How to write documents for the web

From ArticleWorld


The web is becoming a primary publication media today. What this means is that large documents are already being written for the web in the first place, rather than being adapted from a paper-printed equivalent.

However, reading a document on a computer screen is a different experience from reading it on paper. This guide shows some ways of ensuring that the documents you write for the web are read and understood much easier.

How-to

  1. The first thing you should remember is that, when searching for information on the web, people do not usually read documents throughout. They scan it, looking for the information of interest to them. Therefore, start by jotting down exactly what information you think people would want to obtain by reading that document. Remember that some of them already know much of what you have written there, and only need a specific piece of information.
  2. Use line breaks, lists and figures liberally. These make it easier for people to navigate in your text.
  3. Use hyperlinks wherever appropriate. Hyperlinks are the very base of WWW. If you are not convinced, it may be a good exercise for you to realize that you got to read this by following a hyperlink. And that, when you will have finished reading, you will probably click on another hyperlink, too.
  4. Make your document search-engine-friendly. Use keywords extensively and make sure you link to it from a page that is already indexed by search engines. If you do not do so, people will not be able to reach your page from a search engine.
  5. Avoid long text lines. Although the resolutions of computer screens allow it, longs should not be longer than 70 lines. They are very hard to follow.
  6. And, one of the most important things: if you are designing the code yourself, make sure it is compatible to the W3C standards. Some browsers, like Microsoft's Internet Explorer, do not respect these standards thoroughly, or add some of their own extensions. However, code written respecting these standards will be readable on absolutely any browser. Code that does not respect them may not be viewable on some browser, and will be inaccessible to potential readers.