ELCA Web Consistency Standards
for www.elca.org

The suggestions and requirements set forth in this document reflect those standards the staff of the Departments for Communication and Information Technology feel are necessary for adequate maintenance and uniformity throughout the ELCA Web site, as affirmed by the TechnoTeam.

1. All pages are to be fully viewable at 800x600 screen resolution without a horizontal scroll.  All page layouts must be able to be maintained in Microsoft FrontPage, the outermost table should be 760 pixels wide.
2. Essential content from Web pages should not be cut off when printed on an 8.5"x11" portrait page.  Here is the suggested technique.
3. The use of frames is prohibited.
4. Page developers should test pages in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator and Mozilla Firefox before publishing.
5. Refrain from using Java Applets.
6. All images used as navigation are required to have alternative text describing the link.
7. The use of both "keywords" and "description" META tags is required on all sites' entry point.  
8. Descriptive titles are required on all pages. 
9. No contract web designer advertising, taglines, copyrights, or vendor page links are allowed on any ELCA page. 
10. The ELCA.org common header is required on all pages within the site, as an aid to site-wide navigation.
11. Navigation should clearly indicate the choice being selected by the browser (example: roll-over highlight or arrow)
12. All unit or workgroup "sub-sites" must contain at least one easily accessible e-mail link to someone within the unit who is responsible for the information presented. For this purpose, units should consider a unit e-mail box with appropriate procedures in place to be sure the mail is read and responded to daily. An e-mail form on the page is an ideal way to encourage feedback and facilitate response, units should link to the form at: mailto.asp?to=(email address) for e-mail addresses within the ELCA churchwide office LAN network.
13. When providing an e-mail link on a Web page, the link should be from the person’s full name.  If the e-mail address needs to be spelled out, please do not hyperlink it, so that any underlines in e-mail addresses are clearly understandable.
14. In web addresses (URLs), the underscore should be avoided when naming pages.
15. Material on the ELCA site is copyrighted and owned by the sponsoring unit, use of any materials by a third party should be addressed by that unit and the Department for Communication.
16. When referring to Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files, use the icon found at www.elca.org/help.html and link to this page for up-to-date download instructions. 
17. The project manager or producer of pages contemplating use of plug-in technology other than Adobe Acrobat (i.e. RealAudio, QuickTime, Shockwave, Flash, etc.) is required to notify wanhelp@elca.org before making any decisions, in order to assure compatibility with ELCA servers and support.
18. Visible page hit counters are not allowed.
19. Visible "Last Modified..." dates are not allowed.
20. Projects that require the use of a server-side database engine or application must be developed in cooperation with ELCA IT programming staff.
21. All HTML files must be named with ".html" and not ".htm" for the sake of consistency.
22. All HTML file names should be lower case, also for the sake of consistency.
23. Keep image files sizes to a minimum while preserving image quality.
24. Images should not be resized using HTML height and width attributes.  Instead, resize images in your image-editing application (i.e. PhotoShop) and place them into the HTML page at their exact size. 
25. Font considerations for HTML text should be limited to Helvetica or Arial (sans serif) or Times New Roman (serif).  This does not include fonts that are used for graphic files.
26. Add redundant text links when using an image map.
27. Refrain from using a real persons signature represented in a graphic format for security reasons.