Back to top: Common layout
Perception of the website as a whole
One reason why this seems useful goes back to a matter of perception. With a book printed on paper, one has an instant perception of content dimensions: the number of pages between two covers, the subdivision into chapters (the size of which can also be gauged by leafing through the pages), the type of illustrations, etc. With a website, on the other hand, there is no perception of the whole. Our Table of Contents is meant to approximate such a perception. It is, one might say, an annotated Site Map, or an outline.
Back to top: Common layout
A “Table of contents”
menu – tendency to refrain from analogy to printed books
It is customary, for websites, to give a “Site Map.” I prefer, in this context, the old fashioned concept of a “Table of Contents.” The main reason is that I wish to address a “reader” to whom I present a narrative, i.e., a linear, overview of the basic components of the Urkesh Global Record. In other words, I wish to describe in a discursive manner the logical structure and the organization of the material.
One may first refer to the organization or the layout of the page. The bar on the left-hand side (in red) gives a traditional, and that on the right-hand side (in black) a system bound, presentation. The Table of Contents will highlight more properly the contents of each section within these vertical bars.
Back to top: Common layout
The common layout calls for three sidebars to provide the framework within any given page, as in the following two examples.
The main narrative (center page) is flanked by three sidebars, on the left and the right.
The overall index (on the left) links to an overall introduction and to contents of a general nature and interest. The sidebar can be seen either in an expand mode, where all the subchapters are listed, or in a collapse mode, where only the major headings are shown.
The data index (on the right) links to specific contents, generally giving access to the data on which the syntesis on the left sidebar is bsed. Here, too, an expand and a collapse mode are available.
A page index (next to the left sidebar) provides links to the sections within the narrative in the central portion of the page.
Some variations include the following.
There may be only the overall index (on the left), with or without the Page index.
There may instead one more sidebar, a Section index (on the right),
Back to top: Common layout