Using Javascript to add the Web Evangelism guide to your site

1. Create a new page on your site, and save it with the name 'guide'. The file extension (.php, .html, .htm) does not matter, but the name of the file MUST be 'guide' in order for a neat bit of scripting to work to take visitors back to your page from the sidepages of the Web Evangelism Guide.

2. In the HEAD section, write a meaningful title in the <TITLE> tag - this will help people who bookmark it. The words you choose will be those they see in their bookmarks/favorites list.

3. In the HEAD section, copy/paste this coding:

   <!--Begin WordReference, All rights reserved. Patent Pending -->
   <SCRIPT SRC="http://www.web-evangelism.com/wordreference/wordrefenable.js" LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT">
   </SCRIPT>
   <!--End WordReference, Copyright 1999 WordReference.com, LLC. -->

   Use your normal specified font faces, and normal navigation links or menus to the rest of your site. so that the page matches the rest of your site.

4. In the BODY section, choose a heading for the page. Deliberately, no heading is included in the syndicated text. So choose a personalised heading which reflects the rest of your site. We suggest that the headline may include words such as 'Web Evangelism', 'Online Outreach' or 'How to reach the world by computer', but the choice is yours.

5. You may wish to write a short introductory paragraph of your own after your heading, though this is not necessary. This paragraph could discuss Web Evangelism in relation to any particular readership that your site may have - for instance women, youth leaders, students, whoever. A mission organization site might mention the opportunities for web outreach into the areas it works in, or how online evangelism is an opportunity for returned/retired missionaries. A church site might encourage members to work together in some form of web evangelism, and a paragraph here could ask for prayer and encouragement for members involved, or give the name of an online-evangelism leader/co-ordinator within the church. Here are some suggested introductions.

   Ensure that what you write blends logically with the existing sentences above the Contents Section - and specify your font size as "-1" (for this introduction only, not the main text - don't forget to close the FONT tag) so that it blends in with the existing introductory sentences which are in font size "-1".

6. Copy and paste the following code at the point on your page where the text is to start:

   <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://guide.gospelcom.net/yourpage/nav.js">
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://guide.gospelcom.net/yourpage/intro-1.js">
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://guide.gospelcom.net/yourpage/2-6.js">
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://guide.gospelcom.net/yourpage/7-12.js">
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://guide.gospelcom.net/yourpage/links.js">
   </script>

   <noscript>
   "An incredible new technology enables the transmission of text on a worldwide basis. It rapidly reduces production and distribution costs and for the first time allows large numbers of people to access text and pictures in their own homes."
   <p>
   You've guessed it. The invention of 'movable type' - the printing press. It transformed education, learning, evangelism and communication. It laid the foundations for the Renaissance, the arts, sciences, and the world as we know it today. The digital revolution is bringing about a similar huge change in evangelism, Christian discipleship and community, in ways which are only just beginning. <p>
   How can we use the Web for effective evangelism?
   <a href="http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/index.php">Click here to find out</a>
   </noscript>

   Important - if your site uses 'tables', try to avoid all the insertion code lines being within a single (or overall) table. If this is unavoidable, click here.

7. Not sure if you have done it right? Here is how the code for your new page should look and the reasons for the coding.

8. We highly recommend that you specify page margins on each site of the page - this makes it much easier for people to read. You can do this in several ways. The best way is to include a Stylesheet specification in the HEAD of your page (or as a site-wide specification) such as this:
   

   <style type="text/css">
     body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; }
   </style>

   It is possible to use a mixture of margin width specifications in your body tag which between them work for Explorer and Netscape, but not other browsers. It is also possible to use BLOCKQUOTE tags to narrow the margins - but if you do this, only use the opening tag after the first insert code, not before it. Neither of these methods are ideal now that Style Sheets are recognized by almost all browsers.

   This may be un-necessary if you have the main block of text within tables because there are different ways of maintaning text margins within the table coding.

9. That's it! You have a new page. Don't forget to link to it from your homepage with an enticing title (and perhaps short description under the link, or in a TITLE= tag), such as "How to reach the world online", "Be a missionary from your home", "Online evangelism - how to communicate effectively", or whatever seems appropriate. You may know that you can also enhance all your links by giving additional information about them in this form:

   <A HREF="yourpage.html" TITLE="A short interesting description of the link goes here and will appear in a popup when user's mouse touches the link.">Name of Page</A>

10. Now just three more things:
    a. Please send us your email. This is so that if ever we need to tell you of any change to the page coding, or advise of any other problem, we can easily do this. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose. Use an email address that is likely to be permanent.

    b. FishtheNet have generously made available a submission page for you to submit your site when you have added the syndicated material. Please add your page now. Submit your homepage URL rather than the page where have the syndicated Web Evangelism Guide. Advantages:
    

    • Others can visit your site, and see how you have implemented the page insert.
    • We can check that it is working well for you.
    • Your site will gain from another hi-grade incoming link - which will increase its search engine 'ranking'.

