustLII. It is at http://www.austlii.edu.au/techlib/usermark/

Read the instructions and hints.

2.1.2. Type some text containing legislation references into UserMark

Type in some text containing legislation references (Cth. ACT or NSW) relevant to your page in the ‘Paste the text to be processed here:’ box in UserMark. Make sure you give the full references to the legislation, particularly the year. For example:

Leave the output setting as ‘HTML’. Then press Markup Now!

2.1.3. Insert the marked-up text into your page

Select the marked-up text, then copy it into memory [View | Copy]. Go back to your page in the Editor [Window | Editor ...].

Using the editor, place the cursor where you wish to insert the text on your page. Paste the text into your page.

The links should now work from your page - test them. Where links are wrong, you will have to correct them by hand using Netscape Composer.

2.1.4. An example of using UserMark over a whole page

The real value of UserMark is where a web page exists with large numbers of legislative references but no hypertext links. For example, see the article ‘The Barrett Review' in Privacy Law and Policy Reporter, (1997) (1994) 1 PLPR 161, located at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/PLPR/1994/123.html

This example shows both accurate links and errors that UserMark makes because it sometimes makes a mistake concerning the Act within which a section occurs (see hints above).

Type or paste the URL into the box shown below:

Leave the output setting as ‘HTML’. Then press Markup Now! Inspect the new page displayed, and the number of hypertext links that have now been inserted.

To use a page marked up like this it would be necessary to save it with the same name as the previous page, and publish it to the same location, thereby replacing the old page with the marked-up one.

2.1.5. Find a plain text legal document on the web and mark it up [optional]

Find some document on the web which has legislative references but no links (e.g. a law reform report or annual report of some agency). Run UserMark over it to see if it creates accurate links. Don't save the file - avoid breaches of copyright.

2.2. Creating index/search facilities using AustLII’s indexes

Many web pages contain lists of links to other relevant sites - in effect, small internet indexes. AustLII has a very extensive indexes to Australian law on the internet (Australian Law Index - http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/1.html) and to world law (World Law Index (http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/270.html).

You can submit links to be added to these indexes, on the AustLII index pages concerning the particular topic in which you are interested. This is an alternative to maintaining sets of links on that topic on your own web page. Advantages of doing so are:

• you share the work of creating an index to a topic with others (including AustLII editors) who are indexing that topic; and

• the AustLII index can be searched, not just browsed, because AustLII sends a web spider to most sites it indexes.

• the particular web site can also be searched using the 'Search this site' facility in World Law.

You can then link your page directly to that part of the AustLII index, including by creating embedded searches from your page over the site you have indexed (and made searchable) via AustLII (this is covered in the next section of this Tutorial).

2.2.1. Link your tutorial page to the most relevant AustLII index page

Find the page in AustLII’s index most relevant to your tutorial topic (‘the relevant AustLII index page’). Create a link to it from your page.

2.2.2. Use ‘Add a Link’ to submit a link to that AustLII index page

Find a web page that is relevant to your tutorial topic, but not in AustLII’s index (‘the page to be indexed’).

Now open a second instance of the Netscape browser (‘New Web Browser’ under File), and move it so you can see parts of both browsers at once. In the second browser, go to the relevant AustLII index page where you think the page to be indexed would be most appropriately listed.

Select ‘Add a Link’ from the top of the page, and a form such as is shown below will appear. Read the instructions at the top of the form, then fill it out with the details of the page to be indexed. You should copy and paste the URL of the page, to ensure accuracy.

[Note - Unfortunately, the form-based 'Add a Link' facility is not working at present. There is only an email facility. The information you should provide is as follows:

(i) URL of site / resource to be linked;

(ii) Title of site / resource;

(iii) A brief description - about 20 words is ideal (see the Index for examples).]

2.2.3. What happens next?

All links that are submitted come to AustLII’s index editors for approval before they are added to the AustLII index. They are edited if necessary, and then added it to the index. This usually happens every few days, sometimes more frequently.

In most cases, we send our web spider (gromit) to index every word on the site, and the full text of the site becomes searchable in World Law shortly thereafter (it will often take a week or more).

