This page describes how to create and edit web pages using Microsoft Word and how to upload these web pages onto the rescom server.

Other good instructional documents:

Create web pages with Microsoft Word

This section assumes you are using Microsoft Word XP on Windows, but the process is similar if you are using Microsoft Word X on Mac OS X.
  1. Open Microsoft Word. You can use most features as you normally would, but Word has some extra features for making web pages.
    • Creating text hyperlinks:
      To make some text a hyperlink to another web page or file, highlight the text, click the hyperlink button, and type in the destination URL. Although the dialog may allow you to select a file stored locally, you need to enter the URL of a file or page on the web.





    • Inserting images:
      To insert an image, select Insert -> Picture -> From File... and choose the image. NB that you now must insert an image from a file stored locally on your computer, but once you upload the web page, it will reference a file stored on the server. Any images you insert into the document will be uploaded along with the document in the upload step.



    • Creating image hyperlinks:
      To make an image a hyperlink to another page or file, click on the inserted image to select it (you will notice some markers and a border around the image showing that it's selected) and then click the hyperlink button, as with inserting a text hyperlink.




    • Saving a web page:
      When you are ready to publish your web page, save it, converting it from a Word document to an HTML page. To save it, select File -> Save As.... Choose to save as type "Web Page, Filtered" and type in a short descriptive name for the file (it is traditional to use one or two word file names with no spaces and all lowercase letters as more natural-looking filenames are much more difficult to type in certain circumstances where the filename must be typed exactly). Microsoft Word may attempt to add an extension of ".htm" to your file; change this to ".html" (with an ell), as this is what our server uses.

      Ignore the warning Microsoft Word gives you about saving it in a format that removes Office-specific tags by clicking "Yes" in this dialog.




      If your version of Word does not have the "Web Page, Filtered" option and only has the "Web Page" option, you may wish to upgrade to Microsoft Office XP as the "filtered" pages are far more maintainable and compatible.

      If your page contains images, when you save your page you will notice that Microsoft Word also created a folder alongside the HTML file. This folder contains copies of the images in your file and this directory (with its name intact) must also be uploaded to the web server.


Upload web pages onto the rescom server

Once you have created a web page, you can upload it onto the rescom server using an scp/sftp client. The instructions differ depending on whether you are using Windows or Mac OS X.

Upload using Microsoft Windows:

  1. The recommended scp/sftp client for Microsoft Windows is the commercial SSH Communications Security's SSH Secure File Transfer Client. This software is available on the latest connectivity package or on the licensing.uchicago.edu website. You can use the default options for the installation procedure.
  2. Launch the scp/sftp client by double-clicking the "SSH Secure File Transfer Client" icon on the desktop or finding the appropriate entry in the start menu.

  3. Click on the "Quick Connect" button.

  4. In the dialog that appears, specify the host name of "rescom.uchicago.edu" and your username.

  5. If asked whether to save the host's public key, choose "Yes" and enter your password when prompted.

  6. You will now have a split window: in the left pane, you can see the files stored locally on your computer and the right pane shows files on the server. To transfer a file or directory, drag it from the source pane to the destination pane.

    When a user requests a folder on the web server, the file "index.html" will be shown to the user, so you may wish to ensure that each directory contains an index.html file.

Upload using Mac OS X:
  1. A good scp/sftp client for Mac OS X is Fugu from the Research Systems Unix Group at the University of Michigan.