Outlining a site
with your word processor

by Daniel Will-Harris

Your word processor's outlining feature can help by letting you create an outline that will directly translate into the structure of your site.

Start with your home page, the page that your visitors will see first. Think of this as the trunk of your Web site tree--the place from which all other pages branch out. If you're using your word processor's outlining feature, apply the "Heading 1" style to the home page paragraph. How do I apply a style?

Make a list of all the topics you want to cover on your site. If it's a personal site, maybe you'll create sections for your profession, hobbies, special projects, likes and dislikes. If it's a professional or corporate site, you might choose sections that cover the company's history and mission, relate customer case studies, or show samples of your work. Apply the "Heading 2" style to these topics.

Continue filling out the outline, creating "Heading 3" subtopics under each of the Heading 2's. Your program's outlining feature will allow you to drag and drop these headings so you can arrange them in any order you want.

When you want to see your document in outline format (in Word), choose View/Outline (if you use another word processor, choose Help and learn about the outlining feature there). You'll see a toolbar that looks like this.

Click on one of the numbers to "collapse" the outline and only see the headings (your text is still there, it's just hidden).

You can control how many levels of the outline you see by which number you click on. You can "promote" (move a heading up a level) a heading by clicking on the left arrow, or "demote" it by clicking on the right arrow. You can move a heading (and all its associated text) up or down in the outline using the up and down arrows. Use the double-right-arrow to turn text into nonheading "normal" text. See, that's not very hard—and it's very useful.

Once your outline is done—your site is organized. Each Heading 2 becomes a page that visitors reach through a link on the home page.  Each Heading 3 becomes a page with a link on the second level (Heading 2) pages. Any text that uses a style of "Normal" or "None" becomes the text of the pages.

To apply a style in Word for Windows

To apply a different paragraph style, click the paragraph or select a group of paragraphs you want to change. You probably have a toolbar under your menus that looks like this:

The area that probably has the word "normal" in it is the style box. If you click on the little triangle to the right of Normal, a list of styles will pop down. Choose any style that starts with the word "Heading" and you'll start building an outline.

If you don't see this toolbar, choose Format/Style, click the style you want to apply, and then click Apply.

To apply a style in other programs

If you're using WordPerfect or WordPro, or any other program that has an outlining feature, choose Help, then usually the first menu option. This will bring up on-screen help where you can search for "applying a style" or just plain "style." This will give you the specific instructions for using styles in your program. You'll also want to look up "outline" or "outlining" to learn how to use this feature. Don't resist it, it's not very hard and it really can be invaluable when you're building a site and trying to organize a lot of information.

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