Many online volunteer assignments involve some kind of building a Web page or creating an online form and accompanying script. And many volunteers who sign up to help the VV Project are hoping to gain experience in these areas.

While the VV Project cannot provide training in these areas, we can provide links to other Web sites that can help:

• BEFORE YOU BEGIN
  
• Learning .html
  
• Our commitment to Web site accessibility
  
• Advanced, Interactive and Automated Functions
  

 
BEFORE YOU START BUILDING A WEB SITE

Review this resources:

Coyote Communications Tip Sheets on Web Development and Maintenance
for Not-for-Profit & Public Sector Organizations
http://www.coyotecom.com/webdevo/
The title says it all.

Web language is simple to learn. Also, it's important to learn the basics of .html even if you are using software that automatically marks up text with .html, because such software WILL make mistakes, and you have to know how to correct mistakes manually! To learn .html programming and the dos and don'ts of building a Web site

WebCom HTML Resources Guide
http://www.webcom.com/html/.

Evrsoft 1st Page 2000 free web builder
http://www.evrsoft.com/1stpage/
A free web builder (and favorite tool of one of the VV Project's online volunteers) to create and manage Web sites. "Ask any professional web builder and they'll tell you the sad stories behind using standard WYSIWYG editors. Professional web builders know that WYSIWYG editors never create clean html code which means they'll end up wasting more time fixing, cleaning and correcting code later on. With this common problem in mind, you'll be glad to hear that 1st Page never ruins HTML code, infact it doesn't even add unwanted html codes to your important projects." Evrsoft 1st Page 2000 helps you write, edit and improve your HTML and let you author websites faster, easier and better. "Whether you're a beginner or an HTML guru you'll find 1st Page 2000 great to use!"

The Virtual Volunteering Project is commited to making its web site pages accessible to both people who use special tools to access the Web (because of disabilities) and to those who aren't on the best computers and software.

A sight-impaired person might use a browser that talks to them, or a screen enhancer that magnifies what's on a web page, for instance. Often, web pages confuse these assistive technologies, thereby preventing the user from getting to access the information.

Many web sites also feature audio greetings -- but there's no text alternative, or a notice to let a deaf user know that an audio greeting is playing and where to read what's being said. Or, a menu on a web site requires users to hold down more than one key to make a choice on a form -- someone who has limited mobility may not be able to.

If you want to build web pages for the VV Project -- or, if you want to learn more about how to make pages accessible and help other agencies -- please view the information at: http://www.knowbility.org/curriculum

 
Advanced, Interactive and Automated Functions

If you want to try your hand at automated functions (surveys, forms, etc.), check out:

• The Forms Tutorial at http://www.webcom.com/html/tutor/forms/start.shtml by Webcom (my Web site provider). Easy to read and understand.

• Matt's Script Archive, http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/
  Contains many FREE Perl and CGI scripts, ready to download and use!! Also includes demonstrations, working examples and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions and their answers).

• the cgi-lib.pl library,
  http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/cgi-lib
  which promises to make "CGI scripting in Perl easy enough for anyone to process forms and create dynamic Web content". The library a good starting point for migration to more sophisticated libraries.

• the excellent Perl library that includes an "idiot's guide" to solving common scripting problems at http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/idiots-guide.html

 
Back to the index of Resources and Tools for Online Volunteers

Back to the Homepage of this Handbook

The Virtual Volunteering Project http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/