Newsgroups, et. al.
&
Initial Web Page Construction
(Dreamweaver CS3)

Outline (Brief)

Part I -- A Few More Browsing Items
    A. Grade Distributions
    B. Setting Headers and Footers(for Printing) in Internet Explorer & Firefox
Part II -- Newsgroups (via Mozilla Thunderbird)
     A. Terminology and Configuring Mozilla Thunderbird's Newsgroup Preferences
     B. Opening Mozilla Thunderbird's News Reader and Retrieving the Listing of Newsgroups
     C. Subscribing to Newsgroups
     D. Posting a New Article and Replying to an Existing Article
     E. Setting Headers and Footers in Mozilla Thunderbird (for Printing)
     F. Search Among Newsgroups & Web-Based Newsreading
     G. Miscellaneous Related Topics
         1. Blogs, Wikis, RSSs
         2. Mailing Lists
Part III -- Web Page Construction (Part I)
     A. Transferring files back and forth to our (used in C.S. 1308) Web Server via the SSH Secure Shell FTP Client program
     B. Constructing Your First Web Page
          1. Preliminaries (Web Page/HTML Generators)
          2. Starting Dreamweaver CS3
          3. The Dreamweaver "Workspace/Environment" & Some Terminology
          4. Some Routine Tasks
              a. Text Formatting & Alignment
              b. Lists -- (Numbered and Unnumbered)
              c. Horizontal Rule
          5. Getting Your Work to the Web Server
              a. Save Your Work Locally (My Documents)
              b. Transport the File to Your Web-Accessible Folder/Directory

Outline (Detailed)

Part I -- A Few More Browsing Items

A. Grade Distributions

  • Some Local Data
  • Pickaprof

     

    B. Setting Headers and Footers (for Printing) in Internet Explorer & Firefox

    Setting Headers and Footers for IE

    Preliminary information (from IE's Help/Contents and Index/Index(tab) ... header)

    1. On the File menu, click Page Setup
    2. In the Header and Footer boxes, specify the information to be printed by using the following variables. Variables can be combined with text (for example, Page &p of &P).
    To print this Type this
    Window title &w
    Page address (URL) &u
    Date in short format (as specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel) &d
    Date in long format (as specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel) &D
    Time in the format specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel &t
    Time in 24-hour format &T
    Current page number &p
    Total number of pages &P
    Centered text (between two &b) &b text &b
    Right-aligned text (preceded by &b) &b text
    A single ampersand (&) &&

    Hence, File/Page Setup... and these settings in the Page Setup Dialog Box:

    Yields:

    • Header: Page Title (left-aligned) then Page # of total# (right-aligned depending on space)
    • Footer: Page URL (left-aligned) then date (right-aligned)

Checking your work and printing:

  • File/Print Preview...
  • File/Print...

Setting Headers and Footers for Firefox

  1. On the File menu, click Page Setup
  2. Specify appropriately in the resulting dialog box, using the Margins & Header/Footer (Tab):

Firefox Margins & Herader/Footer Dialog Box

When finished, click on OK.

Checking your work and printing:

  • Note: Custom...
  • File/Print Preview...
  • File/Print...

Part II -- Newsgroups (via Mozilla Thunderbird)

A. Terminology and Configuring Mozilla Thunderbird's Newsgroup Preferences

Preliminaries:

new client server relationship

Discussion Groups are electronic forums that allow participants to exchange messages related to a topic of common interest, such as a research project, a hobby, or a political debate.

  • Terms:
    • newsreader
    • Usenet -- "Most prominent system of discussion groups"
    • newsgroups
    • articles
    • subscribing
    • reading articles
    • replying to article
  • Setting up Mozilla Thunderbird for reading newsgroups from Texas State's News Server:

    Please note: This process can vary somewhat depending on several factors, but the most important things to remember are:
  • We are adding an account -- a news account
  • We are not (in this example) specifying our e-mail account
  • We are specifying the news server: news.txstate.edu
    • Here is one sample sequence of steps:
    • Start Mozilla Thunderbird, possibly by double-clicking on the following shortcut:

    • If this is the first time for running Mozilla Thunderbird, you will likely get the following dialog box:



      If so, choose "Newsgroup account" account
    • Click on: and proceed to this step, noted below.
    • If you do not get the dialog box, noted above, move to the menu bar and click on: Tools/Account Settings...


    • This should give you the following dialog box:



      Click on:
    • Newsgroup account (radio button)


    • Click on:
    • Fill in with appropriate identity information. For example:


    • Click on:
    • Provide the news server information as shown below:


    Please Note: If you are doing this off campus, you will need to check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to get the name of their newsgroup server. For example, using Road Runner service in Austin used to be: news-server.austin.rr.com . In the Road Runner case, this service has been apparently been discontinued, so if your ISP doesn't provide a newsgroup server, you will need to do this part of the assignment in one of the on-campus labs.
  • Click on:
  • Leave the Account Name as shown below:


  • Click on:
  • This should yield the following:



  • Click on:

B. Opening Mozilla Thunderbird's News Reader and Retrieving the Listing of Newsgroups

  • Following the process noted above you should now have the following dialog box:



  • Click on:
  • You should then see the the Mozilla Thunderbird News window, similar to that shown below:


  • Click on:
  • This should yield the following dialog box, where you can either browse through the newsgroups, choosing to subscribe or not, OR by typing the name of a particular newsgroup to which you might wish to subscribe.


  • Note the Newsgroup naming convention:

    • Some Public Discussion Group Categories
Category Description
alt "Alternative" topics often controversial or prurient; 
also serious topics not carried by conventional Usenet hierarchy
news Related to Usenet issues
comp Computers and telecommunications technology
soc Related to social and cultural issues
talk Discussions of various, often controversial subjects
ba An example of a regional newsgroup hierarchy; this one is "Bay Area" for San Francisco and the Bay area.
misc Miscellaneous topics not covered in the previous categories
fr An example of an international newsgroup hierarchy; this one designates France.
rec Recreational, sports, hobbies, and arts
sci Scientific, medical, engineering, and technical 

Note: Newsgroup availability will vary among news servers.

C. Subscribing to Newsgroups

    • A Sampling of "Tame" Newsgroups (Subscribe to some of the following)
    • alt.test (for practice)
    • misc.test (for practice)
    • rec.humor.funny
    • sci.chem.labware
    • tx.jobs
    • tx.forsale
    • austin.forsale
    • austin.gardening
    • austin.general
    •  A Sampling of "Not so Tame" Newsgroups
    alt... Newsgroups

    Caution: Not all are "G-Rated."

    • alt.binaries.clip-art
    • alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons
    • ...
     
    Access Control     For such things as "Net Nanny" and other related access control software, have a look at the the "Parent Control" part of this TUCOWS link or using a search engine (next lecture).

D. Posting a New Article and Replying to an Existing Article

Using either alt.test or misc.test



E. Setting Headers and Footers in Mozilla (for Printing)
(Recall the earlier discussion concerning)

  • Click on: File/Page Setup...
  • Click on: Margins & Header/Footer (Tab)



  • Note: Custom...
  • Click on: File/Print Preview...

F. Search Among Newsgroups & Web-Based Newsreading

Google Newsgroups:

http://groups.google.com/


Click on: "Browse all of Usenet..."

C.S. Department Newsgroups:

 

 

 

A Web-Based News Reader for Texas State's News Server.

Currently it can be found found at http://wn.its.txstate.edu/ . 

 

G. Miscellaneous Related Topics (Including Blogs, Wikis, and RSSs)

1. Blogs, Wikis, and RSSs

  • PowerPoint presentation by Mr. Matt Sansbury (Texas State ITS)
  • Use the PowerPoint presentation in one window and exemplify via the following in another window of both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox:
    • Blog Example:
    • RSS (RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication)
      • Using : Pew Internet & American Life . Manage the feed via bloglines.com as follows:
        • Once at bloglines.com, either "Subscribe" or Login via "My Feeds"
        • "Add", then fill in "Blog or Feed URL:" field with the XML address, e.g. http://www.pewinternet.org/rss-front.asp in this case
        • Follow remaining prompts.
      • Using , but still showing XML code (offering to save file in Internet Explorer, and showing XML code in Mozilla Firefox) . Use http://creativecommons.org/weblog/rss for URL, managing with bloglines.com , as noted above..
      • Using , but able to view without an RSS/XML/Blog manager: BBC News and click on: , or use http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml with bloglines.com , as noted above.
        See also the link for "What is RSS?"
  • Miscellaneous

