Source Materials

Creating a QuickRite publishing environment first requires creating a page template (or selecting one of our existing templates). A page template includes a general layout and the graphic elements that will be used to aid the browser in navigating through the site. QuickRite software includes a general purpose page template and appropriate navigational "buttons". However, most web sites will seek a more unique look that reflects their marketing and promotional materials.

The SwimGold template uses the general purpose page template and navigational buttons.

Secondly, a general structure for the content is needed if there are more than a few pages.

Text elements are needed. Each text element becomes a page in the web site.

A typical format for source material is text that was created in Microsoft Word and stored with the "Save as" command using the format "MS-DOS Text with Line Breaks (*.txt)".

An alternative format frequently used is a scanned document with text converted to character format and similarly stored as an ascii text file (.txt).

Photographs, drawings, and other graphics for navigational or decorative purposes can be integrated with text to create illustrated web pages (.jpg or .gif files).

Integrating graphics can be done automatically through the page template, but special treatment (e.g. placement on the page) requires following certain syntax rules. The syntax rules also provide for the enhancement of text (e.g. boldface) contained in text elements. These syntax rules fit on one page and are easy to use.

When these elements of the site are complete, QuickRite software creates a list of pages within the general structure and begins to generate each page one at a time. As each page is generated, it is compared with the same page when it was last generated. If the newly generated page is different from the old, it is written to a web site within the home computer and flagged to be uploaded to the server.

Every day, at least a few pages in the SwimGold site change and are newly uploaded. Maintenance is not tedious because it is all automatic. Improvement of source material is spread over quite a number of people, and the number of people is easily expanded because word processing skill is all that is needed for most material.