2.3. Adding stored search links

You can include on your pages links which are not static but carry out specific searches using web search engines on other sites.

There is not much point trying to create hypertext links to a moving target. Why create links to a list of cases or sections on a topic if both are likely to change? Stored search links are far more powerful.

Examples of stored searches:

• The ‘Noteup’ button at the top of each legislation section on AustLII - try it, for example , on a section of the Copyright Act.

• The 'Search World Law for ......' link on any country page in AustLII's World Law Index. Try it on the page of a country that is of interest to you.

Stored searches also allow you to capture your expertise in constructing searches for the benefit of other users, who may be less able than you to construct appropriate searches, either because of a lack of search skills, or a lack of knowledge of the subject area.

They are equivalent to bookmarking a successful search, but making it available to others.

2.3.1. Stored searches over AustLII

Go to AustLII’s SINO search screen - http://www.austlii.edu.au/do/form.pl- , and construct and run a search over AustLII which is relevant to your page (e.g. ‘copyright near database’ is relevant to an IP page).

Once you have refined the search enough, go to the ‘Search result’ page, and copy the long URL in the ‘Location:’ or ‘Netsite:’ box (e.g. http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinocgi.cgi?method=boolean&meta=/au&mask_path=&mask_world=&query=copyright+near+database&results=50&submit=Search&rank=on&callback=on&legisopt=- Try it - it does work!)

Go to your page in the editor. Type in some text explaining the search (e.g. ‘Search for materials on copyright in databases’), select it, and make a link using the link icon . In the ‘Link to a page location or local file’ box, paste in the long URL.

2.3.2. Stored searches over part of AustLII

Repeat the above process, with the same or a different search, but search over some part of AustLII (e.g. legislation only). Note the differences in the URL.

Try the following:

• A stored search just over AustLII's legislation, or just over case law, or over a specific database;

• A stored search over AustLII's World Law (http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/), either from this front page or (sometimes more useful) from one of the Subject Index or Country pages. Use it as a stored search.

2.3.3. Stored searches over other search engines

You can use the same technique to embed stored searches over many other search engines on your pages. Some search engines do not allow this.

For an example of embedding searches using other search engines, go to Alta Vista (http://www.altavista.com/) and construct an 'Advanced Search'. The instructions for Advanced Searches are available from the top of the Alta Vista search form. Run your search (and refine it if necessary), then construct an search link from your page, using the same method as above.

For example, to create a search for only Australian material on telecommunications interception, you can use the following advanced search:

"telecommunications interception" and domain:au

The quotes means that only the phrase is searched for, and the 'domain:au' limit means that only pages with '.au' (for Australia) in their URL will be found. The result is a very useful search.

The search result displays the following URL in the 'Location:' box:

http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/web?q=%22telecommunications+interception%22+and+domain%3Aau&kl=XX&r=&d2=0&d0=&d1=&nbq=10&pg=aq&search=Search

You copy this URL and make a search link with it from your page, using something like 'Search Alta Vista for Australian material on telecommunications interception'.

2.3.4. Choose another search engine or index

Repeat the above exercise for another search engine / index on the web which you have found to be useful. You can find various search engines at Search Engine Watch's Major Search Engines list, or in World Law >> Search Engines.

For example, on Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/), if I go to Yahoo's index category 'Government:Law:Countries:Australia' and select the option 'Search only in Australia' and execute the search 'constitution', I can create a self-updating index from my page ('Yahoo on the Australian constitution') of whatever Yahoo indexes as being about constitutional issues in Australia.

2.3.5. The value of all this - automated links and stored searches

This isn't rocket science when it comes to web page development, but if what you are interested in is useful legal content, and embodying expertise in your pages so as to create a legal resource valuable to yourself as well as to others, search links are one of the most powerful tools you can use, and numerous links to sections of Acts and to cases make your pages interactive legal tools for interpretation.

2.4. Using your own templates

Before you move to putting your own pages up on the web 'live', create a new page called 'template.htm'. It should only contain those elements you would like to repeat each page of your project, such as the title of the project with a link back to its front page, an e-mail link to you, or a link to the home page for this subject.

