MICHIGAN BIOGRAPHIES PROJECT Biographies FAQ'S Email me with your biographies
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: Jan Cortez
Q. How do I get my biographies on the Michigan Biographies Page?
A. You don't. Your biographies need to be kept with your county page on your server.
Contact: Jan Cortez
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: Jan Cortez
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: Jan Cortez
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: Jan Cortez
Q. I already have a large number of biographes as html documents. Do you expect me to convert them 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 significanlty increase the workload of the state coordinator. New sites with no pre-existing html library should adopt the text file format.
Contact: Jan Cortez
Q. Is there a standard way to name the biographies?
A. Not really. As 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 becaome enosttaylor.txt. This is not a requiremant, 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: Jan Cortez
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 Jan Cortez for some pointers. There is also a sample page you can modify and use. See the section below entitled "HTML Sources".
Contact: Jan Cortez
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: Jan Cortez
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: Jan Cortez
Q. How do I get my page and biographies on my server?
A. You will have to upload them using an FTP program.
Contact: Jan Cortez
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 subdirectory 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: Jan Cortez
Free Web Space...
There are a number of sources available that offer free webspace 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.
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 graphice a little easier to live with. Use small meaningful graphics on your web pages. A small grapics used as a HyperLink 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:
