The WWW at Penn

The Internet has changed the way Penn communicates with the world, and the world with Penn. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, prospective students, and others throughout the world come to us through the Internet and the World Wide Web in increasing numbers. The Web is a powerful communications tool, and all of our Schools and many administrative units have created, or are developing, home pages, while hundreds of Penn departments, faculty, students, and staff have created pages of their own. Penn's original campus-wide information system--PennInfo--is itself making the transition to the Web.

Purpose of this guide

The Web's interactive capabilities make it a valuable tool for a host of University academic and business functions, and its multimedia capabilities make it an ideal place to "publish" information about Penn, Penn people, and Penn events. This style guide is intended to help anyone at Penn create Web pages that blend individual designs in a flexible but consistent manner.

In this guide we focus on creating Web sites and documents that combine effective user interface, graphic design, and information presentation in the hypertext environment. We provide descriptions of page design, basic "how to" instructions on creating and publishing pages for your Web site, a glossary, and both general and Penn-specific resources.

This guide is not an introduction to HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the collection of styles and markup tags used to define the components of a World Wide Web document. Rather, this guide addresses the practical concerns of organizing and designing effective Web pages. For information on HTML tutorials and primers, see the General Resources section of this guide.

Assumptions about users of this guide

This guide assumes that you, as a Web publisher, already have:

• A basic understanding of HTML
• A general understanding of how Web servers and client browsers work
• Access to a Web server directly or through a Web server administrator
• Access (direct or indirect) to a CGI directory, as required by some functions (see below)

Some functions, such as forms that have fields for user input or image maps that have links imbedded within a single graphic image, require CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts to work. CGI scripts are stored on a server in a CGI directory. Access to the CGI directory may be direct or indirect:

Direct--You have access to the CGI directory and authority to place scripts into it.

Indirect--You can point to (link to) a generic script within the CGI directory, but you cannot place scripts into the CGI directory.

If, as a Web publisher, you want to create forms or image maps for your Web site, contact your Web server administrator for instructions.