You can open this page and save it by a different name each time you wish to create a new page for your project, and the whole project will then have a consistent 'look and feel'.

2.5. Simple images

Without going overboard, you can dress up your pages by good use of some graphical elements.

See Inline Images (Beginner's Guide to HTML) for the basic concepts of embedding images in your pages.

2.5.1. Using 'cut and paste' with Netscape Composer

One of the simplest methods is just to use the Netscape Composer 'cut and paste' technique (as used above with the SINO search form), to copy public domain images from other internet sites and paste them into the appropriate locations on your own web pages.

2.5.2. Using the 'Insert Image' icon

Alternatively, where you have found a graphic that you would like to use (and are entitled to use under copyright law), you can include it as an image in your page (an 'inline image').

For example, if you know that the small AustLII icon is located at http://www.austlii.edu.au/images/tiny-austlii.gif you can embed that image in your page (an inline image) without even making a copy of it onto Sandpit. Select the 'Insert Image' icon , and in the 'Format | Image' window displayed, paste the address of the image into the 'Image file name' box. It is a good idea to also specify a name for the image (e.g. 'AustLII logo'), to support non-graphical browsers. You can also select how the image is to be aligned with surrounding text.

Note that if the box that says 'copy image to the document's location' is checked, a copy of the image will automatically be downloaded to Sandpit, and it will be used by your page in future.

2.5.3. Sources of graphic elements

Here are some web locations of basic graphical elements:

• Shockzone - and other linked sites such as Art Today.

2.6. Editing source files

You may need to edit your HTML in ways that are not conveniently done simply by using Netscape Composer.

Set the 'External Editor' default in [Editor Preferences | General | External Editor] to a text editor (preferable) or to your word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word). Use [View | Document Source] to open your page in Microsoft Word or other word processor. Make a couple of changes. Then save the file - remember, save the file as 'Text only'!

Now open the changed page in the browser to check that the changes work.

2.7 Tables

 

See Tables ((Beginner's Guide to HTML) for information about use of tables.

3. Going public - Allowing others to browse and search your pages

3.1. Publishing your pages onto the web

3.1.1. Publishing your pages onto the web

The final step is to place your page onto a web server , so that it can be browsed from anywhere on the internet, and so that the pages can be searched by search engines.

3.1.2. Your web server, user name and password

For this tutorial, you will be able to publish your project pages onto a web server located at AustLII. Its address is 'student.austlii.edu.au', and it is also called ‘sandpit’.

Your username is surname

Your password is [as instructed in class]

3.1.3. Setting the publishing defaults

If you are publishing your pages from a computer that is used only be you, then you should set up publishing defaults so that your files will always be published to your correct directory on sandpit.

In Netscape Composer the selection [Edit | Preferences | Composer | Publishing] "Publish to (FTP or HTML)' box should be set to read

ftp://student.austlii.edu.au/home/tute99/public_html/

You should also complete the 'User Name' and 'Password' boxes below with your details, then OK to complete. Do not include these details on a computer which is used by others - just enter them every time you intend to publish new pages.

3.1.4. Publishing your pages to the web server

To publish the page you have created to your directory on sandpit, select the publish icon to open the 'Publish Files' window. Click on 'Use Default Location'. All of your details should appear. If they do not, complete or correct the boxes under 'Publishing location' manually. You must include your username and password. OK to complete. A message will appear to inform you whether or not you have successfully published your page to the sandpit server.

3.1.5. Testing your web page

Now use the browser to check that you have successfully published your page on the web. Save the location as a bookmark.

If you published a pages as:

ftp://student.austlii.edu.au/home/tute99/public_html/FILENAME.HTM

then you browse the page as:

http://student.austlii.edu.au/~tute99/FILENAME.HTM

How to prevent pages being browsed (the index.html page) - for information only

It is possible to see what files are contained in someone's /public_html/ directory, or any sub-directories contained therein, even if there are no links to those pages from other pages.

