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Web Publishing Guidelines for the School of Public Health

Background

The UM School of Public Health (SPH) web site promotes the School of Public Health and all of its programs and departments. The maintenance of the SPH web site is a collaborative effort by the Web Administrator (Patty Bradley-Diehl, Informatics & Computing Services Web Services), the Content Specialist (Mary Beth Lewis, SPH Office of Communications), and the Web Content Managers from each academic department). This web group holds monthly meetings to ensure that the various parts of the web site remain consistent, dynamic, and adhere to established guidelines to facilitate a consistent and satisfying user experience for site visitors.

The Web Administrator is responsible for resolving technical issues, updating and creating new web pages as required and providing web services to the general SPH community. The Content Specialist contributes content for the site, advises on the site's architecture, and assures that the site's content is consistent with the web publishing guidelines so that the user experience is consistent and positive. Each Web Content Manager (WCM) is responsible for maintaining their academic department's portion of the site in compliance with these guidelines. All major new site work and design is contracted to outside sources. Both the Web Administrator and the Content Specialist assist the WCMs as needed.

Requests for web work

Requests for the following may be e-mailed to sph.web@umich.edu. You can also use our online form .

Requests for web work (mainly updates and corrections) that do not fall under the umbrella of a specific academic department.
Any SPH faculty, staff, or student who wants a link to an independently created site added to a SPH web page. The Content Specialist and Web Administrator will review the request to ensure that the content of the page is suitable for external audiences and that the web site adheres to the requirements contained in these guidelines.
Requests for changes to the home page, including suggestions for headlines. The Office of Communications maintains the SPH home page (www.sph.umich.edu), including headlines, features, and links. Headlines are changed several times a week to reflect current events and news at the school; features are changed approximately monthly; other parts of the home page are not frequently changed.

Requests for UM SPH SiteMaker Sites

SPH faculty, staff and students may also request a UM SiteMaker site that contains the look and feel of the SPH site at http://sitemaker.umich.edu/. Once their request for a site is granted, they can create the site themselves, or ask for help from the Web Administrator. Knowledge of HTML is not required. SPH will periodically review all SiteMaker sites with the SPH look and feel to ensure they to not deviate from university and school policies.

Hosting Your Group's web site at SPH

School of Public Health Computing Services provides free web hosting for groups or centers clearly affiliated with the School of Public Health. These groups are responsible for developing and maintaining their own web sites. A list of such groups is provided on our Research Centers & Initiatives page. We also host several student groups.

If the person designated responsible for developing and maintaining the web site does not know how to create web sites using HTML, we recommend that they use the Adobe Dreamweaver web page editing program. Dreamweaver is available on all UM Computing Sites computers.

Dreamweaver may be purchased at a discount from the following sources:

M-MarketSite via Wolverine Access
the UM Computing Showcase
Adobe using their education store.

The Teaching & Technology Collaborative provides free hands-on Dreamweaver training workshops during Fall and Winter semesters. SPH Web Services also holds Dreamweaver workshops. Dreamweaver training is also offered by the ITCS Education Services.

If needed, SPH Web Services can provide them with a list of vendors that groups have worked with before. Mary Beth Lewis, the school’s Web Editor, will be happy to look over web site content and suggest changes that will make it more consistent with the content on the SPH web site. Patty Bradley-Diehl, the Web Administrator, will be happy to assist with the uploading of initial files, and provide technical expertise.

Group web sites do not need to match the look and feel of the SPH web site. However, the Web Administrator will be happy to provide the group with templates if they wish to have their site look like the rest of the SPH web site. These templates are created to be used with the software Dreamweaver.

Once a group has their web site files ready to be published, they should follow the following steps:

Familiarize themselves with our Web Publishing Guidelines before proceeding.
Decide what the URL of the web site will be on the SPH web server. All URLs on the SPH web server start with http://www.sph.umich.edu/. The group needs to choose one short word, with all lower case letters and no spaces or special characters. This word will become the name of the folder that all their web site files are kept in on the SPH web server. For example, the Michigan Center for Genomics and Public Health’s URL is http://www.sph.umich.edu/genomics/. All of the web site files for this web site are in a folder called genomics.
The SPH staff member who will be updating the web site needs to get an SPH UNIX account, if they do not have one already. There is no fee. There is a form for requesting this account . When the staff member fills out the form, they can tell SPH Computing Services that they need their space on the web server set up, and what their folder will be called.
Once SPH Computing Services has completed the request, the group’s space on the web server will be ready to have files uploaded to it. Files can be uploaded via Dreamweaver or SSH.
Ask the Office of Communications if it is appropriate to put a link to the new web site among the major centers and initiatives (mostly multidisciplinary) listed on the Research Center & Initiatives page. This request can be initiated through an e-mail to sph.web@umich.edu, which is monitored by the Web Editor from the Office of Communications

If you need to hire an outside vendor to design or create your web site, please contact SPH Web Services to obtain a list of our recommended vendors.