2. Mailing Lists

    Alan Simpson, Netscape Gold 3.0, Netscape Press, 1996.
Mailing lists allow you to receive one or more e-mail updates dealing with a specific topic. When you’ve subscribed to a mailing list -- usually at no cost -- the messages automatically come to your electronic mailbox. The messages continue coming to your electronic mailbox until you unsubscribe from the list, unless you’ve chosen a one-time only mailing list. Like subscribers tro newsletters and magazines, all subscribers to mailing lists receive the same information.

Many mailing list addresses begin with listserv, majordomo, or listproc (the names of the automated programs that process subscription requests).

Most mailing lists have two e-mail addresses. The administrative address is used for subscribing and unsubscribing. The list address, or group address, is used to send e-mail to other mailing list members. You’ll get the list address when you subscribe.

...

After you subscribe to a mailing list, you’ll receive, via e-mail, a confirmation message that usually explains how to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Unsubscribing stops the flow of e-mail messages from the mailing list to your electronic mailbox. The confirmation message might include other information also (such as the purpose of the mailing list and the mailing list rules of etiquette). Keep this confirmation information handy!
 

 
  • For More Information

    Consider the following search engine/portal sites:

 

Part III -- Web Page Construction (Part I)

A. Transferring files back and forth to our (used in C.S. 1308) Web Server via the SSH Secure Shell FTP Client program.

This will be our basic tool for transferring our Web (and other) files from our Workstation/Client to the Web Server and vice versa.

ftp client server relationship

Your Assignment 1, due next week, requires that you attend your lab this week, make a photograph and upload it to our Web server.

Our Web Server's address is: students.its.txstate.edu .

In this discussion we first give an overview of the working screen for the SSH FTP Client, and thence to a step-by-step discussion.


If you want to install the SSH FTP Client program on you own computer is available locally from:
http://downloads.cs.txstate.edu/os/windows/remote_access/ or

from the source: http://www.ssh.com/



B. Constructing Your First Web Page

1. Preliminaries (Web Page/HTML Generators)

  • HTML -- Hypertext Markup Language, the basis for "Static" Web Pages

    static web pages

  • Examples of HTML Generators:
    • Netscape's and Mozilla's Composer
    • Microsoft's FrontPage
    • Adobe's Dreamweaver
    • ...

2. Starting Dreamweaver CS3:

> >



You might see some initial screens, but in short order you should see a screen similar to the following welcome screen:




Under the "Create New" Click on "HTML"

OR, Click on: File/New... and choose: "Basic page" "HTML" and Click on the Create button, using the New Document Dialog box shown below.

File/New... Dialog Box

3. The Dreamweaver "Workspace/Environment" & Some Terminology

 

4. Some Routine Tasks

a. Text Formatting (Select the Text) -- Bold, Italics, Font Size and Color -- & Alignment
Comments on Content vs. Style on web pages

  • Properties Inspector

    Formatting and the Properties Panel

  • Menu Bar

    et. al. ...

  • Right-Clicking (Context Menus)




  • Other Notes:
    • Ctrl-Shift-spacebar
    • <enter>
    • shift- <enter>

b. Lists -- (Numbered and Unnumbered)

  • Properties Inspector

    and List Item... yields:


  • Menu Bar



    and Properties... yields:



    Same as List Item... (above with Properties Inspector).
  • Right-Clicking (Context Menus)



    Same as right-clicking with text formatting and alignment.

c. A Horizontal Rule

  • Menu Bar

5. Getting Your Work to the Web Server

a. Save Your Work Locally (My Documents Folder)

  • File/Save As ...
  • File/Save

b. Transport the File to Your Web-Accessible Folder/Directory