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How to Design Clip Art Collection Pages

You've created a page of backgrounds, some bullets, linebars and a page of clip art and would like to share your creations with others. This tutorial tells you how to design an easy to browse user friendly collection.

Difficulty Level: medium      Time Required: 3 hours


Here's How:
  1. Create a clip art index page listing and linking each category of clip art (backgrounds, bullets, lines, clip art, etc.) to it's own page.
  2. Keep your title graphic for this index page medium sized and easy to load.
  3. Use a medium textured or patterned background and use text that is highly visible on this background. Keep your background and other decorations fairly simple.
  4. Place your terms of usage above or immediately below the lists and links to your backgrounds, etc. If your terms of usage are detailed, create a separate terms of usage page and place the terms link either directly above or below your list of clip art links.
  5. Make sure that your index page and each of your clip art collection pages has a navigation system for accessing your home page, the clip art index page and other areas of your site.
  6. Create a separate page for each of your categories of clip art-- a page for backgrounds, a page for bullets, a page for linebars and one or more pages for clip art.
  7. Use a white background or very lightly textured or colored background for each of your individual clip art collection pages.
  8. It would be wise to use the same page and color design for all of the clip art collection pages.
  9. Keep the title graphic for each of the clip art collection pages small. Use a text title on these pages if your main title graphic is large and takes time to load.
  10. Make sure the terms of usage or the link to your terms of usage page is clearly visible on each of the clip art collection pages.
  11. Your email address on each clip art collection page or a link to your contact page is also desired on any clip art collection site.
  12. Do not place an excessive amount of clip art images on one page. Remember that clip art collection pages are graphically intense and will take time to fully load.
  13. Split your clip art collection pages into more pages if necessary and keep each category of clip art pages linked together.
  14. Your index page will take your visitors to the first page of your backgrounds, for instance, then you might have two or three pages of backgrounds that will be linked to each other in this section.
  15. You might want to split your backgrounds into categories such as borders and tiles, linking each of these individual categories of clip art from your clip art index.
  16. Before uploading your pages and images check to ensure that all links are working properly.
  17. After uploading your images and links check each page to ensure that all clip art and backgrounds can be viewed with both the Netscape browser and the Microsoft IE browser.
  18. Your final step in creating a clip art collection will be to submit your clip art index page and your individual clip art collection pages to all the major search engines.
Tips:
  1. Never use an animated text or animated title on a clip art collection page.
  2. Never use a brightly colored or vivid patterns as a background for a clip art collection page. Keep backgrounds simple and plain so your collection of clip art stands out nicely.
  3. Never use audio or midi music on your clip art collection pages. If you must have music on any clip art page, code the music OFF. You visitor can then turn the music on if they choose to listen to it.
  4. Do remember that your visitors are using a variety of browsers and Internet connections. Keep your graphically intense pages small enough to load easily for all.
  5. Last, but not least, keep creating and have fun.

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