|
Authoring
Guidelines: Preparing Documents for Netscape Compass Server
Your Documents and Netscape Compass Server
Making It Easier to Find Your Documents
About Keywords
Document Content and Keywords
Using META Tags to Make Searching Easier
META Tags and Keywords
Describing Your Documents
Categorizing Your Document
Working With META information
Adding META information by Hand
Using the <Title> META Tag
Using the <Keywords> META Tag
Using the <Author> META Tag
Using the <Description> META Tag
Using the <Expire> META Tag
Using the <Classification> META Tag
Adding a Compass Search Box to Your Document
Removing Documents from Index
Your Documents and Netscape Compass Server
There are two aspects to preparing your documents for Netscape Compass Server:
Search. People use Netscape Compass Server to search the network for documents containing the information that they need. You can edit your documents to make it
easier for people to find what they are searching for.
Document description. When users perform a search or browse a category, the server displays document listings that briefly describe each document. You can help readers find the right document by making sure that your documents display an
accurate and useful description.
Netscape Compass Server is based on an index of documents. When you perform a search, it is the information in the index that is examined. When a document is listed, it is the information in the index that is displayed. Netscape Compass Server extracts two different kinds of information from each document to build its index:
Content is the text of your document that users will see and read. You can create and edit your content to control the information that the server stores in its index about your documents.
META information is information about your document contents. Some META information is automatically generated by the server that stores your documents. Other kinds of META information is embedded in the document itself with META tags, and you can create and edit those tags to control the information that the server stores in its index.
The following guidelines describe how to prepare your documents so that Netscape Compass Server users can more easily find the information that they need.
Note however that:
These guidelines describe Netscape Compass Server's standard (default) behavior. Your administrator may have made small or large alterations to how Netscape Compass Server works, so these guidelines might not entirely apply to your site. When in doubt, consult your administrator.
This help page describes how to prepare HTML (web) documents for Netscape Compass Server use. HTML documents are the most common type of network documents. Netscape Compass Server also supports other document types and most of the rules and principles described here, if not the exact details, apply to those types of documents as well.
<back to top>
Making It Easier to Find Your Documents
By default, the server index contains four different kinds of information:
Keywords
Authors
Dates
Site and document Locations and addresses
You use Netscape Compass Server to search the index for any or all of these kinds of information. For example, if you enter "Abraham Lincoln" in the search box, you will find document about Abraham Lincoln and documents written by Abraham Lincoln.
<back to top>
About Keywords
Keywords are words that identify the contents of a document. You use Netscape Compass Server to search for documents containing the keywords you are interested in.
For example, the keywords for an essay on the life of Thomas Jefferson might include Jefferson, presidents, America, United States, Declaration of Independence, consitution, history, Monticello, founders, founding fathers, revolution, and so on. If you wanted to find documents containing information about Jefferson and Monticello, you would search for those two keywords.
Keywords are the most important element in a document search. By making sure that the index contains the right keywords for your documents you make it easier for users to find the information you want them to have.
Having the right keywords to describe your document is far more important than the number of keywords. (While Netscape Compass Server can accommodate a maximum of 1Mb of keywords for each document, it is unlikely that any index entry would ever approach that limit.)
By default, the server index obtains its list of keywords from four different document sources:
Keywords specified by you with <keyword> META tags
Chapter and section headings (automatically generated)
First 4,000 characters of text (automatically generated)
Titles specified by you with <title> META tags
<back to top>
Document Content and Keywords
By default, the index's list of keywords for a document come from the following content sources:
Chapter and section headings
First 4,000 characters of text
(Keywords can also come from META tags.)
Headings and Keywords
The most obvious place to look for keywords is in chapter and section headings.
The unique words in all of the level <h1>, <h2>, and <h3>, heads are automatically listed as keywords. For example, the heading Lincoln at Gettysburg would produce two useful keywords: Lincoln and Gettysburg.
To ensure that your documents headings are helpful in generating keywords, follow these rules:
Always use the <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> tags to create your headings. Netscape Compass Server only recognizes those tags. Just because something is in a large or bold font, does not make it a heading so far as a search is concerned.
Make headings meaningful. Use words that people will think of when they want to search for your information. For example, a heading like Gettysburg Address Redefines Role of Government is more useful than one like President Makes Excellent Speech, because keywords like Gettysburg, address, redefines, role, and government are more specific than president, makes, excellent, and speech.
Limit words that are of no use in a search. For example, from the point of view of keywords, the heading Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is better than Lincoln Gives Famous Address at Gettysburg because gives, and famous are not useful keywords. (Of course, writing good, readable, text is more important than avoiding low-value keywords, and you should always use whatever language best expresses your thought.)
By default, the server only generates keywords from the first three heading levels. (Your administrator can specify more or fewer levels.)
