Web policies

File names

File (page) names must: (1) be in all lower case letters; (2) use only letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores (no spaces, no other punctuation characters). Cascade supplies the file name extension for most pages (which is “.php”). If you upload a document or image, it should contain only a single period, e.g., “abcdef.jpg”.

• Not: “Annual Report.doc”
• But rather: “annualreport.doc” or “annual-report.doc” or “annual_report.doc”

• Not: “StudentPhoto.JPG”
• But rather: “studentphoto.jpg” or “student-photo.jpg” or “student_photo.jpg”

Remember this rule both when creating a new page, AND when uploading Word or PDF, etc. documents. For example, many digital cameras automatically name image files with an upper case file extension, like “132334.JPG”. Please remember to rename such files with a lower-case “.jpg” before you upload them.

Why so much attention to file names? For one thing, spaces are not “legal” in URLs (they violate web standards), and file names for web pages, documents, images, etc. will sooner or later become a part of a URL. Some older browsers won’t even display URLs with file names with spaces in them.

For another thing, most web servers run variants of Unix or Linux and—unlike Windows computers—treat upper and lower case as different letters. So even though Windows would treat “AnnualReport.doc” as the same thing as “annualreport.doc,” web servers that do not run Windows, like William & Mary’s, treat those two spellings as entirely different file names. Granted, “AnnualReport.doc” will work in a URL as long as it is spelled consistently; but it’s hard for you to remember or tell somebody a URL, and hard for them to remember, when you have to use precise capitalization. It’s much easier if you can remember and tell others “all lower case letters.” (It would also be easy to remember “all upper case;” it’s just that W&M has just chosen lower case as its default.)

Page content

Pages must have some content of their own, not just links.

Page contents must be complete and not “under construction.” Avoid saying anything that amounts to an admission that a page is incomplete, such as “stay tuned for further details,” or “check back with us often.”

All dates must be complete. This helps both web visitors and the law school community to recognize out-dated information right away.

Not: "On July 11 we will be hosting the annual conference of the Regulatory Society."
But rather: "On July 11, 2010, we will be hosting the annual conference of the Regulatory Society."

Not: "Recently the law school received a grant to start an exciting new program."
But rather: "In the fall of 2010, the law school received a grant to start an exciting new program."
Or write as though you were writing a newspaper article: "September 22, 2010. By Marion Staffwriter. Recently the law school received…"

Not: "In a few weeks we will post more information about the application process."
But rather: "In a few weeks (from the date of this writing, September 23, 2009) we will post more information about the application process."
Or better yet: "Later this Fall, 2009, we will post more information about the application process."

Not: "Next year we will launch the Law School Invitational Tournament."
But rather: "In academic year 2011-2012 we will launch the Law School Invitational Tournament."

Be especially careful to recognize dates that are only implicit; make them explicit:

Not: “Members of the Society include Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice.”
But rather: “Members of the Society for 2009-2010 include Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice.”

Keep pages up to date. This is the single most difficult thing for most web page owners to do. It’s extremely common (and very off-putting) to see on a web page something like this:

Be sure to sign up early to reserve a place at the upcoming conference on July 10, 2009!

… when it’s now September of 2009 and the conference is long since over.

If your department supervisor doesn’t already do it, suggest that you or they keep a web calendar with review and update dates recorded for different pages. Let’s say you’re creating or editing a page with dated information like the example above. As soon as you know you’re going to put something like that on a page, stop right then and ask yourself: When should this page be updated? In this example, the answer is “no later than July 9th or 10th of 2009.” So make an entry for July 9 or 10 (or whatever makes sense) in your web-updating calendar along with the URL of the page. And then be sure that you or your supervisor checks the web calendar every day.

Spelling

We spell “email” with no hyphen.

We spell the name of the law school as any one of these four: “William and Mary School of Law” or “William & Mary School of Law” or “William and Mary Law School” or “William & Mary Law School.” Note this, however: On web pages, the ampersand character often causes unexpected errors when it’s displayed. Therefore, any time the ampersand character isn’t specially needed, and your supervisor doesn’t object, use the word “and” rather than the ampersand character.

Copying from Word—NOT

Do not copy-and-paste from Word or other word processors directly into Cascade. Almost invariably, this will cause the page to display one or more goofy-looking characters. Instead, first copy from Word; then paste into Notepad; then copy from Notepad; then paste into Cascade. Doing it that way—though admittedly more trouble—is the only way to guarantee that odd-looking characters won’t end up on a page. Note that “odd-looking characters” might appear normal in some browsers but not in others. Hence, if you are determined to copy directly from Word into Cascade, then please check the resulting published page in all browsers and versions in current use (which would include several recent versions of at least Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, and cell-phone browsers), when running on all common hardware platforms (which would include at least Windows, Mac OS, Linux, cell phones, and PDAs). (Obviously it’s easier to copy first into Notepad and then into Cascade.)

Proofing

Look at the whole page and avoid duplicating any information that’s already there. Sometimes, for example, the page header or banner photo might contain an email address or phone number; if you have written that same email address or phone number into the body of the page, take it out and refer the reader to the header or footer, etc. Reason? Any time you duplicate information unnecessarily, you increase the likelihood that the information in two or more places will get “out of sync” and become contradictory. It’s very common, and we’d like to avoid it.

When you have finished editing, and the page has been published, look at the published page in at least Internet Explorer and Firefox to be sure it looks all right. If you have the ability and the time, look at it on a Mac as well as a PC.