Soil Micormorphology - Instructions for creating Soil Micromorphology Pages.

Introduction

While it is logical to have a Main Home Page for Soil Micromorphology maintained in a central location, it is impractical to continually add new pages for individuals, and/or individual countries. It is for this reason that the Soil Micromorphology Pages have been significantly revamped following discussions in Moscow between Dr N.K. Tovey and the Chairman of Subcomission B - Prof. Sergey Shoba in October 1997.

There are two different issues which need consideration;-

• Different types of pages which may be developed
• Location and organisation of files on a server

• Individuals can have an Individuals Home Page pointed to directly from the Database of Names. Those individuals can develop their own suite of pages. All that is necessary is for them to inform the moderator of the database of the reference [ currently the moderator is Dr N.K. Tovey: E-Mail: k.tovey@uea.ac.uk].

• For pages for different Countries, new methods must be used, and Russia has indicated that it wishes to develop a suite of pages. There has also been interest from the USA, and no doubt other countries will wish to follow.

  For these countries, a standard format for the home page was agreed in Moscow. This has a Logo for Soil Micromorphology on the left, and the Country Flag on the right at the top of the page. This page would then have a list of contents pointing to other pages as necessary. An annotated template is available by clicking here. Once this has been developed and placed on a server, the reference should be notified to the co-ordinator who is currently Dr N.K. Tovey: E-Mail: k.tovey@uea.ac.uk].

  The advantage of doing this is that the pages can be changed at will, and there is only one page (the Country Home Page) for which any change to the current system is needed. This will ensure that furture WEB pagescan be developed and updated quickly.

• It is probable that speciality groups may wish to develop their own pages. For instance, those interested in Tropic Soils or Paleosols or Image Analysis etc. may wish to develop a suite of pages. Once again, a main link pages has been developed, and a representative from each group should develop a home page for these topics. At present, no standard format has been agreed. [Any suggestions?]. Once again, when a home page for a particular group has been developed and placed on a server, the reference should be notified to the co-ordinator who is currently Dr N.K. Tovey: E-Mail: k.tovey@uea.ac.uk].

  Once again, the same advantages apply to this as for the Country Pages.

• Unless a Country or Speciality Group is planning to develop a very large suite of separate pages it makes sense to locate all files in one directory on a relevant server. This means that references between pages can be done simply by referring to the appropriate file name.

• However, it is often convenient to locate any images or diagrams in a sub-directory. Often these will be in GIF or JPEG format and we use a sub-directory GIFS or JPEGS as

• You should be aware that links to outside pages may well change, and these should be checked regularly for accuracy.

• On long pages, it is useful to use anchors to jump to different parts of the page. [i.e. a short list of contents pointing to details further down the page can be effective - see this page as an example].

• It helps, on long pages, to have a means to jump back to the start of the page at convenient points in the page [see for example the "TOP" buttons on this page].

• If you are developing several pages, it helps the reader if you can vary the background colour of the page - this makes the reader aware that there is a new page [sometimes the tops of pages can look quite similar].

• Although, it can look good, try to avoid using background images as these increase the time of loading, and can make loading times excessive if loaded from overseas.

• Always ensure that you have a point of contact with an Email address at the bottom of the page.