Department Guidelines
The following guidelines have been established to ensure a consistent look and navigation system throughout the Regent website. Any deviations must be approved by the Regent University Web Team.
Filenames
All HTML files must be named with a "cfm" file extension. This is so the webserver will treat the file as a ColdFusion module and the ColdFusion tags will be processed correctly. This is necessary as every page will utilize a ColdFusion tag to include the footer content. Use descriptive filenames. Filenames shall not contain spaces; use underscores ("_") to separate words in filenames.
Images, Scripts and Stylesheets
Files and folders that make up the website need to be organized in a logical manner. Non-HTML files such as images, scripts and stylesheets shall not be located in the same folders as HTML files. One way to accomplish this is to create an "images" folder in the document root and then build out a folder structure under that which mirrors the folder structure of the content. The "images" folder may also contain special subfolders for images used throughout the website. The same or similar can be done for scripts and stylesheets. It is recommended that a folder named "styles" be used for all stylesheets and a folder named "scripts" be used for all Javascript files.
Page Elements
The page elements that can be modified are the Document Title, Meta Tags (optional), Navigation Bar, Page Title, and Page Content. Do not modify the header or footer.
Header
The "header" includes the Regent University image, the department name image, 2 green lines and the blue navigation bar at the top of the page. The header will appear on every page and is not to be modified or altered in any way. The links in the blue navigation bar are to remain as is. The Regent University image shall be a link to the Regent homepage. The department name image shall be a link to the department's homepage. The purpose of this is to create a consistent navigation system throughout the Regent Website. The department name image will be provided by the Web Redesign Team.
Footer
The "footer" includes the Regent logo image, the gray horizontal line, the Regent address and the Quick Links select box. The footer will appear on every page and is not to be modified or altered in any way. Each page will utilize a "cfinclude" tag to incorporate the footer content into the page. This is so that changes to a single footer content file will propagate throughout the Regent Website automatically.
Navigation Bar
The "navigation bar" on the left-hand side of the template pages is to be used for
navigation within the department's website. The wording and order of the links shall be the same on all pages. If this
is not possible because of the size of the website, then divide the website into subsections and maintain consistent
links throughout each subsection. There is no limit on the number of links, but keep the number as low as feasible.
Every reasonable effort should be made to limit links to a single line of text. If necessary, the width of the
navigation bar may be adjusted to accommodate the length of the link text.
The link for the page the user is viewing shall always be highlighted. The first link shall always be a link to "
Regent Home". The second link shall always be a link to the department's homepage.
A dashed line separator may be used to separate sets of links if appropriate. A dashed line shall be used to separate
links that "go back" (i.e. Regent Home) from links that "go forward" or go to lateral pages.
If there are links that go to pages not within the department's website, then those links should be at the bottom of the
list, separated by a dashed line and labeled "Related Links:". An example of this can be found at:
www.regent.edu/acad. Use of such links should be limited.
Document Titles
Use the format given "Regent University -> Department Name" for the document title of the homepage. Underlying pages shall have a document title such as "Regent University -> Department Name -> Inquiry Form". Remember, this is what is used by default as bookmark text when the user bookmarks a page.
Page Titles
Use short, but descriptive page titles on each of the pages so that users can easily understand what content they are viewing. The page title can be an image, flash movie, or some other media if appropriate.
Stylesheets
The stylesheet "general.css" is linked into each of the template pages. Classes have been created for use in the navigation bar and the page content area. The "body" class shall be used for general text and links in the page content area. If there is a desire (or need) to use a style that is not defined in "general.css", that is o.k. for special purposes only.
