Style Guide for CK:P Technical Support Site Documents.

The HTTP format doesn't allow for a lot of leeway in the style of documents but it does allow for some. In order to prevent the site fomr taking on a chaotic and disorganized look it I have created the following style sheet. This is only a working draft but it seems pretty comprehensive.

Tables:
Tables are about as fancy as it gets. While nto part of the official HTML 2.0 specs tables are so widely supported as to not be a significant issue. However, Lynx does not (and cannot as far as I know) support tabular data. Whenever you make use of tables you shoudl keep this in mind. I suggest that only supplementary information be kept in tabular form.

Background Image:
You should keep the background images as neutral in tone and color as possible. Please try and avoid any background which produces overlaps, which has high contrast areas or make use of bright colors. Currently all of the pages are writen to use images/pattern1.jpg. Change that file to update all of the page with the new image. An example of the size of the background image is inside of the black box below this line.

Text Color:
I have stuck with the netscape defaults for text (black text, blue links, purple visited links) as these colors are available on the widest range of systems.

Images:
The goal of this site it to provide information as clearly as possible. It is not designed to win any major style awards. Keep images simple and to the point. The use of bullet images (like the computers and diskettes) should be to provide reinforcement about the nature of the information while increasing the visual interest.

Headings:
Index page: The title should be H1 centered.
Catagory pages: The title should be in H2 centered and set off with a horizontal line.
Sub-Catagory pages: The title should be H2 centered and set off with a horizontal line.
Subheadings: These should be Left flushed and decend in value according to the title heading value.

Fonts:
Don't use different font types unless it is necessary to reinforce a point or set information off. Using many different types of font on one page decreases readability and comprehension.

• Text: Normal
• File Names: Typewriter
• Directory paths: Typewriter
• Text captures: Formatted <PRE>
• Text Caputures with user input: Prompts in typewriter and bold, response in typewriter
• NBs in lists: Small font in italics.
• Table headings: Normal in bold
• List item leaders: If necessary make it normal and bold 

Lists:

• Numbered lists should only be used for steps in a process
• Bulleted lists should be used to identify seperate aspects of a concept.

Return links:
Use the CK:P logo and a text description linked to the page that the current page was accessed from if possible.

Return to Style

Revision stamp:
In H6, note the date, the revisors intials and the revision number. Minor changes warrant a 0.0X increase. More substational changes should be 0.X0. Major revisions and full rewrites should be a X.00 increase.

Revision 1.0:April 25, 1996:CJR

Common Sense:
Make good use of it. If you can't read it then no one else is going to be able to. If possible test the pages under a number of different browsers to make sure it doesn't break any of them. Lastly, always keep in mind who you are writing for.