Please feel free to contact sph.web@umich.edu for more information.

Guideline Contents

Tools for Updating
File Formats
File Naming Conventions
Names and Acronyms used at SPH
Requirements for All SPH Web Pages
Non-SPH pages
Faculty Profiles
Color Schemes
SPH Banner, Footer and Cascading Style Sheets
Navigational Elements
Obtaining Multimedia Elements for the web
Style Guide
Archiving Old Web Pages and Redirecting Users
Web Site Usage Statistics
What to Avoid
Accessibility Guidelines
Legal and Copyright Issues

Tools for Updating

The SPH web site was designed using Adobe Dreamweaver. SPH web pages may be updated using Dreamweaver or by hand-coding HTML. Please do not use Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe GoLive to update your SPH web pages.

Web Services offers Dreamweaver workshops during Fall and Winter semesters. ITCS offers HTML workshops, as well.

Dreamweaver may be purchased at a discount from the following sources:

M-MarketSite via Wolverine Access
the UM Computing Showcase
Adobe using their education store.

Files must be transferred to and from the SPH web server using SSH (a secure protocol) instead of FTP. Contact the Web Administrator for more information.

File Formats

Please observe the following guidelines regarding file formats:

Web pages should be text files and have the extension .htm or .html.
Photographs should be .jpg or .jpeg files and should not exceed 100K in size.
Web graphics should be .gif files and should not exceed 100K in size.
PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files should be used only for pages that will be printed.
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files are not formatted for the web, and should not be used.

Additionally, no programs (executable files) may be installed on or uploaded to the web server. Use of CGI applications is limited to those already installed on the web server, such as HTMail, which is used to send form data via e-mail. To use HTMail, please read the Using Form Mail at SPH page.

File Naming Conventions

The following conventions shoule be observed when naming files and folders for the web.

Web pages should end in either .html or .htm
Your default home page should be named index.htm or index.html
Use only lower case letters, numbers, dashes and underscores
Do not use upper case letters, spaces or special characters

Names and Acronyms used at SPH

All names should be spelled out at first usage on a page, with the acronym following in parentheses. After first usage, the acronym can be used (although note that audio site readers will likely not be able to pronounce these acronyms as they would be spoken by humans. Below is a list of commonly used acronyms:

AAA (or Allies): Allies Against Asthma
ASPH: Association of Schools of Public Health
BIOSTAT: Biostatistics
CBPH: Community-Based Public Health
CPP: Center for Population Planning
CRECH: Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health
DRDA: UM Division of Research Development and Administration
Dr.P.H.(note that we prefer degrees to include periods)
EHS: Environmental Health Sciences
EPID: Epidemiology
ERIU : Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured
FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid
HBHE: Health Behavior and Health Education
HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
HMP: Health Management and Policy
IC: Interdepartmental Concentration
LSS: Life Sciences and Society
MAC-EPID: Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases
MCECH: Michigan Center for the Environment & Children's Health
MI-CPHP: Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness
M.P.H. (note that we prefer degrees to include periods)
OAA: Office of Academic Affairs
OFA: UM Office of Financial Aid
OJ/OC: On Job/On Campus
PHSA: Public Health Students Association
PRC: Prevention Research Center
SPH: School of Public Health (SPH I and SPH II for the different buildings)
UM: University of Michigan
UM CP&P: UM Career Planning and Placement
UM SPH: UM School of Public Health
URC: Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center

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Requirements for All SPH Web Pages

SPH web pages should contain the following elements, all of which are a part of the Dreamweaver templates provided upon request from Web Services (sph.web@umich.edu):

Blue UM SPH banner at the top of the page.
Global Site navigation section at the bottom of the page.
Navigational "breadcrumbs" bar just beneath the blue UM SPH banner, showing the user where he or she is relative to the other pages in our site. For example, "UM SPH > Careers."
Working links to the external cascading style sheet(s) created for the site.
Left-side navigation section that links to subsections of the site.
Site Menu anchor link to bottom navigation section.
Page title at the top of the page.
Use of alt tags on images whenever possible,. This helps disabled users who view the web with screen reading software to see what our images are about. This is especially important for text graphics.
No regular use of font tags, as they override cascading style sheet styles.
Any link from the standard SPH website to off-site pages should open a new browser window (target blank).