For example, if you browse to my /public_html/ directory on sandpit,

http://student.austlii.edu.au/~greenlea/

you would see the following automatically generated index, which allows access to all pages currently in my /public_html/ directory:

The proper way to stop this happening is to place a page called 'index.html' (or 'index.htm') in each directory or sub-directory. Each 'index.html' page should only contain links to those pages which you wish to allow to be browsed. The 'index.html' page stops an automatic index being generated.

4. Advanced Techniques and Features

4.1 Translating your page into other languages

 

AltaVista provides the Systran translation software which allows you to provide your users with the option of translating your pages into a number of European languages.

For example, the url http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate?urltext=http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~graham/ will give you the option to translate the home page of one of the authors of this Tutorial.

To create a translation option from your own page, create a link named something like 'Translate this page' and use to link it to

http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate?urltext=URLof my page

4.2 Checking your web pages for bad links and bad HTML

Once you have published your pages onto the web, there are various sites which enable you to test aspects of your pages.

The W3C (the Web Standards Body — http://www.w3c.org) provide a free HTML checker called "HTML-Tidy" at http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/. You will find this especially useful if you are using Microsoft Word to create HTML, as it will clean up Microsoft’s HTML and make it comply with the HTML standards.

NetMechanic (http://www.netmechanic.com/)offers various services but the two most fundamental are:

• Link Check - uses a web robot to check whether links from your site work

• HTML check - checks for errors and/or non-standard features in the HTML of your pages

Use these features of NetMechanic to check your own page - try the - see the free sample page to test..

There are numerous other diagnostic tools listed on Yahoo's HTML Validation and Checkers page.

4.3. Searching student pages using SINO

The SINO search engine used on AustLII is available for you to use to search over your files on sandpit, and those of all other students doing the subject. For the purposes of the tutorial, SINO will search over all files created in the class as one database, so that you can gain some experience in how your pages behave when searched in combination with other pages, particularly in relation to relevance ranking.

Searching tutorial pages

The search page is at [URL TO BE PROVIDED] and the following search features are available:

4.3.1. Building a SINO index of your pages

When you add new pages to your sandpit directories, SINO is not able to search those pages automatically. You must first rebuild the word occurrence index (concordance) for the database. This is done simply by use of the button on the search engine page.

The Sinomake program responds with the message 'Now running sinomake', and a list of any pages that do not have proper titles.

Titles - necessary for meaningful search results

In order for the results of searches over the student pages to give lists of pages found which are meaningful, it is necessary for your pages to have titles (the words which appear in the blue bar at the top of the browser) which indicate the nature of the contents of each page. If a page has no title, the search results just list the file name. See Titles earlier in this Tutorial.

Each page should have a title which indicates both (i) the set of pages to which it belongs; (ii) how it differs from other pages in the set. For example, these three titles are helpful:

Basil's Bankruptcy Place: Overview

Basil's Bankruptcy Place: Legislation

Basil's Bankruptcy Place: Leading Cases

4.3.2 Embedding the SINO search form in your pages

You can embed the SINO search form in any of your own pages, using the same approach as to Copy HTML from other sources covered earlier in the Tutorial.

Open the search.html page in the Editor, and copy all the content of the page into memory. Then open one of your own pages in the Editor, and paste the content of the sinoform.html page into that page.

4.3 The META tag: Controlling how others index your page

You can control how your page is indexed by remote search engines that do robot indexing (e.g. Google), using the META tag to specify keywords to be indexed, and a short description of your page.

META tags contain both the name of the type of information that is contained in the tag, and the content of that information. For example:

<META name="description" content="Graham’s IP page - a ramble about the deficiencies of Australia's intellectual property laws.">

<META name="keywords" content="copyright, intellectual property, moral rights">

Some search engines will then index both fields, so a search on either ‘IP’ or ‘intellectual property’ will match and will cause the page to have a higher ranking in the list of search results than it would otherwise. In some cases the description will be included in the search results. Otherwise, some search engines only show the first couple of lines of the page, or just the title.

4.3.1. Insert a META tag in your page

Meta-tags can be added using [Format | Page Properties | General].

4.4. Adding a search box — Google Integration

Providing the ability for users of your website to search over your site is a feature which will add considerable value to the content which you are making available.

Large sites such as AustLII usually maintain their own search engine. However, this requires computing expertise and more access to the hosting machines than is normally available to the general public.

