Editorial Services For Websites

Most people are creating their own websites for personal and professional needs. However, it is expensive to hire a person to create a website. Thus, most people would try to create these sites, especially if they have some knowledge in website development. Then, they would hire someone to edit the website, which is less expensive. If you would like to start a business offering editorial services for websites and similar field, or you are thinking of adding this kind of service for your existing business, then the information below can greatly help you.

Before you start editing your client’s website, you should clarify the intensity of editing. Most would hire you for editing the effects and appearance only, while some would like you to edit also the content. To be fair, you should devise a variety of rates for partial or full editing of websites.

In editing websites, you can use basic word-processing software such as MS Word or Works. If you are hired to edit text and graphics you can edit the website with a basic word processor. However, before you can edit any website, you should have the website or html file saved on your computer. Start the word processor software and click on the website index.html file. Choose the text you want to edit the text as you would any document.

The guidelines for editing a website in a word processor is achieved the same method you would edit a paper document, however there are some exceptions such as:

- All images and graphics should be saved without spaces. Example: furdogpix is right, “fur dog pix will not be accessible with specific web browsers because of the spaces in the file name of the graphics.

- The document must be saved as html file. Paper documents are saved with .doc extension, while web pages are saved with .html or .htm extension.

The extension .html is the first page of your website, or called the homepage. Editing a website is like making changes in a letter report with contents and graphics. A distinct feature of websites is the appearance of graphics and special effects. Editing the graphics on a website using a word processor is achieved by choosing the graphics you want to edit and delete or cut the image from the page. To edit the image or replace it with another image, click on the spot you want the image to appear, and click insert on the menu bar, click the picture and choose the image from your saved files or clip art. The graphics you would insert or images on the website can also be edited according to size. You can click the image and go to resizing boxes to edit the image’s size.

To edit the masthead or the heading of a website, you can format the text as you would format a text with a word processor. You can select the text, edit the size, color or any features you want to adjust using the menu bar or tool bar choices. To edit the background color of the website, you should go to “Format” and click the “Background,” select color and confirm OK.

After the basic editing, you can apply special effects using Flash program or similar software that will give the website a look preferred by your client.