ICON'S new Web Design SIG was launched during the mini-seminar on December 11. The SIG will meet again on January 8, from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. in the Library Station Frisco Room. Thereafter, the SIG will meet monthly on the 4th Tuesday from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. upstairs at the Midtown-Carnegie Branch Library.

SIG Leader Sarah Marshall says the SIG format will be "interactive". Participants will glean the most from this SIG if they are willing to work on their own, and share their work (and problems) with the rest of the SIG members. Sarah will prepare and discuss various web design topics, but the goal of the SIG is to help members design the pages THEY want to design. SIG members will determine the direction of the SIG. This SIG will begin with basics, but intermediate and advanced topics will be covered, too, as the questions arise from you, the members. A Web Design forum will be added so that we can share information between SIG meetings.

Nearly all Internet service providers (ISP's) offer free space for a web site to their customers. One of the SIG purposes is to help members utilize that free space. Other members have already purchased or intend to purchase their own domain names and want help in finding a host for their site. Some folks want to create a site to display their creative efforts…their writings, photos, etc. Others want a site to display and further their family genealogy efforts. Several members are interested in an E-bay related site.

HTML is the language behind web pages. There are many commercial (such as Front Page) and online (such as AOL) HTML editors available, and we will try to answer specific questions about using those editors. However, we wanted to find an affordable HTML editor that would be available to all our members to demonstrate the basics of web page design. We also wanted an editor that would allow you to design in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode as well as to view the code behind the page. Such a program will allow you more immediate results. We've chosen a free program called NVU (pronounced "in view"). You can download the free NVU at http://www.nvu.com/download.html. Choose the Windows Full Installer version. Or if you prefer to wait, we will have copies of this program on cd available at no charge at the SIG meeting(s).

At the January meeting, we've promised to talk more in depth about FTP programs and hosts. Don't let all these acronyms scare you off. Web design has its on language…our goal is to translate it into terms you can understand. We'll also be designing and making at least one web page live for an ICON member…come to the SIG to see who it is!! See you there!

Sarah