Luckily, Google have made an interface to their search engine available which will allow you to specify a Google search over the material on your site.

Go to http://www.google.com/services/ for a list of the services which Google provide. If you just want to put a Google search box on your site (for searching the web in general) then go to http://www.google.com/searchcode.html and copy and paste the HTML that you find there onto your page.

To add a search box which searches over your site, go to http://www.google.com/services/free.html and register, then follow the instructions. An example of a site which uses this technique is the ArtsLaw Centre of Australia (http://artslaw.org.au).

4.5. Converting word processing documents automatically (RTFtoHTML)

RTFtoHTML allows you to convert word processing documents and other documents which can be saved as Rich Text Format (also known as Interchange Format) directly into HTML.

RTFtoHTML Version 4.17 can be downloaded from http://www.sunpack.com/RTF/latest. It is shareware and can be purchased for unlimited use. Some limited trial use is available after downloading - instructions are at http://www.sunpack.com/RTF/guide05.htm.

The Pricing information states "RTFtoHTML may be run for 30 days from the date of acquisition of the software for the purpose of evaluating the software. After 30 days, you must either purchase a license for the software, or remove it from your computer system."

4.5.1. RTFtoHTML User Guide

For details on how to use RTFtoHTML, see the User Guide. You will need to refer to it to make effective use of RTFtoHTML.

Start by reading the Features list.

4.5.2. Creating a document using heading levels

Heading levels (‘Heading 1’, ‘Heading 2’ ... to ‘Heading 6’ are used in HTML to give a consistent appearance to text which is formatted at that level, irrespective of the browser used, or its sophistication. In general, ‘Heading 2’ headings are used as sub-headings under ‘Heading 1’ headings, ‘Heading 3’ indicated sub-headings under ‘Heading 2’ etc.

To achieve consistency over large numbers of web pages, or large bodies of text, use of headings is recommended strongly.

One drawback of Headings is that all text in a paragraph must be at the same heading level.

Identification of heading levels in text is also one of the main ways by which RTFtoHTML automatically converts word processing documents into sophisticated hypertexts.

On your test page, type some lines of text and format different lines variously as Heading 1, Heading 2 etc, so as to see the variations in format.

4.5.3. Using a pre-existing word-processing document

You will need a word-processed copy of an essay or other document you have created (or someone else's document that you are entitled to use).

First , open the document in Word (or other word processor) (unless it is already saved as rtf). If it does not have any significant structure, give it a structure by applying Word’s ‘Heading 1’, ‘Heading 2’ etc (from the [Format | Style] menu, or from the Style window) to headings or other significant structural divisions in your document.

Also apply a number of style elements such as italics and bold to some of the text.

Save the re-structured document as Rich Text Format (RTF), with a .rtf suffix.

Now follow the instructions above for use of RTFtoHTML.

4.5.4. Alternative - without a pre-existing word-processing document

Create a short document of a few paragraphs using Word 6, using at least 2 levels of headings to give the document some structure (see above). Also apply a number of style elements such as italics and bold to some of the text.

Then save the document as RTF (see above), and continue the exercises using that document.

4.5.5. Cleaning up converted documents

There are usually a few things which need to be done after converting a document using RTF to HTML, to ensure that it has maximum utility. Here are a few to watch out for:

•  Pages will often appear entitled ‘Without a Title’. As well as giving the document a title at the top of the page, you will need to do so for the title bar - see Exercise 3.2 .

4.5.6. Using RTFtoHTML to create multi-page web documents automatically

RTFtoHTML is effective in breaking long documents (more than a few print pages) into a series of interlinked HTML pages. Read the RTFtoHTML User Guide concerning file splitting.

Run RTFtoHTML again over the document you used for the previous exercise, but this time use it with the flag ‘-h1’ (to break the document up at level 1 headings) or, if the document is long and complicated enough, by using the ‘-h2’ flag (to break the document up at level 2 headings).

4.5.7. Other RTF to HTML features

Read the RTFtoHTML User Guide and experiment using at least one of the additional features: footnotes, tables, images and embedded hypertext links.