Before going live

Before allowing the public to see your new page (or major edits) go through the following steps:

Avoid common errors

Titles should be sentence case.

Don't resize really large images to fit. Images greater that 50 kb can make the page take longer to load and is a big problem for those on dial-up connections. Also large images take up space on our server. Typically, images should be 10 kb to 30 kb. See manual for simple image procedure.

Keep Images or tables 468 pixels or less. Anything wider and the page gets distorted. And it can really mess things up for older versions of Internet Explorer!!! where the page is displayed blank at the beginning.

Watch out for text-wrapped images without proper spacing around them. See manual for simple image procedure.

Forgeting to link an image or linking to the wrong place. Verify your links after posting.

Gaps in the text, especially at the end. Remove extra spaces.

Apply best practices

Follow veg.ca styles. Use the default paragraph style and other set styles for body text, heading, captions, etc. Note: you can use the eraser button to clear formatting.

Identify the author if the text is in the 1st person.

Respect the rules of a blog. Don't change the order of posts to keep something at the top. Instead use a sidebar or header to highlight an event or announcement. 

Don't make an image into a link, without also making a text link as well.

Include an image (or at least a quote).

Avoid excessive use of tables.

Remember to save (or cancel) the page once you are finished. Otherwise the page will be locked, preventing anyone else from editing it.

Apply best practices (less important)

Provide links to other TVA pages when mentioned. See our Common links page for a ready list of links that you can copy from.

Avoid ALL CAPS. Bolding is better.

Place small images as case "right" or "left" to allow text to wrap. 

For really long blog posts consider breaking the page up so there a "read more" link.  Break up large blocks of text with images, subtitles, etc.

Self proof

Proofing is very important because our brain easily ignores its own mistakes. For this reason it is best to find someone else to proof your writing, but there are some techniques and tricks that can make self-proofing relatively effective.

• Read it out loud and also silently.
• Use a screen – a blank sheet of paper to cover the material not yet proofed. Or cut a notch into a piece of cardstock so only one word can be read at a time.This prevents the brain from racing ahead, and forces you to read what is actually there.
• Use a spell checker but don't depend on them, especially because of Canadian spellings. Misspelt words may be underlined. You can also copy and paste text into Word and use that software's more powerful spell and grammar checker.
  
• Do multiple proofing passes. Don't proof for every type of mistake at once – do one proof for spelling, another for missing/additional spaces, consistency of word usage (make sure you are not over repeating the same word), font sizes, etc.
  
• Print it out and read it.
• Proof the headings! Headings are prone to error because copy editors often don't focus on them.
• View it on a PC as well as a Mac. Very important if the page contains tables or wide images.
  
• Read it backwards to focus on the spelling of words.
• Double check whenever you're sure something is right – certainty is dangerous.
• Re-read it the next day. Especially if proofing volunteers haven't responded. You will likely find errors your mind skipped over yesterday.
  

See A compilation of advice from experienced proofreaders and editors for more ideas.

Here is a really cool and easy way to self-proof. Get your computer to read your writing back to you. On a Mac: Open up System Preferences and go to Speech, then click the second tab called Text to Speech. Check the “Speak the selected text when the key is pressed“. Then press “Set key” and hold down on your keyboard the key (or combination of keys) that you desire (be sure not to add a combination already in use by another shortcut). I personally use F2 to make it really easy. ctrl+command+s can work if you don't have F keys. Not sure how to do this on a PC – try a google search.

Get someone else to proof or at least look it over

Call for proofing volunteers, or get someone nearby to read it over. See Veg.ca proofing notes page: Tips and instructions for proofing volunteers.

Notify the webmaster once the page is live.

Web page tips

Use templates. When creating a new page / menu / sidebar, etc, you can use a similar page as a template (or as reference).

Add keywords early on to improve search engine friendliness. Important articles should incorporate keywords (preferable near the beginning) that a member of the public is likely to use in a search engine, when looking for the kind of information that the article provides. For example the title of our article: "Dealing with mice and rats" was changed to "Dealing with mice and rats – an humane approach to pest control"

Resources

Here are the How to manuals: Vegca-how-to-(basic).pdf and Vegca-how-to-(advanced).pdf and Vegca-how-to-(ftp).pdf

Common links page. A ready list of veg,ca links that you can copy from.

Veg.ca proofing notes page. Tips and instructions for proofing volunteers.

Style Guide page

Scraps and clipping for future reuse page