A brief introduction
PERSONAL ACADEMIC WEBSITES
Why make one?
Introduce yourself to prospective colleagues and employers
Update people on your projects and publications
What to include?
Curriculum VitaePublicationsResearch and
teaching interestsPersonal information
PERSONAL ACADEMIC WEBSITES
Where to keep your site Hosting
What to call your site Domain names
How to build your site HTML and CSS; Content
Management Systems (CMS); online site builders
Visit sarahsaur.us for resources mentioned in this presentation
WEBSITE BASICS
Free hosting available on department servers (talk to Hugh Chou to get yours set up)
Free third-party hosting Usually supported by advertising on your page
Paid hosting Can cost as little as a few dollars a month
Online site builders will host you site on their servers
HOSTING
Free service URLs
Pros: Free!Cons: Long, hard to
remember, and will change if you change hosts
Examples yoursite.weebly.com epsc.wustl.edu/
~yourname sites.google.com/site/
yoursite/
Buying your own
Pros: personal, easy to remember, and won’t change
Cons: not free, take a little work to set up
Examples yourname.com yourname.me randomword.pw
DOMAIN NAMES
HTML
HTML describes the structure of Web pages
It defines what a certain part of the site is, e.g., a paragraph, a list, a link, or a header
CSS
CSS describes the presentation of Web pages, including colors, layout, and fonts.
It defines how a certain part of the site displays
BASICS OF HTML AND CSS
Code <h1>Heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph. Text text text, here is some text.</p>
<p>Here is another paragraph. Text text text, here is some more text</p>
<h2>An Unordered List:</h2>
<ul> <l i>Stars</l i> <l i>Planets</l i> <l i>Moons</l i> </ul>
Display
HTML EXAMPLE
Code
body {color:black; font-family:"Trebuchet
MS", Helvetica, sans-serif;
background-color:#b0c4de;
}h1 {color:#101C6B;}h2 {color:#2038D6;}
Display
CSS EXAMPLE
A software tool that allows even those with little to no knowledge of HTML to build and manage a website
Some can be downloaded and installed on your own web space
Some are provided as a web-based service
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (CMS)
Primarily for blogging, but flexible enough to create non-blog websites
Two different versions of WordPress WordPress.org – self-
hosted, open-source software
WordPress.com – a web-based blogging service
WORDPRESS
Simple “5-minute install” Download WordPress Create a database on your web space Upload WordPress files Run the installation script Done!
Many web hosting services off er automatic WordPress installation
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
Static Pages vs Posts Pages To blog or not to blog Changing the front page of your site to a static page
Themes Thousands of free and premium designs to choose from, or
make your ownPlugins and Widgets
Add additional functionality to your site
BUILDING A SITE IN WORDPRESS
Add New Page Edit Page
CREATING AND EDITING PAGES
WORDPRESS THEMES
WORDPRESS THEMES
WORDPRESS THEMES
Sites that offer free website building tools plus hostingGoogle SitesWeeblyWixWordpress.com
Many offer extra features for paying accounts
ONLINE SITE BUILDERS
Simple and easy to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) page creator
Drag and drop page elements like columns, paragraphs and photos right where you want them
Free service has small, unobtrusive advertisement at bottom of page
Premium service ($4-7/month) removes ad, and has a few more features like more space, connecting to your own domain, statistics, etc.
FREE SITE BUILDER EXAMPLE: WEEBLY
EPSc People
Martin Pratt - http://epsc.wustl.edu/~martinpratt/website/About.html
Stephen Seddio - http://epsc.wustl.edu/~sseddio
Kelsi Singer - https://sites.google.com/site/kelsisinger/
Other People
Wendy Cage - http://www.wendycadge.com/
David Gauntlett - http://davidgauntlett.com/
Jim Wild - http://www.jwild.co.uk/
EXAMPLE SITES