Opening Text and Keywords
Much of the information that Netscape Compass Server uses to generate keywords comes from the text of the document itself. By default, all the unique words in the first 4,000 bytes of text (approximately the first 800 words) are listed as keywords. (Your administrator can increase or decrease the number of bytes from which keywords are taken.)
Keep in mind though, that to the server the "first text" is whatever immediately follows the <body> tag in the document file. If the first text is routing information, reference citations, acknowledgments, and so forth, that is what gets listed as keywords.
From the point of view of a search, it is a good rule of thumb to begin each document with a concise summary or overview of the document's contents. By doing that you ensure that the keywords taken from the first text are the important keywords that you want listed in the index.
Note that the exact amount of text included as keywords is adjustable by your site administrator.
<back to top>
Using META Tags to Make Searching Easier
In addition to shaping your document content to make Netscape Compass Server searches more effective, you can also use META tags to help users find the information that they need. You can:
Use <title> and <keywords> META tags to specify keywords. See META Tags and Keywords.
Use <Author> META tags to specify a document's author(s). Readers can then use Netscape Compass Server's Advanced Search Page to search for documents by author.
Use <Expires> META tags to specify a document's expiration date. Readers can then use Netscape Compass Server's Advanced Search Page to search for documents by expiration date.
<back to top>
META Tags and Keywords
You can use META tags to specify keywords to be included in the index. When specifying keywords with META tags, keep these principles in mind:
Accuracy. You should pick keywords that accurately reflect your document's content. For instance, one of the example keywords shown above for an essay on Jefferson is Monticello. But if Monticello was only mentioned in passing as the name of Jefferson's home, that would not be a good keyword because if someone were searching for information about Monticello your essay would be of no use to them. On the other hand, if your essay discussed or described Monticello, it would be a good keyword.
Plurals. It's a good rule of thumb to use the plural form of general nouns wherever appropriate. For example, presidents rather than president. When you use a plural form, anyone searching for either the singular or the plural will find your keyword. But if your keyword is singular, anyone searching for the plural form will not find it.
Capitalization. Case plays no role in keyword search. Upper and lower-case letters are treated as the same.
Frequency. The more times a particular keyword is listed in the index, the higher the relevancy score for that document when a user searches for that keyword. For example, if a particular keyword (or phrase) appears many times in titles and headings of one document, and only once in another document, a search on that keyword will list both documents but the first will be scored higher than the second.
Phrases You can specify multiword phrases with a keywords META tag.
You can use the following META tags to add keywords to the server index:
<Title> META tags contibute to the index's collection of keywords.
<Keywords> META tags contibute to the index's collection of keywords.
See Working With META information for information on how to add META tags to your documents.
<back to top>
Describing Your Documents
By default, document lists contain two pieces of information about each document:
Title
Description
Document lists produced by a search also display search relevance indicators (boxes), and a link to the item's category if it has one.
Document Titles
The title displayed in a list is the document's search title. When users browse by category, each category's documents are listed alphabetically by title.
You specify the search title you want to use for your document with a <title> META tag.
If you do not include a <title> META tag in your document, the list displays the document's URL (web) address as the title. Since that may not be helpful to readers, it is good practice to always include a <title> META tag in every document.
For many documents, the search title is the same as the formal title that readers see when they view it. But they do not have to be the same, and it is not unusual for the search title and formal title to be different. (See <Title> META Tags for information on the different uses of title tags.)
Document Descriptions
By default, document lists contain descriptions of every item. You specify the description you want displayed for your document with a <description> META tag.
If you do not include a <description> META tag in your document, the document list displays the first 20 to 30 words of document content as the description. That is, whatever words immediately follow the <body> tag. If those words are headers, bylines, acknowledgments, navigation links, frame descriptors, or other miscellaneous information, they won't provide a very useful description. Thus, it is good practice to always include a <description> META tag in every document.
<back to top>
Categorizing Your Document
oqwiueyribw ufhi
<back to top>
Working With META information
lkaiufywi tfh oiuhediou
<back to top>
Adding META information by Hand
owieohjrwoeihf oijo
<back to top>
Using the <Title> META Tag
ouiqwr9i iouhr3iu
<back to top>
Using the <Keywords> META Tag
posirg90friuj oiurt0
<back to top>
Using the <Author> META Tag
liowueroiwejr oiw4ur
<back to top>
Using the <Description> META Tag
opiwuef oiweuf
<back to top>
Using the <Expire> META Tag
;lwieuroifewjf owiehj
<back to top>
Using the <Classification> META Tag
l;iwouerfjoiw oiuj
<back to top>
Adding a Compass Search Box to Your Document
oiqweurjoi owieur
<back to top>
Removing Documents from Index
p9w3ir0ojk powi4ur
<back to top>
|
