ACTS2 Web Design Tips

Use tables (without borders) to create orderly page layouts (such as multi-column text). Aviod using repetitive sound/music. any type of extra music slows the downlaod speed of the page. Keep the number of graphics to a minimum. Delete unnecessary graphics (those that do not add to the subject/theme of the page). Anything flashing, scrolling or blinking will draw attention away from page content. Never make people scroll sideways to view your content. Having to scroll up and down is minor annoyance, but having to scroll side-to-side will cause people to leave your site and never come back. Test to see how your page(s) look at a resolution of 640 x 480. Make text legible. Use heavy contrast (dark text on light background or light text on a dark background) so that your page is easy to read. Paragraphs that are left-aligned, not centered, and in a column (as opposed to full-page) are much more readable. Inserting whitespace (a blank line) between paragraphs also helps readability. Have Consistency (layout and structure), commonality across pages: -font, font size, font color, paragraph format, alignment and justification, colors, etc. Any content on a site should be available within 3 mouse clicks. Studies have shown that if content is buried deeper visitors will simply leave. Check all your links to ensure they are working. Use numbered and bulleted lists. Do a Spelling and Grammar Check. Limit the size of graphic files to ~ 25-30K. You may want to download and use the program Paint Shop Pro to spruce up and resize photos, plus make your own graphics. Try using  www.jasc.com Keep your page less than 100K. Visitors generally will not wait for a page that takes a long time to load, but will go elsewhere. Give titles to all your pages (the title displays in the blue browser title bar). Use Width and Height tags to tell the browsers the size of your graphics. This keeps your pictures from getting distorted. Example: <IMG SRC="demo.jpg" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="100"> Horizontal bars can be used to set off groups of information. The site www.coffeecup.com/html-editor/ is popular for their free downloads of web-editing and graphics-editing software. When you can't afford professional software :-) Use tables for presenting any information you want to display in a grid. Rename your main page to "index.htm". This page will display by default when someone types your domain name into their browser. For example, "www.YourApostolicSite.com" is much easier to type, and remember, than "www.YourApostolicSite.com/YourHomepage.htm" (supposing your main page is named "YourHomepage.htm" rather than "index.htm") More suggestions can be found on:  Webpage Design for Beginners. Also there are many books available to help you learn design, I would suggest looking in your local public library.