Genealogy WebPages Tips

Think about who is using your Genealogy WebPages and consider what computer system they may be using.

I have a High Speed Internet Connection with a computer that is less than a year old; however, not all people researching their families are that fortunate.

  • I have given my hand-me-down computers to some of the senior members of the family.

    Some people are elderly and have cataracts, like myself, and would like to set the font size larger.

  • Avoid setting the font size in the WebPages by not specifying the font Size in the HTML source code. Allow people to select the font size in their browser. Try this with the window you are viewing.

    Some people have monitors that only support 800 by 600 pixels.

  • When you design your WebPages you may want to consider designing them so that someone with an 800 by 600 pixels monitor setting can view them without having to scroll left and right. Allowing the window to be resized can do this, and the text rewraps to the new window size. Try it with the window you are viewing.

    Check your WebPages in more than one browser; such as, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and so on.

    Some people are using dial-up connections.

  • Use an image or picture editor to reduce the size of pictures on the WebPages. Try to keep the size of images to 64KB or less. On dial-up it takes about 1 second per 64KB to download. I try to make all images on a single WebPage total no more than 128KB.

  • If you use the same image on multiple WebPages, store it in one place, and reference the same image from all WebPages. The background image and Logo I use for the WebPages you are viewing are the same files located in one place. When someone opens one of may WebPages for the first time, the files are stored in the Temporary Internet Files Folder or cashed. The files are not downloaded again for every WebPage someone opens.

    Getting your WebPages listed in the Search Engines after your publish the WebPages is not that difficult.

  • Many of the Search Engines have a page where you can submit your website; however, sometimes it takes a little time to find the form you need to fill out.

  • If you have been doing research you may have found other people with WebPages indexed by the Search Engines already. If they are willing to add a link to your WebPages then the Search engines will find it. It is customary to return the favor.



    Sixteen tips on clearer writing within Internet posts:

    1. Allways use a spel cheker.

    2. Avoid long complex sentences that go on and on without using any punctuation to break up the long sentences as this can lead to confusion as people read your text

    3. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.

    4. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat.) (You mark my words)

    5. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary (and unwanted).

    6. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

    7. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

    8. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

    9. B4 U post, eliminate ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

    10. Contractions aren't necessary.

    11. One should never generalize.

    12. Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement.

    13. Be more or less specific.

    14. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

    15. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

    16. Who needs rhetorical questions?