[Gemini North enclosure]

Science Operations Web Style Guide

Here we outline a few guidelines for writing web pages in the Gemini Science Operations area. The programming of these pages should obey the HTML 3.2 standard wherever possible (e.g. HTML Sourcebook [3rd ed.], Graham 1997). The intended audience for this Style Guide are the Gemini scientific staff and others interested in the science operations web page construction.

The layout of a typical Gemini Science Operations page (in this case for T-ReCS) consists of a coloured left-hand navigation frame and a right-hand frame containing the bulk of the text. The navigation frame contains a table of contents for navigating that particular section of the Science Operations pages as well as a generic navigation section common to all pages. In fact, the referenced typical page (MiriIndex.html) really only sets the sizes of the two frames and points to their initial content:

as well as containing the information to be shown by browsers which do not support frames. (One way to view this information, other than reading the raw MiriIndex.html HTML, is to use the no-frames display option in the Microsoft FrontPage editor). Browsing other pages in the Science Operations area illustrates the use of these common navigation features. (At present the Observing Tool and Phase I GUI pages do not obey these guidelines!).

Note: if you have links to external (off-site) pages then you should use the "_top" construct in the hyperlink reference (href) which will force the new page on top of both the Gemini navigation frame and the contents frame (else the navigation frame is left behind which can get confusing if the new page itself has a navigation frame). See the Cal Unit link to the ATC/ROE site (on the "Construction" page) for an example.

A different colour for the navigation frame should be adopted for any new section of the Science Operations area e.g. a new instrument. The colour swatch shows the colours already reserved and is useful for testing other desired colours.

The table of contents used to provide a frame-free alternative for the (diminishing set of) users who completely detest frames or whose browsers cannot cope with them. This frame-free page has been replaced by the no-frames content of the MiriIndex.html page and is the only concession to non-frames users. You'll probably need to look at the Index page in an editor, not a browser, to see the no-frames text.

The recommended colour scheme is:

Recommended font sizes can be seen in the example pages referenced above. Be sure to use relative font sizes (e.g. in the contents title information, generated by <font size="+1">) rather than absolute font sizes (i.e. do not use <font size="2">).

Images, such as the one above should be encoded in gif or jpeg format. The size (WIDTH and HEIGHT) should be specified to speed the formatting of pages by browsers and each image should contain an ALT tag to describe the contents for browsers with image loading switched off (or unavailable).

Each page should end with the date of the last update and the name of the person currently responsible for its content.

Buttons should also be added to the bottom of each page for navigation to link to (at least the first two of):

  1. The Science Operations home page
  2. The home page for each major section
  3. The next and previous pages (if appropriate e.g. the pages follow a particular sequence)
  4. The search page

Example buttons, which may be edited (e.g. using Lview or Paint Shop Pro), are:

[example - Science Operations home] [example - Science Operations home] [example - Science Operations home] [example - Science Operations home]


Last update June 11, 2000; Phil Puxley
In original form July 15, 1998; Phil Puxley

(Note: the author's name is not linked to e-mail as we wish people to use the HelpDesk for queries)