Sul Ross State University
A Member of the Texas State University System

Employee Web Site FAQs

General Information

Q. What should I name my home page?

A. The file name for the home page on faculty.sulross.edu should always be index.html or index.php. The webmaster recommends index.php. All other pages should have an extension of .html or .php.

Q. What's the difference between the two?

A. In terms of HTML code, it makes no difference whatsoever whether an extension of .html or .php is used. But OIT sometimes offers special features that can be plugged into a personal web site. These are written in PHP and require that a page have an extension of .php. If the pages already have that extension by default, the files don't have to be renamed, which makes it less likely that any links will break.

Q. Are there any limitations on the number or size of the files I can put up?

A. There are no limitations at this time. Keep in mind that the larger the file, the longer it takes to download. If web pages contain class assignments for students, for instance, pay close attention to the file sizes and keep them small so students will not have trouble accessing the work.

Q. Are my pages part of the Sitebuilder content management system for the SRSU or RGC web site?

A. No. A CMS would limit the flexibility in the appearance of pages and presentation of content. By keeping personal pages separate from a CMS, employees have more creative freedom and control over their personal content.

Q. How do I link to my site from www.sulross.edu/rgc.sulross.edu?

A. When a site is set up it is added to the person's listing in the online phone directory database. This causes the site URL to be displayed as part of the person's listing on directory pages such as departmental faculty/staff pages and the main phone directory. If a site is missing from the listings, contact the SRSU webmaster for assistance.

Creating Web Pages

Q. What do I use to create a web page?

A. The recommended program is Dreamweaver, but it's not required that anyone invest in software to design web pages. One free program is KompoZer.

Q. I have software, but can't figure out how to use it. Where can I get training?

A. OIT's Instructional Technology department offers free workshops during the spring and fall semesters on creating web pages. Information on the workshops is available online. Various tutorials and information may also be found in the OIT Knowledge Center.

Q. Can I turn a Word (or WordPerfect, Excel, QuattroPro or Publisher) file into a web page?

A. Most of these programs, and many others, have "Save As HTML" or "Save As Web Page" options that convert a file into a web page. However, most of these programs generate bad HTML code that will make pages slow to download and tricky to maintain later. A better option is to copy the information from the file and paste it into a program designed just to create and maintain web pages.

If the program asks something like, "Keep the Microsoft styles?," tell it No. The program will jettison most of the bad code. Some programs have a feature built in to clean up bad HTML code from Microsoft documents.

Tables created in Word are not really tables as coded in HTML. If a table is transferred over from Word, the table columns may no longer line up. Ether need to create a table and copy and paste in the content to each cell individually, or try moving over the table using Excel instead.

Uploading Web Pages

Q. How do I get my files from my computer to the web site?

A. FTP software is used to transfer files. PC users can download a free version from the Help Desk's Software Downloads page. Most web-page programs have FTP capability built into them. People working from a computer off campus need to be sure it is connected to the Internet before trying to transfer pages.

The program needs three pieces of information to connect to a site: username, password and host. The webmaster assigns the username and password after the personal web site is requested and an FTP account is created. The host is faculty.sulross.edu.

Q. I have an FTP program and am trying to connect, but I keep getting a connection failure message. What's wrong?

A. This is almost always due to a typo or wrong information put into the connection setup. Check that the user name and password are spelled correctly. Make sure the host is faculty.sulross.edu, without "www" or "http" in the address. If everything is correct and it still doesn't connect, contact the webmaster.

Q. Can I access my web space from home?

A. FTP access will work from any computer that has an Internet connection.

Q. I lost my FTP username/password. What do I do?

A. In almost every case, the user name will be the same as the e-mail account name. For the SRSU e-mail account jsmith@sulross.edu, the user name is jsmith. The password is usually the same as the one for the SRSU e-mail account. If that does not work, contact the webmaster to look up the password. If that does not work either, the password may need to be reset.

Images

Q. Why aren't my images showing up on my web page?

A. There are a lot of reasons this can happen. Here are a few of the most common ones:

• The page was uploaded to the server but not the image.
• The link to the image is incorrect.
• The file extension is wrong. For instance, the page is looking for a JPEG and the image is a GIF.
• The image is in a format such as TIFF that is not supported by web browsers.
• The image is saved in CMYK color mode instead of RGB, grayscale or indexed color.
• The image is so large that it is having trouble loading.
• The HTML code is missing a key element such as a bracket or quote mark.

See the Knowledge Library for more on web images. If the items above check out and the image is still not showing, contact the webmaster for assistance.

Discontinuing a Site

Q. I no longer need a personal site. How do I deactivate it?

A. Contact the webmaster, who will deactivate the site and delete the FTP account. Remember to back up any files on the site before the deactivation. The university will not keep backups of personal pages when a site is deactivated.

Q. I will be retiring/transferring from Sul Ross State University. What will happen to my web pages?

A. An employee leaving the university who wants to keep the pages should contact the webmaster to ensure that the site remains active for a grace period of up to three months. It's the responsibility of the individual to arrange for other hosting and to transfer the files on the site. If, after three months of leaving the university, the SRSU webmaster has not been contacted that the site has been transferred and may be taken down, the site will be deactivated.