    Note: this submission page is only for sites who are using the Web Evangelism Guide syndicated page. Other users can add their pages to other sections of the FishtheNet directory if the page subject is appropriate to those covered by the directory.

    c. Please tell others about this resource - there is a news release that can be used in any email or print publication.

Notes

• The syndicated page is written for Christians. It is ideal for any Christian resource site or church page. Do not add the page to any section of your site which you regard as primarily evangelistic. It is about evangelism, not evangelistic. Non-Christians will not appreciate reading about our plans for trying to reach them!

• The page works by Javascript. For those very few people whose Javascript is broken or switched off, the 'NOSCRIPT' section is necessary so that they see a link to follow. This link and description are invisible to everyone else.

• There is a personalized poster and news release that site visitors can print out, which includes your own URL. For this reason, choose a fairly short memorable URL for the page carrying this guide. For instance, www.yoursite.com/guide.html rather than www.yoursite.com/documents/pages/evangelismguide.html.

• The Web Evangelism text has been set in 'sans-serif' font. To be consistent, your main heading, any introducton or links at the end you wish to add, will look best if they are also in sans-serif. We highly recommend that you use sans-serif fonts for main text on all your pages because they are cleaner and much easier to read. (Research shows sans-serif fonts can be read 20% faster than serif on a computer screen.) The best font specification is
  <FONT FACE="HELVETICA,SANS-SERIF,ARIAL"> because Arial (and Verdana) don't display well on Unix machines and so should not be specified except last. If you don't specify sans-serif fonts, most site visitors will read your pages in a browser default 'serif' script like this sentence.

  If you wish, you can also use Style Sheets to control the size, font, and color of the subheadings on the page, as well as many other aspects of appearance. The text behaves exactly as if it is on your page.

• Your chosen page background (specified as color or graphic background) will be unaffacted. Note that it always wise to choose a really pale background, even white, so that the text is clear to read. There is a good color generator you can use to create colors of your choice.

• Navigation links within the syndicated section and on the rest of your page will work normally.

• Your page should include normal navigation links to the rest of your site. These can be at the top, bottom, or side of the page according to your normal style. Because the syndicated page is long, it may be sensible to include some navigation links at the end.

• If your page uses frames, create a new page as described, and call it up in the frame.

• Please don't decide to copy the whole HTML guide page into your site instead of using the Javascript insert method. There are several reasons. If you do this, you will not benefit from updates, revisions, or notice if URLs go out of date. Also search engines do not like to find similar text on different webpages. And it is copyright!

• If you are using template-editing via a browser page, try pasting the Javascript insert coding directly into the editing template at point you wish the page text to appear (but not the coding which goes into the head of the page). It may work on some systems. (MSN Communities does not work.) If it works, then try adding the optional WordReference code into the page as well, like this.

• If your page has a very dark background, you can specify a white or very pale font for the main text. Note however that due to the built-in background color of the contents section, it would be best to insert this specification AFTER the first Javascript insertion line (/nav.js). The best way to make this specification is by a style sheet in the body of the page after the /nav.js insertion code. A style sheet is embedded in the syndicated material at the top of the page to specify certain links on the page as green. If your page background is incompatible with these green links, you can over-ride this by placing your own style specification for class="green" links, at this same point on the page after the first /nav.js insertion code. (Likewise, you can over-ride the class="gray" small links at the end of each section with an alternate color, if you wish.)

• If you have problems when using a WYSIWYG page-maker such as Frontpage, it may be better to first create the rest of your new page. Then open this .html page in a text editor such as Wordpad, paste in the Javascript coding, and save it.

• You may wish to add 'Other top evangelism links' of your own at the very end of your page, immediately after those provided on the syndicated page. This is easy - just include them (using <FONT SIZE="-1">) immediately after the inserted Jacascript code in the body of your page, and the links will flow on naturally from those already provided. If your links are extensive, you may wish to add a 'back to top' link at the end (coding is: <A HREF="#top">Back to top</A>).

• Translations of this syndicated page are needed in other languages.

If you have any problems or suggestions to improve this page or the whole concept, please email. Many will have more experience and insight into many aspects of this than we have.