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First Steps To Website Internationalization - Glossary
Making your web site easy for international visitors to understand is what website internationalization is all about. There are times when differences in vocabulary may crop up. This can even happen across different industries in the same country. One of the ways you can help your readers is to start a Glossary. In your glossary you can list industry specific words and all words you use commonly where others may not have the exact same understanding. If you explain a process in your communication, think of including verbs in your glossary. The key to making your glossary work for you is to strive for accuracy, clarity, and ease of understanding. Accuracy In some cases a lack of accuracy can have devastating effects.
Clarity A glossary's aim is to give a clear meaning to the words you use. Keep your explanations as clear as possible. If they only lead to further misunderstandings or do not answer the readers questions, you would be better off without one. Ease Of Understanding Keep your glossary very easy read and people will enjoy reading it. Pay attention to the general appearance of the glossary as a whole as well as the individual explanations. An Added Value After ready through a well done glossary, the reader may well come away feeling appreciative of the easy to read informative experience. It is a wonderful touch of thoughtfulness to your international visitors. Non-native English speakers will greatly appreciate its value. Prepares For Translation A glossary is highly recommended in certain industries where specific vocabulary requires expert translations. In some instances some people feel they can take a dictionary out and provide translations of key vocabulary in languages other than their mother-tongue. This can lead to further misunderstandings. A glossary well done is far better than taking on translation skills when you do not have them. However, your glossary will be of significant value to a professional translator once you decide to offer multilingual services. Glossaries are also appreciated in non-technical areas too. Cultural habits differ. People can use vocabulary differently. Glossaries provide insight into how you communicate and provide a base for cross-cultural dialogue.
Web Developer Suite - Master PHP, ASP or CF Dreamweaver Websites With These WebAssist Extensions
Millions of web designers and developers have chosen Adobe Dreamweaver as their software of choice for website creation. Even with the incredible amount of built-in functionality that comes standard with Dreamweaver, there are many web applications that require a vast amount of hand coding to implement. Web Developer Suite from WebAssist is a Dreamweaver extension bundle that helps eliminate hand coding and opens up a vast dynamic frontier for the average Dreamweaver user. Web Developer Suite consists of the following individual WebAssist Dreamweaver extensions:
Each extension is installed individually within the Dreamweaver extension manager, and is accessed via the WebAssist toolbar added to Dreamweaver. The real value of the Web Developer Suite lies in the ability to code advanced website function in a fraction of the time it would take to hand code. Each extension operates from a wizard-like interface that clearly walks you through the steps needed to configure your task. DataAssist creates complete database administration page sets with a few clicks of the mouse. Automatically generate web pages that add, delete, update, view or search your database. If you use Dreamweaver templates, DataAssist allows you to use your site template when generating pages. The resulting pages flow seamlessly into your website and are fully customizable via CSS. SecurityAssist generates all the pages and code needed to create secure user registration and log in pages for your site. It teams up with Cookies Toolkit to utilize cookies and session variables to prevent unauthorized access to any pages you wish to restrict on your website. If you need a Dreamweaver extension to control digital file upload and download, Digital File Pro is the extension of choice. Through a wizard-like interface, you can easily enable database file upload and download through your website. It's an excellent tool for webmasters who provide digital files such as MP3s, e-books, PDFs, images, photos, videos and any other type of downloadable file format. Web Developer Suite also includes Universal Email, which is an extremely handy extension for emailing form input from your website. Universal Email even operates without a database, so it makes a great tool for emailing website contact form submissions. Emails can be formatted as text or HTML, and Universal Email includes a WYSIWYG HTML editor for creating your HTML email messages. Pro Maps for Google inserts static or dynamic Google maps into your website. Addresses can be entered manually, from a file or even from your database recordset. The Google map API is fully configurable, with custom pointers, map controls and size. It's an excellent extension for inserting maps into dynamic websites. Web Developer Suite also includes Validation Toolkit, which is WebAssist's form validation extension. Validate your form input client-side or server-side with a wide assortment of validation rules. By controlling form data input on your website, you can help reduce spam submissions and protect the integrity of your data. The final Dreamweaver extension included in the Web Developer Suite is WebAssist's WYSIWYG form field text editor, iRite. Based on the popular FCKeditor, iRite allows you to insert a text editor in a Dreamweaver form for inputting valid XHTML code without needing any knowledge of HTML. iRite is a great extension for developing custom content management systems or just a simple way for clients to keep their own websites updated. Web Developer Suite from WebAssist is an excellent addition to anyone's Dreamweaver toolbox. The cost of Web Developer Suite is a steal for the enormous amount of website function that is packaged in the bundle. Web designers can offer much greater website functionality to their clients and recoup the cost of the extensions in one project. There is no restriction on the number of sites you can build with Web Developer Suite, and no restrictive "per site" licensing. For web designers looking to push their websites to a new level, WebAssist Web Developer Suite is a must-have Dreamweaver add-on.
9 Tips for Creating a Site Map for Visitors and Spiders
Not every site needs a site map, they can certainly be a good idea. Site maps provide a dual purpose: They provide search engine spiders easy access to all of your site pages and they provide site visitors easy access to all of your site pages. The difference is that search engines and visitors access your site map differently and therefore there are different methods that need to be applied to creating site map(s) that are friendly for both engines and search spiders. Small sites typically don't need a site map so long as all pages are linked in the main navigation. Once you get into main and sub-navigation menu's then site maps are helpful in allowing search engines and visitors to quickly find anything they are looking for within just a couple of clicks. A single site map can be used for both purposes or multiple site maps can be created. Here we'll address creating site maps for spiders and humans separately. Site Map For Spiders .xml file An .xml document should be added to your site's root directory containing links to all site pages. This .xml file should then be referenced should be compiled and placed into a proper .xml document which should be uploaded into the root directory. Robots.txt file With your .xml site map file in place you must then make it accessible to search spiders. Reference the site map in your robots.txt file by adding a line for sitemap: URL (example: sitemap: http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/sitemap.xml) Keep current Be sure that your .xml file is updated and uploaded frequently, or at least as often as pages are added or removed from your site. Large sites should implement an automated site map update monthly or even weekly or daily. Site Map For Visitors Navigation links A site map designed for human visitors is just like any other website page. Link to the site map page should be included in the primary navigation or the site's global footer. Visitors should be able to find this link without too much searching. Additional page links Site map should also be linked from various pages within the site such as Help pages and your custom 404-redirect page. This helps point visitors to the site map as a quick and easy means to find what they need. Overview It's helpful to provide a short overview paragraph at the top of your site map page. This can be a nice introduction should someone land on this page directly from a search engine or elsewhere. Heading and layout The layout of the site map should present a clear visual hierarchal structure or your website. Both headings and sub-headings should be used above properly grouped links. Text links & descriptions Site map should primarily use textual links and page should not be cluttered with images or other distractions. It is also a good idea to provide an additional short description (provided there is room) for each link that allows the visitor to better understand where each link will take them. Keep current Be sure that your site map is updated and uploaded frequently, or at least as often as pages are added or removed from your site. As I said above, not every site needs a site map. But those that do should be sure that the site map(s) they create are actually benefiting them. And the best way to do that is to make sure your site maps provide maximum usability for visitors and search engine spiders.
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