Non-SPH Pages

Other sections of the SPH web site such as faculty member web sites and research project web sites are free to use their own unique design. They should adhere to the general principles described in these guidelines. Any link from the standard SPH website to off-site pages should open a new browser window (target blank).

Faculty Profiles

Faculty profiles must be created using the Administration Tool in order for them to be entered into our faculty profile database. This enables us to keep the page layout consistent, and make design changes to all pages at once.

Individual HTML and image files for faculty profiles reside in the /faculty/ directory. Index pages for each department's faculty are also generated automatically, and reside in the /faculty/ directory. Academic department pages should link to them as follows:

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SPH Banner, Footer and Cascading Style Sheets

The SPH banner, footer and cascading style sheets are vital to maintaining a consistent look and feel throughout the site.

SPH Banner

The SPH banner that appears on all SPH pages is automatically generated via a link to a server-side include. The code for the link is as follows:

This code should reside just after the <body> tag. Please do not change it.

SPH Footer

The SPH footer, which contains the site's global navigation, is also automatically generated via a link to a server-side include. The following code must be placed just before the closing </body> tag:

SPH Style Sheets

External cascading style sheets are used to achieve consistent font faces, colors and sizes on all SPH pages. There is one cascading style sheet (css) file for the whole site, and one for each directory within the site. The code for these links is as follows:

This code must reside in the <head> portion of all pages. All Dreamweaver Templates include this code in the proper place. Please do not change it.

File Permissions

In order for these elements to work, file permissions must be set to 755 on the SPH web server. If you cannot set these permissions yourself, please ask the Web Administrator to do so.

If any of these elements are not working correctly, please contact the Web Administrator.

Navigational Elements

Department Pages

SPH web pages use text-based links for navigation. These links are contained in a single file that is incorporated into each page via a server-side include. The code for this include is as follows for each department:

Biostatistics:
EHS:
EPID:
HBHE:
HMP:

Non-Departmental web pages use similar links to navigation include files, for example:

About SPH:
Alumni & Friends:

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Obtaining Multimedia Elements for the web

The Office of Communications has a collection of stock photographs, and can help you hire a photographer if needed. The Centers for Disease Control has a Public Health Image Library (PHIL). Many images of these images are copyright-free at the time of this writing.

NOTE: Every person publishing electronically is responsible for obtaining permissions for photos and videos used; a signed release is recommended.

Style Guide

In general, web writing needs to be more crisp and concise than other types of writing. People browse more than they read on the web, so use of subhead and bulleted lists is recommended. Linking and drill-down structure should be used to expand upon topics, so information rarely needs to be presented in full at first mention. Some people don't like to scroll down web pages, so keeping text brief is highly recommended, especially on the top levels of any site or sub-site.

Capitalization

The school: the School of Public Health.
The university: the University of Michigan.
Capitalize "Professor," "Dean," etc. when used before a proper name (e.g. Dean Warner, Professor of Epidemiology George Kaplan), but not when following a name (e.g. Kenneth Warner, dean of the school; George Kaplan, professor of epidemiology).
Don't capitalize job titles such as "director" or "vice president," e.g. Catherine McLaughlin, director of the Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured ; Joe Smith, vice president of the Amoco Foundation.
Capitalize SPH programs, centers, initiatives, interdepartmental concentrations when a full and official title is used, e.g. Interdepartmental Concentration in Public Health Genetics; Center for Statistical Genetics; Program in Human Nutrition.
Do not capitalize "master's degree" or "doctoral degree."
Do not capitalize course titles unless in a formal listing (e.g. "Smith teaches human epidemiology," but "EPID 201 Human Epidemiology").
Avoid unnecessary capitalization whenever possible. Examples are:
- seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall)
- headlines
- program descriptions (panel discussion, forum, brownbag, etc.)

