The day consisted of the following:

Overview: Brief Internet history
Section 1: What do I need for a web site
Section 2: Some Parish Sites
Section 3: Priests for Scotland
Section 4: Managing your website - software.

Overview:
A brief history of the Internet, Email and the World Wide Web. To view details of this click here.

Section 1:
What do you need to run a web site?

• Internet Service Provider or ISP
  BT, Tiscali, Virgin, TALKTALK and so on...
• Domain Name 
  www.vatican.va, www.priestsforscotland.org.uk, www.scmo.org
• Email address
  benedict16@vatican.va, office@priestsforscotland.org.uk

All of the above can be provided either by one company or a several companies. However, it is best to make it the one company if possible as this will make it easier to maintain the site and fix any problems that go wrong. 

Section 2:
Some Parish Sites

The following were used as examples of well designed parish web sites:

St Joseph's Blantyre- www.sjblantyre.org
St Margaret's Airdrie - www.stmargaretsairdrie.org.uk
Motherwell Cathedral - www.motherwell-cathedral.org.uk
St John's Barrhead - http://www.stjohns-barrhead.org/

Section 3:
An overview of the Priests for Scotland website.

Priests for Scotland - www.priestsforscotland.org

Section 4:
Managing your website - Software

You will also require some software to set up, modify and edit  the website:

• Adobe Dreamweaver - costs around £300 - £350.
  Professional based website software which requires a special skill set to use. You would require training on the software to be able to utilise it properly. Try Langside College in Glasgow for a 10 week evening course
  
  
• MS Frontpage - costs around £170
  This is a semi-professional piece of software used to build websites. In order to utilise the software to its full potential the hosting provider will need to have Frontpage extensions activated on the server (usually at a cost). For starter training click here
  
  
• Photoshop (£435) and Fireworks (£209)
  Both pieces of software are for professional use and are used to edit images and graphics for websites. Again you may need to do some training on these packages. Click here for Fireworks training and here for Photoshop training
  
  
• Other software
  There are numerous pieces of software that can be used to build websites. Here are a few of the simplest and best. These software packages are called Content Management Systems (CMS) which means they are all maintained and managed on the web itself:

Wordpress - This is not exactly website software but blogging software, however, it is free and can be used as a web site if set up correctly. You will need someone to set it up and configure it as a website. However once done it is very simple to use. This site uses Wordpress 1Love.

Joomla - Another content management system which is very powerful and free. This type of software is normally referred to as Open Source, but it is not supported and requires a good deal of experience to set up and configure the software for your needs. My advice would be to get a professional to set it up for you and then you can manage the site yourself. Here is a site created using Joomla, parkviewmedicalgroup.

MediaArticle -  This is a professional content management system which is fully supported and contains many features to enhance your website. A number of websites are already running this software Priests for Scotland , Scottish Catholic Media Office, Diocese of Argyll and the Isles and the Scottish Catholic Education Service to name a few.

If you are interested in knowing more about the above or require any advice please send and email by clicking here.

To download the full PowerPoint presentation please click here.