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Numbers

1-10: write out number.
11-up: use numerals.
Phone numbers: 734-994-3786 (do not use UM 5-digit abbreviations).
Do not add "st" or "th" suffixes in dates (e.g., June 1 and March 12).
Punctuation
" Use a series comma after the next-to-last item and before the conjunction (e.g. "Drs. Thomas, Francis, and Rice met").
Hyphenate "community-based" when using phrase as adjective
Use standard style to put commas and periods inside quotation marks; semi-colons and colons go outside the quotes; question marks may go in or out depending on whether they are part of the quoted material or are part of the sentence as a whole.

Spelling

health care (two words)
workplace (one word)
master's degree (not masters degree)
web site (one word, web not capitalized)
e-mail (hyphenate)

Titles

In general, use "Dr." when focusing on a faculty member's research; use "Professor" when focusing on teaching.

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Archiving Old Web Pages and Redirecting Users

The World Wide web is a dynamic medium. Information changes constantly, as should our web pages. Old versions of web pages that have undergone minor changes can be saved if desired, but it is not required. However, when an entire site is redesigned the old versions of web pages should be archived to a department computers hard drive as well as to a back up medium such as a CD or zip disk.

Old obsolete pages should stay live on the web server for a short time after the new pages have gone live for two reasons:

Web visitors may have bookmarked a page that is now obsolete, and might return to it.
External pages may contain links to our obsolete pages.

Our server logs data on all visitors to the SPH site, including what pages are requested. The Web Administrator can track requests for obsolete pages, and help in the decision when it is time to remove them from the server. Staff members can also track these requests themselves. Please see Web Site Usage Statistics for more information.

Occasionally, a redirect from an old (now nonexistent) page to a new page with a different URL is necessary. Such requests should be made to the Web Administrator.

Web Site Usage Statistics

UM SPH Web Services provides web site Usage Statistics Reports for all sections of the SPH web site. These reports provide a wealth of information about site usage. SPH Faculty and Staff can access these reports via the SPH Intranet. Please contact the Web Administrator for more information.

What to Avoid

Wait until there is useful information on a page before linking to it. Pages that have nothing on them besides our banner, navigational elements, or text saying "under construction" should not be linked.
Avoid dead and inappropriate links. Check each of the links on all of your pages every few months to make sure they are still viable and appropriate.
Minimize the use of Adobe Acrobat (pdf) files. pdf files are to be used only for documents that will often be printed by users, such as applications to be filled out and mailed. pdf files are typically much larger than HTML files and are more difficult to update.
Avoid the phrases "click on" and "click here" when establishing links. Links can be embedded in descriptive words. If it is likely that the page will be printed for reference, spell out the link as a hot URL.
Avoid long text, breaking it into separate pages when possible.
Avoid blinking text and animated images or flashing graphics. These elements can cause seizures in epileptic users.
Avoid using code that is not understood by both Netscape and Internet Explorer. This means that Microsoft FrontPage should not be used to edit web pages, as it inserts code that only Internet Explorer will understand.
Avoid using code that does not work in older versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer. Viewing your pages in Netscape 4x prior to launch will expose such problems. Feel free to contact the Web Administrator for more information.
Avoid using navigational elements that become inert if JavaScript is turned off. Test web pages with JavaScript turned off in your browser prior to launch.
Avoid mailto links and @ signs in e-mail addresses: Collectors of e-mail addresses for SPAM databanks systematically search web pages for mailto links and @ signs.
- Following is an example of HTML mailto code: <a href="mailto:sph.web@umich.edu">sph.web@umich.edu</a>. E-mail addresses that use this code are clickable, and if the user's web browser and e-mail program are set up correctly, will cause a new e-mail message to open with that address in the To: field when clicked.
- Instead of typing an e-mail addresses as sph.web@umich.edu, use the HTML code sph.web@umich.edu. It will show up as sph.web@umich.edu.
Avoid using black and white photos anywhere but historical sections or designed back screens.

Accessibility Guidelines

Section 508 (added to the Rehabilitation Act (1973) in 1998) requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities. If your web site is Federally funded, you are required to meet Section 508 criteria. For information on making your web site accessible to the disabled, see the Web Accessibility Resources section of the Web Accessibility at UM website.

Legal and Copyright Issues

When using photos of people on a web page, obtain a signed release granting permission to use their image on the Internet from all people who appear identifiably.
Observe copyright laws. Assume material is copyrighted unless otherwise indicated, and obtain permission before using it.
More information regarding copyright laws is available at:
- Copyrights at the University of Michigan
- The Copyright web site

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